Author

Travis Pillow

A former editor of redefinED, Travis Pillow is editorial director at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. He has covered Florida politics, budgets, health care and education policy. Reach him at travis.pillow@gmail.com.

FL Legislature talking charter schools & military families

Travis Pillow March 11, 2014

Travis Pillow

Update: The bill with the charter school language is headed to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk after the Senate approved it this morning on a 38-0 vote.

Florida lawmakers are set to approve a proposal intended to help military bases offer more education options for children of their personnel.

Sen. Richter

The move comes amid a high-profile effort to create a charter school at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. The organization looking to create the school withdrew its first application last week after being denied by the Hillsborough County School Board and losing its first state appeal.

A provision added to the “Florida G.I. Bill” would add new language to the state’s charter schools law, calling for commanders on bases to “collaboratively work with the Commissioner of Education to increase military family student achievement, which may include the establishment of charter schools on military installations.”

SB 860 contains a number of provisions aimed at helping the state’s veterans, from extending hiring preferences to charging them in-state tuition at colleges and universities. The Senate is scheduled to take it up today on the floor. The House passed its version, which also includes a charter schools provision, on the first day of the session.

Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, faced questions from Democrats on the Appropriations Committee last week when he helped add the charter schools provision to the Senate bill. They wanted to know if it would change the process for charter school approvals or affect the MacDill application. (The Florida Charter Educational Foundation withdrew its application later that day, and has pledged to revise and resubmit it).

Richter said the proposal “does not affect the MacDill situation.” It simply “encourages the MacDill base to work with the school district” and “recognizes the unique characteristics of our military families with deployment and certain other circumstances.”

Richter could not be reached for comment Monday.

March 11, 2014 0 comment

Florida Schools Roundup

Florida roundup: Tax-credit scholarships, Common Core, school safety & more

Travis Pillow March 11, 2014

Travis Pillow

Tax credit scholarships. The Miami Herald comes out against the bill to strengthen the scholarship program. Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino doesn’t like it either. Jewish leaders rallied for tax-credit scholarships last week in Tallahassee, saying they allow more low-income children to attend Jewish day schools, the Jewish Journal reports. The Ocala Star-Banner editorializes lawmakers should pause consideration of the bill.

Leadership. Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie receives strong school board reviews after increasing choice options, growing digital learning opportunities and creating “an overall culture of performance and accountability,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Savings accounts. Proposals creating new options for disabled students will be hear today. Orlando Sentinel.

Wraparound services. A Central Florida high school prepares to add a physician on its campus, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Private schools. A Lecanto Catholic school could close after the school year, and parents are weighing their options, the Citrus County Chronicle reports.

Digital learning. Florida school districts see wide variation in their technology infrastructure and broadband capacity. WFSU.

March 11, 2014 0 comment

Education Legislation Education Politics School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships

Florida House panel approves school choice scholarship expansion

Travis Pillow March 6, 2014

Travis Pillow

Rep. Manny Diaz Jr, R-Hialeah, presented the House’s tax-credit scholarship legislation on Thursday.

A bill that would expand Florida’s tax-credit scholarship program for low-income students cleared its first legislative hurdle Thursday.

Students and religious leaders who traveled from around the state packed the House Finance & Tax subcommittee, which approved the measure on a party-line vote.

The bill would allow more students to enter the program more quickly, increase the maximum scholarship amount and create partial scholarships for students with family incomes greater than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

“I think it’s a good thing that we are offering more hard-working families a choice to send a children to the school that best meets their needs,” said Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, who was among the bill’s supporters.

It would also place stricter requirements on the organizations that administer the program, including Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.

The committee bill was introduced by Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah. He faced tough questions from Democrats, some of whom said they supported the program in its current form but opposed the bill. Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, said the bill would grow the program “too much, too fast.”

He also questioned provisions that would create partial scholarships for families with incomes up to 260 percent of the federal poverty level, and said private schools participating in the program should be subject to the same grading system as public schools.

If the bill passes, the program could grow to $390 million next school year, while producing nearly $451 million in savings for the Florida Education Finance Program, the state’s main operating fund for public schools, according to estimates by House staff.

March 6, 2014 0 comment

Blog Administration Education Legislation School Choice

Florida lawmakers consider a whole new twist on school choice

Travis Pillow March 5, 2014

Travis Pillow

Florida lawmakers are working on proposals that would allow parents of children with developmental disabilities to put state education funding to use beyond the traditional public school system – and even beyond private, virtual or other school choice options.

Rep. Bileca

The proposals being considered in the House and Senate resemble the “education savings accounts” that have started getting attention around the country, but they would be available only to certain children with special needs.

