Bipartisanship

Parental choice retention bill clears Senate Education Committee with bi-partisan support

Lisa Buie February 4, 2021

A bill that would allow parents to hold their children back a grade to make up for COVID-slide learning losses sailed through the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.

S.B. 200, filed by state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, would let parents of children in kindergarten through eighth grade make the decision to have the child repeat a grade only during the 2021-22 school year. Current law allows district school principals to make retention decisions. The law prompted one parent to pay out of pocket for her son to a private kindergarten so that she and her husband could decide whether he was ready for first grade.

The bill follows through on an announcement that Gov. Ron DeSantis made last spring that parents would be allowed to hold their children back a grade in the fall if they had concerns about learning losses from online instruction.

DeSantis did not formalize his intentions with an executive order, and later guidance from Florida Department of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran recognized that while parents have a right to provide input, the final decision regarding student retention rests with school officials.

Berman filed her bill in response to parents’ concerns over the learning losses that occurred in March after the pandemic shuttered school campuses. Though all Florida district schools were required to open in August for full-time, in-person instruction, some families enrolled their children in online options that the districts could offer under an executive order from the DOE.

“We know that the COVID slide is real and troubling,” Berman told education committee members during the meeting. She cited data from Palm Beach County that showed the percentage of middle school F’s increased from 1.6 to 7.7% this past year.

Under the bill, parents with children enrolled in elementary and middle schools would have until June 30 to request from their district superintendent that their child repeat a grade next year. Superintendents would be required to approve all timely petitions and would have discretion over requests that are filed late.

Berman said she agreed to narrow the scope of the bill to exclude high schoolers ahead of Wednesday’s meeting after speaking with Corcoran, who expressed concerns about its effect on older students and athletes.

“One of the reasons why we amended the bill overall down to K-8 was so that we would not run into a lot of the issues that happened in high school with eligibility and things like parents wanting their child to attend prom,” Berman said in response to questions from Sen. Travis Hutson, R-St. Augustine, who asked if the bill could include provisions for retained students who were deemed ineligible to participate in activities as a result of their parents’ decision in 2021 to hold them back a year. Berman said she was open to considering it.

The bill cleared the committee by a 9-0 vote. Sen. Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, did not vote on the proposal.

The bill has two more committee hearings in the Senate. A companion bill is expected to be filed soon in the House by state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton.

February 4, 2021 0 comment

2020 Presidential Election Advocate Voices Bipartisanship Commentary and Opinion Common Ground Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Equity Education Politics Featured

This Memphis mom has a Thanksgiving message for Joe Biden

Special to redefinED November 26, 2020

Special to redefinED

A recent initiative of the grassroots Powerful Parent Network was raising money to meet with all of the 2020 presidential nominees to lobby for parental empowerment and education choice.

Editor’s note: This post from former teacher, school board member and passionate education choice advocate Erika Sanzi features a powerful message from a fellow school choice advocate. The commentary appeared earlier this week on Education Post.

Sarah Carpenter, executive director of Memphis Lift, spent much of the 2020 primary season bringing her message—her plea—for liberation from failing schools to all who were in the fight to become the next president of the United States. Miss Sarah is a fierce advocate for children and parents—she doesn’t have any preferences when it comes to district schools, charter schools or private schools. She just wants the children of North Memphis—and all children—to have access to a good school.

Sarah appears in and narrates the video below on behalf of the Powerful Parent Movement and her message to president-elect Biden is clear.

She, and all the members of the Powerful Parent Movement, know that self-determination comes with having the freedom to choose the right school for your child. Let’s hope the president-elect is willing to listen.

https://educationpost.org/one-memphis-mom-and-grandma-has-a-thanksgiving-message-for-joe-biden/

November 26, 2020 0 comment

Bipartisanship Blog Guest Commentary and Opinion Dan Lips Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Equity Education Legislation Education Savings Accounts Education Spending Featured Parental Choice Private School Scholarships School Choice

How children’s savings accounts can promote equal opportunity

Dan Lips September 8, 2020

Dan Lips

Editor’s note: In this commentary, Dan Lips revisits an opinion piece Robert Reich wrote 20 years ago about progressive school vouchers in which Reich offered a promising grand compromise between the left’s and right’s visions for education reform. Today, Lips writes, state-funded children’s savings accounts are a new promising compromise strategy to promote equal opportunity.

