Some parents, teachers wear red to protest Scott's ideas

From the Sun Sentinel.com

By Cara Fitzpatrick

In the midst of celebrating his inauguration today, Gov. Rick Scott probably didn’t take time to check Facebook. If he had, he would have seen a slew of red.

Like-minded parents and teachers donned red today to show support for public schools and to send Scott the message that they don’t like his ideas for reform, particularly a proposal to expand voucher programs to all students.

“Wear Red to Support Public Ed” popped up on popular Facebook pages, such as Stop Senate Bill 6 and Testing Is Not Teaching. Fans of those pages changed their profile photos to pictures of themselves wearing red or an image of a single red T-shirt.

Some people also posted photos of themselves and their children in red.

Debbie Shaw, a Wellington mother of two, said her whole family wore red today. She said she feared that an expansion in vouchers would create an “even bigger chasm between the haves and the have-nots.”

Scott’s education transition team released proposals last month to revisit teacher merit pay, expand voucher programs and dramatically alter how public schools are funded. Most of the ideas went along with his campaign promise to get rid of an “outdated” educational system and provide parents with more choices about their children’s education.

Some people said those ideas could hurt the public schools.

Joe Preite, an 81-year-old former teacher, said he wanted to see change in the public schools, but wasn’t sure about the proposals coming out of Scott’s team.

“He can do a lot of good things,” he said. “People voted for change, but this is not a good change.”

Not everyone agreed with those wearing red.

Chet Bannister, a property manager from Fort Lauderdale, said he liked what Scott had to say about making government more efficient, creating merit pay for teachers and expanding voucher programs. He said some of Scott’s opponents just want to preserve the status quo.

“There are other people who are trying to figure out better ways,” he said. “I think we need to give them a chance.”

Staff writer Cara Fitzpatrick can be reached at cdfitzpatrick@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4527

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2011/01/some_parents_teachers_wear_red.html