Picture from
Florida Politics
The first thing you can do is share this with every
public-school teacher you know, every parent of a public-school student you
know and everyone who you might even think cares about public education. We
have to get the word out and a half dozen shares among likeminded people is not
going to work. We need hundreds of people to share.
Then you can write a letter to your editor and it doesn’t
have to be long either, just two hundred words or so and this bill is so bad
letters practically write themselves. You can talk about.
-How the bill is
filled with crony capitalism
-Obliterates
home rule of school boards
-Sends
hundreds of millions to for profit businesses
-Conflicts of interests as it was
pushed and promoted by legislators who had direct or family ties to charter
schools.
-It was crafted at the last
minute, in secrecy and the public didn’t have an opportunity to weigh in
-It violates the singe subject
rule and cobbles together dozens of different nominally related issues.
-It
siphons away funds from already resource deprived schools
-It gives money to an industry
that has already seen more than 350 charter schools open and close, leaving
families and communities in a lurch
-How it gives charters different rules, like how they are exempt from recess.
-How it gives charters different rules, like how they are exempt from recess.
And that’s just for starters. Then after you have written a
letter to your editor, send the same one to every major paper in the state, and
it will only take about twenty minutes because the addresses are in the link
below. I have to believe if people knew both how bad this bill was and how it
was created they would demand changes and it is up to us to inform them.
Next notify your respective school board members and tell them,
no demand that they fight this in the courts.
As I stated above the bill violates the single subject rule and I
believe it violates the state constitution by stealing power away from local
school boards as well.
Text of Section 4:
School Districts; School Boards
(a) Each county shall constitute a school district; provided,
two or more contiguous counties, upon vote of the electors of each county
pursuant to law, may be combined into one school district. In each school
district there shall be a school board composed of five or more members
chosen by vote of the electors in a nonpartisan election for appropriately
staggered terms of four years, as provided by law.
(b) The school board shall operate, control and supervise all
free public schools within the school district and determine the rate of
school district taxes within the limits prescribed herein. Two or more school
districts may operate and finance joint educational programs.[1]
|
The state constitution is unambiguous. It doesn’t say,
unless the legislature passes some terrible bill in the middle of the night. The
power of local control has been continuously eroded by Tallahassee well enough
is enough and our school boards must fight back.
Then ultimately, we must vote for better people, people who
put the states children and schools ahead of their or their campaign
supporter’s financial motives. People who will do things in the light of day
and the right way as well. We are not represented by this current group in
Tallahassee we are ruled by them and their personal interests not the good of
the people dictate what they do.
People talk about the status quo, how that must be changed,
well friends the real status quo is republicans have been in control of
education policy here in Florida for over two decades. That is both branches of
the legislature, the governor’s mansion and because they have ben appointing
supreme court justices, that branch as well. Are there problems in education
yes, most have to do with poverty, but many have either been directly caused or
by through neglect, by the republican party, and I get it republicans, you
might not want to hear that but it is the truth.
We can change what has happened, we can right the wrongs and
fix the issues in public education but only if we collectively do something and
above lets you know how you can help and what you can do.
I'm a Republican and I know this bill is BAD. I will NOT be supporting any incumbent that voted yes for this as my #1 determining factor. The back room dealing, conflicts of interest, double standards, and stripping our locally elected school boards of authority is enough for me to say NEVER AGAIN. Sadly, this issue alone makes me want to leave my party. Its SICKENING!
ReplyDeleteThis Govenor has been the worst Govenor for education that I can remember in 40 years as an educator! Shame on the teachers who voted for him because they vote party lines! Thanks to all those who decided to put him in office not once but twice. I am sure he was behind the late night meeting, and waited until he bought his second term before doing what he really wanted all along. I will be writing my letters, but after contacting Rubio about voting for DeVos and getting a stock too bad so sad letter, I realize they only care about donations and private interests. We are in BIG trouble!!! Once again educators unite, vote for children and what is best for education.
ReplyDeleteI have been a lifelong (well, since voting age) Republican. This bill was the final straw. I'll be changing my registration to vote for Gwen Graham in the primary.
ReplyDelete