Another “F” for those overseeing Florida’s public schools

Fortunately, Florida public schools work better than the Florida Board of Education. Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson, whom the board selected just a year ago, resigned last week. Gov. Rick Scott said in a statement that Robinson “has been a tireless advocate for creating quality learning opportunities for all of Florida’s students, and he will certainly be missed.” Sure. Scott will miss Robinson as much as he has missed Eric Smith. Two months after taking office, the governor forced out Smith as education commissioner. No one is saying so publicly, but the governor also forced out Robinson. The Board of Education played along. The governor appoints the seven board members, three of whom are Scott appointees. Collectively, they have training in science, medicine, finance, marketing, law and public relations, but not education. One board member spent a year as superintendent in Monroe County. Maybe that explains why Robinson was such a terrible choice. He has one year’s teaching experience. His advocacy for “choice” programs -- charter schools and vouchers -- got him named Virginia’s secretary of education, and appealed to the politics of the Florida board. He never moved to Florida, though he did hold “conversations with the commissioner” around the state. He was paid $275,000. As all those corporate folks on the Board of Education would say, you can’t hire good people on the cheap. It has been 11 years since Florida shifted from an independently elected education commissioner to one whom the governor basically appoints indirectly, through his appointments to the Board of Education. The roster is, ahem, undistinguished. Robinson’s misfortune was to be in office when Scott decided education cheerleading would raise his approval ratings. In 2012, the governor who in 2011 wanted to cut more money from schools than the Legislature finally cut, bragged about adding $1 billion to the education budget — $300,000 less than he had cut last year.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/editorial-another-f-for-those-overseeing-floridas-/nP9kD/

http://www.ocala.com/article/20120804/OPINION01/120809880/1008/OPINION?Title=Editorial-Collaboration-not-confrontation

FCAT critics see opening with education commissioner's resignation

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/aug/03/fcat-critics-seeing-opening-education-commissioner/

A weekend interview with Robinson

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/content/weekend-interview-florida-education-commissioner-gerard-robinson-1

Wakulla school employees will get pay raise (Missy Rudd quoted)
http://www.thewakullanews.com/content/school-board-employees-will-get-pay-raise

Privatizing public schools: Big firms eyeing profits from K-12 market

The investors gathered in a tony private club in Manhattan were eager to hear about the next big thing, and education consultant Rob Lytle was happy to oblige. Think about the upcoming rollout of new national academic standards for public schools, he urged the crowd. If they're as rigorous as advertised, a huge number of schools will suddenly look really bad, their students testing way behind in reading and math. They'll want help, quick. And private, for-profit vendors selling lesson plans, educational software and student assessments will be right there to provide it. "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up," said Lytle, a partner at The Parthenon Group, a Boston consulting firm. "It could get really, really big." Indeed, investors of all stripes are beginning to sense big profit potential in public education. The K-12 market is tantalizingly huge: The U.S. spends more than $500 billion a year to educate kids from ages five through 18. The entire education sector, including college and mid-career training, represents nearly 9 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, more than the energy or technology sectors. Traditionally, public education has been a tough market for private firms to break into -- fraught with politics, tangled in bureaucracy and fragmented into tens of thousands of individual schools and school districts from coast to coast. Now investors are signaling optimism that a golden moment has arrived. They're pouring private equity and venture capital into scores of companies that aim to profit by taking over broad swaths of public education. The conference last week at the University Club, billed as a how-to on "private equity investing in for-profit education companies," drew a full house of 100. In the venture capital world, transactions in the K-12 education sector soared to a record $389 million last year, up from $13 million in 2005. That includes major investments from some of the most respected venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, according to GSV Advisors, an investment firm in Chicago that specializes in education. The goal: an education revolution in which public schools outsource to private vendors such critical tasks as teaching math, educating disabled students, even writing report cards, said Michael Moe, the founder of GSV. "It's time," Moe said. "Everybody's excited about it." Not quite everyone. The push to privatize has alarmed some parents and teachers, as well as union leaders who fear their members will lose their jobs or their autonomy in the classroom. Many of these protesters have rallied behind education historian Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University, who blogs and tweets a steady stream of alarms about corporate profiteers invading public schools. Ravitch argues that schools have, in effect, been set up by a bipartisan education reform movement that places an enormous emphasis on standardized test scores, labels poor performers as "failing" schools and relentlessly pushes local districts to transform low-ranked schools by firing the staff and turning the building over to private management. "This is a new frontier," Ravitch said. "The private equity guys and the hedge fund guys are circling public education."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/private-firms-eyeing-prof_n_1732856.html

New classroom standards focus on why, how

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120805/NEWS13/308050073/New-classroom-standards-focus-why-how

Root of teachers' stress? It's the students

http://www.news-press.com/article/20120805/NEWS0104/308050043/Root-teachers-stress-s-students

To increase learning time, some schools add days to academic year

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/education/some-schools-adopting-longer-years-to-improve-learning.html

For-profit colleges: raw deal for taxpayers

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/for-profit-colleges-raw-deal-for-taxpayers/1244066

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/04/opinion/closer-scrutiny-of-for-profit-schools.html

Scott's new right-hand man

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/adam-hollingsworth-gov-rick-scotts-new-right-hand-man/1244174

Controversial Florida wetlands project hired lobbyist with DEP connection to push permit

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wetlands/controversial-florida-wetlands-project-hired-lobbyist-with-dep-connection/1244415

Hiring picks up in July, but data gives no clear signal

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/04/business/economy/us-added-163000-jobs-in-july-jobless-rate-ticked-up.html

Fearing an impasse in Congress, industry cuts spending

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/business/fear-of-fiscal-cliff-has-industry-pulling-back.html

Numbers on health act debunk GOP claims

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/numbers-on-health-act-debunk-gop-claims/1244046

New phase of health care reform kicks in
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/27783-1

Medicare indispensible for many after 47 years

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/national-govt-politics/medicare-indispensible-for-many-after-47-years/nP9yP/