Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith disagrees with Governor Rick Scott and his education policies and I know this because he sent me and tens of thousands of other teachers throughout the state the following letter.
Dear Teachers,
I’m excited to share with you great news! With your dedicated support, the state of Florida has been ranked as the 5th BEST state in the nation in the quality of its education system. Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report tracks state policies and performance across key areas of education, and assigns each state with an overall letter grade and numeric score to signify their education standing in the nation. Our rise to 5th this year follows a continued trend of improvement that has brought us from 14th in 2008, 10th in 2009 and 8th last year!
On behalf of the Florida Department of Education, I want to sincerely thank you for the stellar work you are doing each and every day to help your students achieve their academic and career goals. It is clear to me that your efforts are making a profound difference in the lives of our students. I’m truly proud to collaborate with you, your local leadership and parents and students across the state as we work to improve educational outcomes for all students. Thank you for all you do to make Florida’s future brighter each and every day.
Dr. Eric J. Smith
Education Commissioner
There seems to be a disconnect between the commissioner and the Governor because the latter recently said the education system in Florida is broken. How an insurance salesman who never had any kids in the system knows that with such certainty is beyond me. Also did you notice how our rankings seemed to improve once Jeb Bush was out of office?
I appreciate the commissioner though; he is sticking up for teachers and thanking them or their hard work, sadly something that has become a rarity in today’s blame the teacher climate. Unfortunately though, I don’t believe there is any way Florida is fifth in anything education related but nor do I believe like some do that we should blow the thing up either. The truth is we have both great things and problems here; problems that wouldn’t take breaking the bank, reinventing the wheel or demonizing teachers to fix. Problems which unless we do something, are about to be made worse by the governor.
Chris Guerrieri
School teacher
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