The pandemic has exposed persistent inequality in American education. All children suffer when schools remain closed. But children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face the biggest challenges. The current crisis should lead policymakers to consider new long-term strategies to promote equal opportunity.

Twenty years ago, former Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich proposed a creative compromise between the left and right’s competing visions for education. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he made the case for progressive school vouchers.

“The only way to begin to decouple poor kids from lousy schools is to give poor kids additional resources, along with vouchers enabling them and their parents to choose how to use them,” Reich wrote. He proposed providing vouchers to children on a sliding-scale based on parental income with the poorest quintile receiving $12,000 and the richest quintile getting $2,000. Children could use the scholarship to attend any school of choice.

Two decades later, progress has been made expanding disadvantaged children’s opportunities to attend higher-quality schools through open enrollment, charter schools and scholarship programs. Moreover, national data show that past differences in public funding available to schools serving children from poor and rich households have been narrowed.

But large educational achievement and attainment gaps between rich and poor children persist. And no grand bargain between the Left and Right has been reached to create progressive school vouchers to promote equal opportunity.

Former Secretary Reich probably isn’t surprised. At the time, he described his proposal as “a very long shot for now,” since it would require pooling and redistributing property tax revenues, boosting federal and state funding, and overcoming teacher union opposition.

But the former Labor Secretary’s proposed compromise is worth remembering as policymakers search for new solutions to promote equal opportunity.

A new approach to addressing inequality could be to create progressive children’s savings account programs to improve long-term access to college and job training and expand choice in K-12 education.

Across the United States, states, cities, and nonprofit organizations are making direct investments into young children’s savings accounts, often starting at birth. For example, all children born in Maine are eligible to receive a $500 investment into an education savings account funded by the Alfond Scholarship Foundation. Kindergartens in Nevada receive a $50 investment into a savings account upon entering school. Rhode Island’s College Bound Baby program provides every baby a $100 education savings account investment.

These programs are premised on the idea that seed investments will encourage parents to continue saving and lift children’s expectations for postsecondary education. Washington University researchers studied how such programs affect children – holding a lottery and awarding $1,000 investments to randomly selected children in Oklahoma. Years later, they found that these investments increased children’s college savings, raised parents’ expectations, and improved children’s social-emotional development compared to their peers.

Looking forward, children’s savings accounts programs have the potential to do much more to address inequality.

Programs that encourage investments into children’s savings accounts generally use the state’s 529 account program to manage investments. Under federal law, 529 accounts now allow tax-free savings for college expenses, job training, and K-12 tuition. More than 30 states and the District of Columbia currently offer tax deductions or credits for investments made into children’s 529 accounts.

Federal and state policymakers could establish new mechanisms to encourage or provide direct investments into disadvantaged children’s accounts to promote equal opportunity. Over time, investing in these accounts would give lower-income parents more flexibility to overcome poverty and ensure their child receives a high-quality education.

Congressional lawmakers have proposed expanding allowed uses of 529 accounts to include tutoring and other outside-of-school learning costs, which could be particularly helpful to address long term learning loss from the ongoing school closures. If allowed uses are expanded to include tutoring, investments in lower-income children’s saving account could reduce differences in outside of school learning opportunities and narrow achievement gaps.

Unlike former Secretary Reich’s proposal, progressive children’s savings accounts would not pose an immediate threat to teacher unions by redirecting existing school funding. To be sure, there will be challenges, including competing for government funding during an economic downturn with overburdened federal and state budgets. And as Reich wrote in 2000, “[t]he largest challenge is to convince each side in the current education battle that they have only part of the answer, and their opponents have the other.”

