Did you see Jacksonville's school grades? Do you believe them?

Wow, was I wrong. I really believed that our high school grades were going to drop and drop precipitously. The opposite however occurred and like what happened throughout the state Jacksonville’s school’s grades went up and did so dramatically (it seems every district is reaching all time highs). I could point to the changes in formula which has an inflated way of determining the graduation rate, further exaggerated by Duval’s liberal use of grade recovery but the truth is I have long thought our high schools weren’t as bad as the state made them out to be. I am still concerned that colleges report too many of our students have to take remedial classes and employers have a hard time finding qualified applicants but you know what, let’s go ahead and pop the Champaign cork and celebrate.

However there are a few very important unanswered questions.

Since our schools are now obviously not just heading in the right direction but flying towards it, will the Florida Legislature slow down their efforts to privatize our public schools? Will they stop or repeal all the pro charter school legislation that treats P.S. this and P.S. that like the red headed step children? Why do we need all these charter schools and voucher programs if Florida’s public schools are doing so well? What can possible be the legislatures justification now?

Furthermore since our teachers are doing such a fantastic job will the legislature repeal the draconian senate bill 736 that strips teachers of the right to due process and puts value added evaluations around their necks like albatrosses. Why do we need all these punitive measures if our teachers are doing such a fantastic job? Why not reward them, return their rights and the three percent of their salary that was taken from them. You know, started treating them like professionals because after all, the evidence now says they are doing an amazing job.

I am very happy to be wrong and for today I will ignore the fact these results make the old formula look ridiculously hard and this formula ridiculously easy and Florida in general just down right ridiculous and just go with it. Now I just hope the Florida legislature does the right thing too and admits they made mistakes by diverting funds away from public schools and by punishing teachers. They should now treat the states teachers and public schools how these results demand after all they have just told us how great they are.