Parents of children with conditions like autism, spina bifida or cerebral palsy would be able to use “personalized accounts for learning” to cover expenses like therapy, private tutors or a specialized curriculum. Under a bill already filed in the Senate, they could also use the funds to start saving for college.

While the McKay Scholarship program can allow disabled students to attend public or private schools of their choice, disabled children’s needs often extend beyond the “in-school component” of their education, House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee Chairman Mike Bileca, R-Miami, said during a hearing on the proposal Tuesday.

“For some students, a full day at school may not meet their education needs, and the parents have the most valuable perspective and insight into what their children need,” he said.

Ashli McCall, one of two parents who testified in favor of the proposals, told the committee she is the mother of a 15-year-old with Asperger syndrome. She said her son would be stymied by a “total sensory overload” in a traditional public school setting. She said he responds best to one-on-one instruction at home, but could benefit from having more access to therapists.

“If we had had the funding to support the needs of my child at an earlier age, we may have had more success in his academic achievements,” she said. “He struggles with so many issues which interfere with his learning that his academic process has been hindered.”

March 5, 2014 1 comment

Blog Administration School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships Testing and Accountability

At start of session, FL legislative leaders call for more school choice

Travis Pillow March 4, 2014

Travis Pillow

Florida’s top lawmakers opened the legislative session Tuesday with calls to expand school choice.

House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz have included the expansion of career education programs and tax credit scholarships in their agenda for the 60-day session.

In his remarks in the House chamber before Gov. Rick Scott’s state of the state speech, Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, framed the expansion of education options as part of an effort to fight “generational poverty.”

“I believe that no child’s success should ever be dictated by their zip code,” he said, appropriating a favorite line of former Gov. Jeb Bush. “In my opinion, no other issue today personifies freedom, opportunity and the God-given right to rise better than the school choice movement.”

Referring to tax credit scholarships specifically, he added, “There are 60,000 kids who are receiving scholarships today, primarily minority and overwhelmingly low-income. And there are tens of thousands more parents looking for that same opportunity to provide their child with that choice. Let’s agree not to fight each other. Let’s fight for them. Let’s expand the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship.”

The scholarship program is administered by Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog. You can read Weatherford’s full speech, as prepared for delivery, here.

Last session, Gaetz, R-Niceville, championed legislation that expanded career education programs offered by school districts. This year, he said, he wants lawmakers to lift funding caps on those programs.

Gaetz also said in his opening remarks that he wants to “end” the waiting list of students hoping to enroll in the tax credit scholarship program. At the same time, he said, the performance of students participating in the program “should be assessed just like the performance of any other child.”

The state does not require private school students who receive tax credit scholarships to take the state’s main standardized test, the FCAT (though some do). Students participating in the program are required, however, to take norm-referenced standardized tests approved by the Department of Education, which provides the data to an outside researcher for analysis.

March 4, 2014 0 comment

Charter Schools Education Legislation Education Politics Homeschooling Private Schools Virtual Education

Florida lawmakers to consider suite of school choice bills

Travis Pillow March 4, 2014

Travis Pillow

A bill aimed at streamlining charter school applications and a proposed expansion of Florida’s tax credit scholarship program have gotten their share of headlines going in to the Florida legislative session that starts today.

Again this year, Florida lawmakers will consider a wide range of school choice bills, including a version of education savings accounts.

But those are far from the only school choice measures in play. Here is a rundown, not quite exhaustive, of school choice legislation worth keeping an eye on over the next 60 days:

SB 850 would require community colleges to establish “collegiate high schools” that would be open to students throughout their target service areas. The new institutions would allow students to complete their first year of college by the time they receive their high school diplomas. A Senate panel today will consider merging it with a House bill that would create an “early warning system” for middle school students.

SB 790 has already gotten attention for increasing the state’s financial commitment to digital learning. A provision inserted by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, should resonate with people following the effort to open a new charter school at MacDill Air Force Base. It would codify the Legislature’s intent to “encourage military installation commanders to collaboratively work with the Commissioner of Education to increase military family student achievement, which may include the establishment of charter schools on military installations.”

HB 533 aims to expand access to extracurricular activities for home-school, private school, charter school and virtual school students. Right now, state law allows those students to join sports teams at nearby public schools. This bipartisan proposal would broaden that provision to include performing arts, debate clubs and other extracurricular activities. It would also allow private school students to participate in activities at other schools in their district if they are zoned to a public school that doesn’t offer them.

SB 1512 , sponsored by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, would create “Personalized Accounts for Learning,” similar to education savings accounts, for some students with disabilities. It would allow parents of children with conditions like autism and cerebral palsy to use up to 90 percent of the state’s core per-pupil funding to cover expenses like private school tuition, certain kinds of therapy, or instructional materials tailored to their child’s needs. The House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee is expected to discuss a similar idea today.

March 4, 2014 0 comment