Democrats often express a desire to reduce wealth inequality. Republicans speak often of expanding educational choices for disadvantaged parents. Progressive children’s savings account programs can advance both principles and should be a solution that both sides can support.

September 8, 2020 0 comment

Bipartisanship Education Choice Education Equity Education Legislation Education Politics Family Empowerment Scholarship Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship School Choice

Scholarship expansion bill headed to governor’s desk for signature

Lisa Buie March 13, 2020

Lisa Buie

A bill that expands and aligns two K-12 scholarship programs for economically disadvantaged students won final passage in the Florida Legislature today and will be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his expected signature.

With no debate and by a vote of 21 to 14, the Florida Senate gave final approval to HB 7067, which is aimed at aligning policies between the Family Empowerment Scholarship, adopted last year and serving 18,000 students, and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, created in 2001 and serving 108,000 students.

“This session, revising the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program was our state’s priority, because no matter what economic challenges a student has, investing in the education of our children is always a win,” said Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, who as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, shepherded the bill through the legislative process. “I would like to thank my House and Senate colleagues for supporting a world of opportunity for all students that regardless of race, wealth, or beliefs should have access to an education that meets their needs.”

A Democratic House member expressed his satisfaction after the bill’s passage.

“It’s a good day in the state of Florida,” said Rep. James Bush III, D-Miami, who supported last year’s bill establishing the Family Empowerment Scholarship program and was one of eight Democrats who voted Monday in favor of the expansion in the House. “This bill is really going to further empower parents to be able to choose the educational environment that is best for their children.”

Both scholarship programs serve students from lower-income and working-class families.

The bill would increase the allowed enrollment growth in the Family Empowerment Scholarship. Under current law, the program can grow by up to 0.25 of total public school enrollment each year, which is roughly 7,000 students. The bill would increase that growth to 1 percent, or roughly 28,000.

The bill gives clear priority to renewal students in both programs and provides for a gradual increase in household income eligibility over time. That provision allows the eligible income level in the Family Empowerment Scholarship, currently 300 percent of federal poverty, to increase by 25 percentage points in the next year if more than 5 percent of the available scholarships remain unawarded.

The income limit for Tax Credit Scholarships would remain at 260 percent of poverty.

The bill also allows students who receive scholarships in either program to remain on the scholarship until they graduate or turn 21.

March 13, 2020 0 comment

Bipartisanship Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Legislation Education Politics Family Empowerment Scholarship Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship School Choice

Word for word: Rep. Susan Valdes on HB7067

redefinED staff March 9, 2020

redefinED staff

Editor’s note: Susan Valdes, D-Tampa, was one of eight Democrats who joined a Republican majority Monday to approve HB 7067. A nearly two-hour emotional debate on the bill, which is aimed at aligning policies between the new Family Empowerment Scholarship and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and increasing allowed enrollment growth in the former, saw representatives on both sides of the issue sharing personal stories, including Valdes, who advocated for under-served students during her tenure on the Hillsborough County School Board. Her efforts led the district to allow students to take multiple competency tests to increase their chances of earning a diploma. Here is what Valdes had to say at Monday’s hearing.

The only thing I can share with you is being born first-generation of Cuban immigrants in New York City, we went to a public school. We moved to Miami shortly thereafter, and later on as an adult, I found out why. Things weren’t going very well in the public schools in New York City. Mom and Dad wanted something better for me. When we moved to Miami, I went to a small private school. My parents weren’t wealthy at all. I remember struggling. They didn’t talk about it.

My mom was widowed when I was 10 going on 11. My mom couldn’t afford any longer to provide the education that they thought would be fit for me and that was at that small private school. It was a community school. It was something that was a good thing for kids. We didn’t have this option when I was growing up. When we moved to Tampa shortly thereafter my dad’s passing, I did go into public school and I have to say I wear my high school alma mater lanyard for a reason. I want the students back home to know that they can do this, that they can reach whatever potential that they choose with the help of their teachers and their administration and of course with hard work.

