Denisha Merriweather, director of public relations and content marketing at the American Federation for Children and founder of Black Minds Matter, made another guest appearance this week on the Ricochet Audio Network.
On this episode, Merriweather, a former Florida Tax Credit Scholarship recipient, shares with Ricochet hosts Andrew Gutmann and Beth Feeley the life-changing impact a quality education had on her life.
The former political appointee at the U.S. Department of Education also discusses the recent Old Parkland Conference, self-described as a gathering to discuss alternative proven approaches to tackling the challenges facing Black Americans today, which featured Clarence Thomas, Glenn Loury, Jason Riley, Ian Rowe and Shelby Steele.
You can listen to the podcast here.
On this episode, Tuthill speaks with Denisha Merriweather, founder of Black Minds Matter and director of public relations and content marketing at the American Federation for Children, and Ron Matus, director of policy and public affairs at Step Up For Students, about their new report, Controlling the Narrative: Parental Choice, Black Empowerment, and Lessons from Florida.
(Dava Hankerson, director of enterprise data and research at Step Up For Students, and Nathaniel Cunneen, a communications associate at the American Federation for Children, also contributed to the report.)
The three discuss how Florida has become a boom for Black families seeking alternative education options through choice. More than 100,000 Black students – one in six – participate in some type of non-district choice program, such as a charter school or a private school through state sponsored scholarships.
Tuthill, Merriweather and Matus also discuss the degree of empowerment that education choice provides Black educators through autonomy and small business opportunities, such as microschools, as flexible spending programs like education savings accounts take hold nationally.
"It's a story that's been unfolding in front of us, which I don't think people realize the extent of – the degree to which Black families have embraced education choice in all its forms ... This was an opportunity to put a strong spotlight on something that's been going on for 20 or 25 years."
EPISODE DETAILS:
When the producers of the national podcast Ruthless sat down to brainstorm topics for coverage at the start of the new school year, one idea rose to the top of the list: a deep dive on education choice and how it’s currently playing out across the nation.
They chose two prominent figures in the education choice world, Tommy Schultz, chief executive officer at the American Federation for Children, and Denisha Merriweather, director of public relations and marketing at AFC, to feature.
Among the topics Schultz and Merriweather discuss on the podcast, which came online Thursday: how education choice originated as a movement, how COVID-19 has impacted the rise of education choice in America, and the expansion of entrepreneurial opportunities for educators in the wake of that phenomenon.
You can listen to the podcast at this link. Fast forward to the 4-minute mark to begin listening to the interview.
Editor’s note: Today, redefinED continues to review pieces published previously on school accountability. This post, which originally appeared in June 2016, features former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in an interview conducted by a student who attended school on a tax credit scholarship.
Denisha Merriweather interviews former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on school choice, education politics and more.
All parents should have access to "consumer reports" on schools in their area — public or private, magnet or charter — and be able to choose among them. Once their children are enrolled in a school, they should get meaningful updates on how well they're doing.
It might seem simple, but for too many parents, that's not how the school system works, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says in a new interview.
The former Florida governor has returned to his role as chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and has recently begun outlining a national education agenda.
He sat down recently in his Miami office with Denisha Merriweather, a former tax credit scholarship student, who is now seeking a master's degree in social work at the University of South Florida. (Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer the scholarship program.)
Merriweather asked how schools could help low-income parents make better decisions about where to send their children.
"There ought to be a report card for any school that has any government money, directly or indirectly, going to it, and the report card ought to be easy to understand," Bush said.
Parents, he said, should also receive detailed information on how well their children are doing, not just in subjects like reading and math, but on other skills like staying on task.
This might seem like an obvious prescription. But only a few school systems in the country have created the kind of system that really allows parents to make informed choices from the full range of potential options. In communities like New Orleans, which have created such systems, parents often take the opportunity to shop around, and many choose move their children to different schools.
"That information is not available for most parents, particularly for low-income parents. But if they had it, they'd make the right choice for their kids, all the time," Bush said. "I trust a parent, irrespective of their level of income, over a massive school district. It's not that the people inside the school systems are bad, but they're not the parent. They're not the mom."
"We should already be doing this," he added. "This is 2016, for crying out loud ... We have the tools to do this. The system resists it, because there's a lot of economic interests at stake."
See Bush's full answer in the clip below.
Sen. Tim Scott
His older brother was a command sergeant major in the U.S. Army. His younger brother is a colonel in the Air Force.
Their experiences trying to find schools for their children helped inspire the CHOICE Act. Scott's legislation would create pilot scholarship programs on at least five military bases.
"I know firsthand that a parent doesn't choose the base they go to, and therefore, can only hope and pray that the education is good," the South Carolina Republican tells Denisha Merriweather, a Florida tax credit scholarship alumna, in our latest podcast interview.
April is the month of the military child, and several states are advancing proposals to create new educational options for military families — or help existing school choice programs better meet their needs.
