Some weird things have happened in education over the last few weeks and I am not sure if most of the public has been paying attention.

Some weird things have happened in education over the last few weeks and I am not sure if most of the public has been paying attention. The governor appointed to the state board of education a 31-year-old recent transplant from New York who has two years of teaching experience both in New York and a citrus grower who has disavowed evolution. I guess that fits because Florida has the third most schools in the nation that takes public money and teaches creationism as science.

An F charter school in Tampa used public money to buy advertising on television for new students. Speaking of charter schools the states 350 eligible ones were allocated 90 million in PECO, maintenance and construction funds, while the states 3,500 public schools are supposed to split 80 million. This disparity however isn’t all that new and has actually improved because over the previous three years, charters received 200 million compared to public schools, which there are about ten times more, receiving around 20.

Then local private schools have complained they didn’t receive enough public money to support the students that voluntarily decided to attend them, so much for the private sector being able to do things cheaper and more efficient right. We still haven’t decided what test we will use to replace the FCAT, though disgraced former commissioner of education Tony Bennett’s company is in the running, so much for field testing. Finally throw in Florida’s race based goals and spoiler alert we don’t have very high expectations for our African American students and Florida’s culture of high stakes testing being slammed on the Florida Senate floor by democratic senators then it has been a hectic couple of weeks.

Sometimes our public schools get a bad rap, and there are issues, I think most created by people who want to privatize them or who don’t believe in them but regardless it doesn’t seem like the powers-that-be are helping that much.

Chris Guerrieri

School Teacher