Better Public Schools Or Else

Florida passed a Teacher Merit Pay bill and now refuses to pay for the Merit Pay portion of the bill

We want highly qualified teachers, we want to reward high performing teachers, but those in power refuse to foot the bill for Merit Pay for Florida Teachers.

Re-inventing public schools will surely require teachers and parents to do things better, but it will also require both a focus on excellent public schools and a willingness to fund excellence -- or else.

The "or else" should be a requirement that politicians be willing to fund excellent public schools or parents, teachers and other committed citizens will vote for those who will

Excellent Public Schools should be our first line of attack for creating a Better America, or we are going to do what we have always done and expect a different outcome -- the definition of insanity

Let's elect people who believe in excellent public schools and are willing to provide the political and financial drive to give our kids the education they need

Governor Scott - How to Attract Business - Excellent Public Schools

Florida Governor Scott correctly says that businesses want excellent schools.

Governor Scott appears to believe that means more charter schools. The challenge with that logic is that almost every dollar we give to charter schools comes out of public school budgets -- and then public schools wind up cutting music, art, reading and other critical programs.

I understand the concept of charter schools being a great place to pilot new and innovative programs, but a rapid expansion of these programs may lead to a quality decline and continued pressure on public school budgets and key services.

Charter Schools Do Not Make Money on Charter Schools

Frank Biden, President of Maverick Charter Schools, says that Charter School Companies do not make money on the Charter Schools -- they make money on the real estate.

That is insulting.

Charter schools exist in large part because public schools are set in their ways, they have some great teachers, many good teachers, and some bad teachers. To make matters worse, public schools are too often run like a monopoly. For a long time parents had a challenge, "Take it or leave it".

Now parents are leaving in droves -- often for charter schools that invest even less money in education than the cash strapped public schools, because so much money is paid to the Charter School companies for management fees and rent.

Biden's comments are insulting. It is like a razor company saying they do not make money on the razor, but what is not said is they make a ton on the razor blades.

Shedding light on their practices helps, but what is really needed is for public schools to improve and take away the shine from the charter schools. If this were to happen, public school attendance would increase, the could add back services, and charter schools would no longer be a cash cow to their management companies.

Public School Are Addressing The Issues

Cara Fitzpatrick from the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale recently wrote an article on Parents Finding Schools Unfriendly.

The great thing was that the Broward Public Schools were hosting a forum to listen to what parents have to say.

The first two steps in addressing the problem with public schools are to acknowledge the problem and then listen.

Parents then responded by saying positive things about their schools, which is awesome.

Kudos to Cara Fitzpatrick, the Broward County School Board and the parents who speak up -- about their schools strengths and challenges

Re-inventing public schools will require a massive effort, and this is a great start. I will be at the forum and hope to see many others there too.

Jay Greene on Global Report Card -- Test Mania Fails Our Best Students

Re-inventing public schools is necessary for our at-risk population. It is just as necessary for our Gifted and Talented Students.

Jay Greene, an outspoken critic of public education, discussed in The Global Report, that our suburban students are just average when compared to students in the countries at the top of the International Rankings.

This follows three calls from parents of Gifted and Talented students here in Florida complaining that their children were challenged and motivated by school until ...

the orders came down to focus on the test. Now there is precious little time for critical thinking and experiments, as they devote their time to worksheets and test prep.

I understand it is necessary to get our most at-risk students focused on reading and writing, but we need to engage and motivate our Gifted and Talented students with work that allows them to be as strong if not stronger than their international peers.

or, we will pay the consequences

The time to Re-invent public schools is now -- and we must balance our focus on the most at-risk students, the average students, and the Gifted and Talented Students