I honor them. I honor our public school teachers. I honor the work they do. I love public schools. No doubt about that. And I also know that in my school district there are many students, that like my parents, needed and wanted a choice because things weren’t going right in their traditional public schools. And until we become open and friendlier in our schools, until we begin to understand some of the cultural challenges that our students face, whether they’re poor, whether they’re immigrants, whether they were born here, whatever their case may be, we have to be able to open our hearts to a single mom’s decision of where to put and place their child in a school.

Not everyone has a family that, we talked about that before on the parental rights bill, things of that nature, not everyone has a family with that foundation that most of grew up with. So, when I’m seeing how many single moms and single dads we have in today’s society …

My friends, we’re the party of choice. We’re the party of choice. How can we deny the single parent the choice of where to educate their child? This is extremely important for the successes of our children. And yes, we do have the majority of parents that do choose public schools, and that’s a great choice. It really is. There’s a lot of opportunity. But when you look at the data as Rep. Newton has so eloquently shared with us so many different times about that school to prison pipeline, after several of us are visiting prisons in our state and talking to our kids that are in there behind those bars, and one in specific told me, and it broke my heart, because he said to me, ‘I let you down, Ms. Valdes.’

I didn’t know I was going to see this kid. He actually put signs out when I was running for school board. He and his family. I had no idea. But I would go talk to my kids in my schools and share this same conversation. They have the opportunity with hard work and dedication to be able to reach these heights. And because of poverty, he made the wrong choice, got caught and was one that was incarcerated such as Rep. Newton … When he looked at me and he was desperately knocking on that little window in that cage, ‘Ms. V., Ms. V.,’ I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, who knows me in here?’ I looked at this young man and a tear came down and he said, ‘I’m sorry I let you down.’

It reminded me of what we’re doing here today. We have to give our children the opportunity that when things aren’t working out, find a way of being able to make it work for that child. I know that our guidance counsellors are overworked. I know the social workers, we need more of them, but by the same token, the system failed this young man. I can’t help him behind bars. All I can do is give him encouraging words in hopes that he behaves and does well so that maybe we can pass later on a 65 percent law that instead of having students or kids or prisoners meet their 85 percent mandatory that children like these who have been incarcerated since a very young age would have a chance at a second chance.

So, with that, thank you for the bill. I am supportive of this bill because every child matters. Our public schools do the best they can, and I know their hearts are in the right places, but we have to be really, really diligent in making sure that all of our students are served. If you look at the Department of Education’s website, there is an icon where you can go and see how much is invested in your public schools per student. You will be surprised at what you will see and how much of all the different funding sources, how much each student is invested in or worth in that particular school.

Colleagues, I get it. I understand. We may agree to disagree on this one. And it’s not an anti-teacher, it’s not an anti-union, it’s not an anti-anything. On the contrary. It’s a for and a pro children bill. So with that, thank you, and I will be voting up on this bill, and I hope that my colleagues, please, look deep into your heart and think about those kids in your community that take advantage of this. In Hillsborough County, in my voting district alone, there’s over 1,000 children who take advantage of this program that otherwise I don’t know where they would be. Maybe they’ll be like little Kaia. Or like that little 7-year-old that just got arrested in a Pinellas public school, and it wasn’t a charter school, it was a public school. So, with that, thank you, Madame Chair.

March 9, 2020 0 comment

Bipartisanship Education and Public Policy Education Equity Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship School Choice

Top member of Democratic Caucus urges scholarship donors to stay the course

redefinED staff February 5, 2020

redefinED staff

One day after more than 100 black and Hispanic pastors gathered at the State Capitol in support of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, has issued a statement urging program donors not to withhold funding despite recent attacks alleging the program discriminates against LGBTQ students.

Jones acknowledged that while every school, whether public or private, must uphold a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to discrimination, he said that continued erosion of corporate support to the program that serves predominantly low-income and minority families would cause more harm than good.

