First let me say, No Child Left Behind
and Race to the Top are horrible federal government programs. Especially Race
to the Top which traded desperate, cash strapped states nickels at the height
of the recession for local control. That
being said doesn’t Scott seem a bit like a hypocrite here?
From the Tampa Times: In
aiming to justify his plan to get Florida out of the PARCC testing consortium,
Gov. Rick Scott argued that he wanted to keep the federal government out of the
state's education system. In many ways, though, the federal government is
already there.
U.S. Department of
Education reports show that Florida received $1.768 billion in federal funds
for education in 2012, including $14.8 million to support state assessments
required under No Child Left Behind. The numbers are similar for 2013. They
also include $735 million for Title I and related grants, and $631 million for
special education grants. (See page 21 for
details.)
Scott has not called
on Florida to reject these funds as a different version of the "federal
intrusion" he found in the PARCC program.
When asked to explain
his views after issuing his executive order,
heanswered by repeating himself that
"it was their entry point."
Scott's press office
next issued a statement attempting to clarify.
"Withdrawing from the fiscal relationship with PARCC will also prevent
further federal involvement because PARCC is a federally funded test, which
currently requires the state to meet federally established deadlines and other
federal criteria," spokeswoman Melissa Sellers wrote.
The USDOE has given PARCC
a $186 million grant to support the consortium of states in writing its exams.
The federal government's role now, according to PARCC, is monitoring to see
that the group spends the money in accordance with the rules and creates the
tests as promised.
Scott spokeswoman
Melissa Sellers said in an e-mail that federal support for FCAT is
"different from PARCC" because the FCAT is a state-developed test.
Top lawmakers, who backed Scott's move to withdraw from PARCC, but not because
of their concerns over federal funding.
"We didn't think
they were ready for prime time," House Speaker Will Weatherford said of
the consortium.
I
have always thought Scott was a bit of a mercenary doing and saying whatever he
thought politically expedient to get elected or in this case reelected and he
is obviously playing to his tea party base.
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