Florida is at a crossroads with education. Parents after
all the recent problems have finally woken up and spoken with an almost universal
voice that we are testing too much. Supporters of public schools are usually
ignored in Tallahassee but now we actually have some legislators, some
republican legislators listening.
Senator Lee of Brandon said: “I’m done with the testing program
in the state of Florida, I’m done with the accountability system. Whoever those
people are out there from whatever foundation they may be from, whatever
testing groups they may be supporting: I’m over you. You’ve lost my confidence.
And the reason you’ve lost my confidence is because I’ve got emails from you
last night that said that you’re so married to this system that you don’t have
a shred of common sense left.”‘
Senator Hays of Umatilla said: It is sad that today, many of our
teachers and even administrators are simply waiting to earn their retirement
checks because our well-intentioned but misguided policies have taken the joy
out of teaching,”
Then former senate president Don Geatz said, “I think we’ve lost our way and we need to find
it again.”
All very encouraging
and as you can imagine the Democrats in the Senate were even more committed to
changing how Florida tests.
However in the House they
are singing a different tune. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli (R-Merritt
Island) said that “we will not retreat from accountability.”
Crisafulli obviously doesn’t
understand that making sure we are doing things both fairly and right is not retreating
from accountability. Shouldn’t our leaders in the House be committed to listening
to the states superintendents, parents and teachers and doing what is right?
Yes, they should listen to their public, but instead of that they're listening to those who give them the most money - the testing companies and/or their backers, charter school companies, etc. Good to see that some of the senators are listening to the public, though!
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