“Ripping scholarship funding out from underneath thousands of economically vulnerable students whose only chance at a safe environment and solid education is not the answer,” Jones said. “While we come together to create policies to ensure these conditions, I urge companies not to end their support for students in the short term.”

At issue are efforts by two Florida lawmakers to persuade corporate donors to end their contributions to the scholarship program that serves more than 100,000 students. Like Shevrin, speakers at Tuesday’s event, including Rep. James Bush, D-Miami, said that loss of donor support to the program could have a devastating effect on education opportunities for the state’s most vulnerable students.

Jones, the second ranking member of the Democratic Caucus in the Florida House, is a strong advocate of LGBTQ rights. He has actively campaigned for protection of the LGBTQ community from discrimination in housing and employment.

February 5, 2020 22 comments

ArchivED Bipartisanship Education and Public Policy Education Politics Featured Podcast School Choice

archivED: Meet Florida’s newest school choice Democrat

Ron Matus November 30, 2019

Ron Matus

On MLK Day, Rep. Bush attended a special event with Gov. Ron DeSantis at Piney Grove Boys Academy, an all-male, predominantly black private school in Lauderdale Lakes where all 85 students are recipients of state-supported educational choice scholarships. From left is Piney Grove Principal Alton Bolden, Rep. Bush, Frances Bolden, Bobby Bolden, and Tellis Bolden.

Editor’s note: redefinED wraps up its series of podcast flashbacks with one of the best from 2019: an interview with state Rep. James Bush III.

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – If you want to know why Florida state Rep. James Bush III supports educational choice, take a ride with him.

Just a few blocks from his legislative office, District 109 – which Bush called “one of the largest and poorest and most violent and neglected districts in the state” – is more Mad Max than Miami, a hodge-podge of industrial zoning and bars-over-windows residential. On a recent Sunday, Bush bumped a rented Mustang down a moonscape of graded road, lined with teetering chain-link fence and littered with cast-offs: a flat-screen TV, a jet ski, a crushed camper top.

Around the corner, a line of salvage yards emerged like fortresses, stacks of crunched cars rising over walls topped with barbed wire.

Then, right next to them, a public housing complex …

Bush braked. The contrast panned into view. Satellite dishes poking out of lavender stucco … a woman pushing a stroller … kids riding bikes …

“Now what is right five steps from this (junk yard)?” Bush said. “Look at all this stuff the kids are breathing. I don’t want it to sound like I’m painting a real negative picture of our city but … this should be our focus.”

“Those are the kinds of concerns I have when it comes down to doing what I’m supposed to be doing as a rep in Tallahassee,” he said minutes later. “Not getting caught up in who can control who, and doing the most politically correct things, and not putting the children of this state first … ”

Say hi to Florida’s newest school choice Democrat.

Bush, 63, served four terms as state representative in the 1990s. He was elected for a term in 2008. He was elected again in August.

His Democratic roots run deep. Bush retired after 30 years as a public school teacher (and teachers union member). He served as acting president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He earned his bachelor’s from Bethune-Cookman, the private-school-turned-college founded by Mary McLeod Bethune. Bush doesn’t just know the history of black churches, education and liberation. He’s lived it.

His support for choice is, on the one hand, practical. His district includes thriving faith-based schools. His district has far more pressing needs than what schools parents choose. As a lawmaker, he said he’s going to fight for more funding for the Miami-Dade school district (and everything else his district desperately needs) at the same time he supports the options his constituents desperately want.

On the other hand, Bush’s support is grounded in a belief. When parents are empowered to determine the educational destinies of their children, he said, that confidence in the power to make change spills over into the rest of their lives.

“Because the parent now would say, ‘Well I feel now better because I got my child where I think it’s best for them,’ as opposed to going through just a normal traditional way of educating,” Bush said. “It gives them a sense of belonging and a sense of ownership and a sense of having some input.”

“It propels them to another level of getting involved in other things that affect their child,” he continued. “It’s a plus in the long run.”

