Continued litigation of HB 7069 threatens to take money away from charter school students who need the most support As a resident of Winter Garden, my family’s gratitude for our local public charter schools runs deep, which is why we fully support HB 7069 for providing equitable fund to all public-school students. We have two […]
Good News Out of Florida: Parents Choose and More Kids Finish College
This post by Erika Sanzi originally posted on Good School Hunting. “Comparing FTC students with demographically and academically similar students who remained in public schools, we find a positive impact on college enrollment in every sector.” – Urban Institute They say that “If it bleeds, it leads” and perhaps that’s the explanation for such anemic […]
SAT Administrators Think It’s Impossible for This Black Girl to Have Raised Her Score by 300 Points
The number 22 stared me in the face. “Well, that’s as good as it’s gonna get, I guess,” I said with a shrug as I reviewed my ACT score when I was 17. My mom, my sisters, my friends all said, “Nah, try it again and see what happens.” A few months later, some lucky […]
Schools Are Not Churches and Corcoran Is Not The Devil
Did you hear? Florida has just hired a fox to guard the public school henhouse and the newspapers are lamenting the impending death of “public education” in the Sunshine state. If you’re confused, or if you’re simply not so melodramatic, all they’re saying is that the former Speaker of the House, Richard Corcoran, just got […]
Is Florida’s Election Fiasco a Teachable Moment?
It’s probably too early in the process to really know what all the lessons will be from Florida’s latest election mishaps. But I know one thing for sure. Young voters and soon-to-be voters are paying attention. After the mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, students showed up in force to […]
What Andrew Gillum Really Thinks About School Choice
This post originally appeared on Sunshine State News If you care about school choice in Florida, watch out for Andrew Gillum. In the debate last week, Gillum told the moderator he is not looking to defund charter schools. “I’m not proposing any change to the current status quo,” he said before quickly pivoting to the […]
More Proof Florida Schools Are On The Right Track
Last night I was up way too late checking Twitter when I noticed a tweet from Florida’s education department. Great News, Florida! Quality Counts has ranked Florida 4th in the nation for K-12 student achievement! We are so proud of the work our educators and students are doing in the classroom. 😁📚 #FLedu Find out […]
Ron DeSantis May “Monkey This Up,” But Is He Racist?
If you ask Twitter, Republican Ron DeSantis is obviously a racist. In a Fox News interview after his primary win Tuesday night, he said Andrew Gillum, the black nominee for governor on the Democratic ticket, was “articulate,” but that Florida doesn’t need to “Monkey this up.” That's not a dog whistle. Or a human whistle […]
Florida Needs Another Path For Charter Schools
This post appeared originally on The Capitolist. Amendment 8 may not be on the ballot come November, but we can’t ignore the issue it was trying to address. Charter schools have a legitimate place in our state. They’re written into our laws because they give families a public-school option (and hope) when their zoned school […]
I won’t be part of a Democratic Party that bashes school choice
This post written by Catherine Durkin Robinson originally appeared on the RedefinED blog. I’ve been a militant advocate, organizer and member of the Democratic Party for 30 years. A few months ago, I quit identifying as a Democrat. It had been building within me for a while. I could no longer stomach the Democratic Party’s support […]