Georgia lawmakers approved a bill creating open enrollment for families on military bases, while Florida is advancing legislation that would allow military parents to apply for tax credit scholarships year-round. (more…)
Legislative session: Vouchers, recess and capital funding for charter schools are among the hot education topics in this year's legislative session, which begins Tuesday. Sunshine State News. School testing will again be a prominent issue during the session. Several bills have been filed to cut back on the number of tests, and to give options to the Florida Standards Assessments. News Service of Florida. Teacher bonuses are among the key education issues that will be debated by the Legislature. Tallahassee Democrat. The way the state calculates school funding may get another look from lawmakers this year. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Lake County school leaders say they oppose school vouchers, worry about recruiting and retaining teachers and don't like the state's current standardized testing process. Superintendent Diane Kornegay, school board member Kristi Burns and teachers union president Stuart Klatte made the remarks at an education forum last week. Daily Commercial. The Polk County School District is asking legislators to close the gap in per-student funding among districts. Polk ranked 64th out of 67 in per-student funding from the state this school year. Winter Haven News Chief. Senate and House leaders come to an agreement on the rules for the budget-making process for the legislative session. Tampa Bay Times. Politico Florida.
Trump's visit: President Donald Trump praises students and educators at St. Andrew Catholic School during a visit Friday. Trump used the stop to promote school choice, and urged members of Congress to pass a bill to fund school choice for disadvantaged young people, including minority children. Orlando Sentinel. Catholic News Agency. Associated Press. WCSI. WFTV. Fox News. New York Times. News 13. redefinED. A profile of Denisha Merriweather, the University of South Florida graduate student who was held up by the president as an example of how school choice can help struggling students succeed. Washington Post.
Commission choices: Gov. Rick Scott appoints 14 people to the state Constitution Revision Commission. Several of the appointees have ties to education: Pam Stewart, Florida education commissioner; Marva Johnson, state Board of Education chairwoman; Nicole Washington, a trustee at Florida A&M University; Belinda Keiser, vice chancellor of Keiser University; Darlene Jordan, a member of the state university system’s Board of Governors; and Jose “Pepe” Armas, a trustee for Florida International University. Politico Florida. Gradebook. Orlando Sentinel. News Service of Florida. Miami Herald. (more…)
Trump and choice: President Donald Trump called education "the civil rights issue of our time" during his speech to Congress Tuesday. He urged legislators to "pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of African-American and Latino children. These families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious, or home school that is right for them." Education Week. Los Angeles Times. Florida's Denisha Merriweather is cited during Trump's speech as someone whose life was turned around because of school choice. redefinED. The 74. President Trump will visit Saint Andrew Catholic School in Orlando Friday, where he is expected to talk about school choice. Saint Andrew has 295 students who use the tax credit scholarship. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the scholarship. Orlando Sentinel.
Testing debate: Standardized testing will again be a focus of the legislative session that begins Tuesday. Critics want to cut back on the exams, or give students the option of taking different tests. Others think the testing system in place is necessary and needs to be preserved in some form. News Service of Florida.
Voucher study: A new study finds little evidence that school voucher programs significantly improve student achievement or school district performance. The study, written by Martin Carnoy, a Stanford University professor and research associate at the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, included evaluations of Florida programs. He wrote that the lack of evidence “suggests that an ideological preference for education markets over equity and public accountability is what is driving the push to expand voucher programs.” Washington Post.
Teachers honored: Evangeline Aguirre, who teaches in the English for Speakers of Other Languages program at Palm Beach Central High in Wellington, is named the Palm Beach County School District's teacher of the year. Palm Beach Post. Sun-Sentinel. Maria Torres-Crosby, a sixth-grade English teacher at Memorial Middle School. is named the Hillsborough County School District's teacher of the year. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)
Denisha Merriweather
Tonight, when President Donald Trump addresses Congress, one of his invited guests will be a school choice alumna from Florida.
Denisha Merriweather has been a prominent spokeswomen for the school choice movement. Among other things, she's testified before Congress and addressed a panel at the Republican National Convention.
She's a political independent who grew up in Jacksonville's Eastside neighborhood. She struggled in school and turned her academic career around with the help of a Florida tax credit scholarship. She's now pursuing a graduate degree in social work at the University of South Florida and working as an advocate with Step Up For Students, which administers the scholarship program and publishes this blog.
She recently told her story in-depth, like never before, in The 74.
Is this a hint at the president's agenda? Reports have indicated he's interested in a national tax credit scholarship program — which would make stories like Merriweather's possible in states like New York and Michigan, where private school choice faces major political and constitutional hurdles.
And his new Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has repeatedly cited Florida, and its tax credit scholarship program specifically, as a model for the nation. The program currently helps more than 90,000 low-income and working class students afford private school tuition.
Rouson
Florida State Sen. Darryl Rouson went to Catholic schools from first grade through college. He wants low-income families from his district to have the same opportunity. He's sent his own children to public schools, so he wants Florida's public school system to be as strong as possible.
During a podcast interview with Denisha Merriweather, a Florida school choice alum now studying to become a social worker, Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, explains how his life experience has informed his view that supporting school choice and supporting public education are not in conflict.
"I want a high-quality, fully funded public education, but at the same time, I do not believe that one size fits all," he says.
Rouson joined the Senate after a narrow win in a hard-fought Democratic primary. Education issues figured prominently in the race. His district encompasses the segregated neighborhoods of South St. Petersburg, an area whose academic struggles were chronicled in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by the Tampa Bay Times. (more…)