HD 109 is 20 minutes, but a world away, from the condo towers gleaming along Biscayne Bay. It’s split between blacks and Hispanics. It’s shaped like a gun.

Liberty City sits where the grip is. The neighborhood of Brownsville, once dubbed Miami’s most blighted, is where the barrel begins. The city of Opa-Locka is where the sight would be. By some measures, it’s one of the most dangerous cities in America.

As night fell, Bush turned towards Ali Baba Avenue, once a notorious drug hole. He stopped between a zippy mart with a Lotto sign and a tiny apartment complex with plywood-covered windows. A woman emerged from the shadows, a man on a plastic sheet – asleep? – on the ground behind her.

“My friend,” Bush said through the car window. “This Bush.”

“Hey!” the woman chirped. “How are you sweetie?”

The two clasped hands. Turns out, the woman worked on Bush’s campaign. He thanked her for the help, then asked about the man on the ground. She assured him the man was okay.

HD 109 is full of good people doing good things, Bush said over and over. But that guy on the ground?

“I got spots,” he said, “where a lot of that takes place.”

Bush riffed on his district’s challenges. Better roads, better jobs, better housing … safer, cleaner neighborhoods “so our children can have a different perspective on life.” He kept repeating: The people in HD 109 “have a lot of needs … need assistance … just need our share … ”

Same with schools. The Miami-Dade district is on the rise, arguably one of the best urban districts in America. At the same time, half its low-income students aren’t reading at grade level.

Given its depth of poverty, Bush said it’s no surprise HD 109 has among the highest concentrations of school choice scholarship students in the state. Some 2,330 use the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, for lower-income students, to attend 28 private schools. Bush said the students in his district “benefit immensely from … not only the public schools but schools of choice.”

He said he supports them. All of them.

It remains to be seen how many other elected Democrats do.

November 30, 2019 0 comment

Analysis Bipartisanship Education and Public Policy Education Equity Education Legislation Family Empowerment Scholarship Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Gardiner Scholarship School Choice Vouchers

Growth in Florida’s education choice programs accelerating

Doug Tuthill November 13, 2019

Doug Tuthill

Editor’s note: The data in this post are accurate as of 5:06 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11, 2019.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced recently that the state’s new Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program, enacted with bipartisan support, reached its 18,000-student enrollment cap only three months after becoming law. No education choice program in the country has ever grown this large this fast.

The average income for a family of four on the FES program is $28,252.65. These are low-income families fighting to give their children a chance at a better life.

The number of low-income Florida families trying to access more education choices through our nonprofit, Step Up For Students (which hosts this blog), is accelerating. Last year, 170,471 low-income students started applications in our system before we turned it off. This year, 198,030 students started applications.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) has served 31,225 new students this year compared to 18,806 last year. The FTC and FES programs together have served 125,184 new and renewal students this year compared to 98,802 FTC students last year.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to provide scholarships to every qualified student. We have 35,825 students who have been found eligible for FTC and/or FES scholarships but do not currently have a scholarship award because of insufficient funds.

The Gardiner Scholarship program for children with unique abilities/special needs is the third scholarship program SUFS manages in which demand far exceeds supply. With strong bi-partisan support, lawmakers gratefully funded 1,900 new Gardiner students this year. But demand is so high that by January we’ll have about 3,200 additional eligible Gardiner students who do not have scholarships because of insufficient funds.

A side benefit of more families having greater control over how their public education dollars are spent is small business development, especially in under-served urban communities. As enrollment in our five scholarship programs continues to increase, and as families are able to spend their scholarship funds on a greater variety of educational products and services, the number of small and medium-sized businesses benefiting is also increasing.

Over the last few years our scholarship families have purchased products and services from over 10,000 providers, including schools, tutors, occupational therapists, counselors, educational hardware and software companies, physical therapists, curriculum providers, and book stores.

Hopefully, when the Florida Legislature convenes in January, there will again be bipartisan support for more families having greater control over how their low-income and unique abilities children are educated. No child’s future should be put on a waiting list.

November 13, 2019 0 comment