Do You Know Where Your Public Education Dollars Are Going?

Surprised by all this? We were. And sorely disappointed. But wait. It gets worse. Much worse. Because of the passage of new legislation tying teachers’ pay and evaluations to student test scores, this year teachers who do not teach FCAT tested subjects and grades will be evaluated on test scores of students they may have never taught or even met.

The legislature and the State Board of Education have made more FCAT policy changes in the past few months than all of the changes made in the last 10 years. These changes ultimately benefit the increase in charter schools, vouchers and the public perception that the overwhelming majority of public schools are failing. So where do taxpayer dollars go for education in the state budget? Besides funding charter school construction, vouchers totaling $106 million were given to 28,927 students enrolled in 1,033 participating Florida private schools in the 2009-10 school year.

According to the Florida Department of Education, 79 percent of schools receiving that $106 million were religious in nature. How well do you think you understand state education funding now? In a state that under-finances schools in the best of times, we’re looking at teachers and education staff professionals losing their jobs, schools being closed, arts and music programs curtailed or eliminated, after-school programs and summer classes cancelled or scaled way back, and fewer school resource officers and crossing guards. At the same time we are facing an assault on high quality teaching and student learning, increases in state support for vouchers and alternatives to traditional public schools and rapid, changing expectations from politicians. What we’re not looking at is political leaders facing up to their responsibilities to invest in Florida’s future: our children and all those who work to educate them and prepare them for the future.

The result is a distorted reflection of education outcomes and investments. Somebody, somewhere, is making a huge profit on these policies, but are any of Florida’s children really served by it? Or are they being deprived of the one thing modern society and Florida’s constitution guarantees them — a high quality, free, safe, and uniform, public education? What we have right now just doesn’t work. We need a new system we can trust.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) believes it entirely possible to craft an accountability system, teacher appraisal and performance-pay system that will help ensure all students learn more deeply from highly effective teachers. At a minimum, this new system must be clearly defined, fair, transparent, funded, and most of all collaborative.

A Florida Virtual “education” is a
real misnomer.

The fastest growing public school district in Florida doesn’t have a football team, provide school lunches or buses for their students. It doesn’t get a district grade from the state, and it operates free of the rules and scrutiny that dog most public schools. Students in this district conduct frog dissections without ever stepping in a science lab, take physical education without ever going into a gym and learn how to drive without ever getting in a car. They do all of it online, virtually. The most popular online, virtual course? P.E.

In less than 15 years, Florida Virtual School has become the largest, statefunded, online K-12 school in the nation, an enterprise with a $166.3 million budget and close to 1,500 employees and 130,000 students.

Florida education leaders have turned to Florida Virtual as a solution to overcrowded classes, limited course offerings and budget cuts.

Beginning with the 2011-2012 school year, a new state law requires the expansion of virtual instruction program options and requires every Florida student — including private school students — to take online coursework for graduation. The new law also requires that statewide tests be administered online. No additional funding was provided for this expanded mandate.