Superintendent Vitti gets mad props! He draws the ire of Jeb Bush’s blog.

Superintendent Vitti was the subject of a hit piece from the ultra conservative Redefined Education blog earlier today. Funny I thought only I wrote those.  If you didn’t know it redefined Ed is Jeb Bush’s blog (though he never contributes) that he uses to spread his public school privatization agenda.

The author of today’s piece Doug Tuthill complained about a perceived adversarial relationship that Vitti is cultivating between public schools and charter schools, and no, despite what Bush and Tuthill would have you believe charter schools are not public schools. I guess Mr. Tuthill didn’t see the super at the recruit charter school conference and is unaware of the former charter school lobbyist that the district just hired.

From the article: That Duval parents are choosing non-district schools in increasing numbers suggest these schools are adding value to the community’s K-12 education system. Ideally, we’d expect the community’s top public educator to celebrate this success, but Vitti, like most district superintendents, sees these schools as competitors to be defeated and not assets to be nurtured. –

First, kids came back this year and as Vitti works out the kinks more will continue to return and  perhaps Vitti sees them as something that need to be defeated because he knows that private schools that receive vouchers as a group don’t do any better than public schools and he knows that charter schools as a group do worse. These despite the fact charter schools and voucher schools have tremendous advantages, including picking who they take and keep, over public schools. Maybe the super just wants substandard options to go away, something we should all want.

I want to see Mr.Tuthill’s piece about how charter schools often ignore districts strategic plans and open up anywhere and often go above districts to the state board who rubber stamps applications, to get their approval. I also want to see him acknowledge that as they are done in Florida (and in many other parts of the nation) they have degenerated into profit centers first and places where children get educated second. I am not a fan of charter schools but even charter school fans should be alarmed about what they have become.  

I have been a critic of Vitti’s close ties to charter schools because I want a super who is pro public education no matter what and is against the privatization wave that is passing through Florida but if he has drawn the ire of Jeb Bush’s blog, I say bravo sir and keep up the good work.

To read Tuthill’s piece, click the link: http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/10/school-districts-regulate-school-choice-compete/