Fischer refuses to answer why he gave millions to the KIPP charter school while DCPS struggles financially.

On a Facebook thread about Duval lacking the money to pay for school security, the question of why he snuck 2 million dollars into the budget for the KIPP charter school came up again and again and he refused to answer why KIPP should get that extra money while DCPS is 600k in the hole when it comes to paying for extra security. I believe that shows a consciousness of guilt but you can read the thread and decide for yourself.

Two things there were several people commenting on the thread and where I left their comments I deleted everyone but my and Fischer's icons and names. Even though it was a public thread I felt that was the right thing to do.

Next, at one point, Fischer, said, as long as I was trying to be a journalist, and I wish I would have zinged back, well you have been pretending to represent people for years so you obviously know something about pretending but I didn't. Like Costanza's shrimp comeback I didn't think about it until much later.

I thought however that would give me the opportunity to remind people I am not a journalist. Now sometimes, actually quite a few times the blog has broken news and I do cover a lot of education news that the local media for whatever reason refuses to do.

That being said, this is a commentary and opinion blog and where I try and source as much as I can, I would recommend you verify everything for yourselves. It does me no good to get stuff wrong and I can say I have never once lied but a fair bit is just my opinion on subjects.

Okay here is the thread.

Jason Fischer This isn’t actually what’s required by the bill, but it’s one of the higher cost options. That was their choice.

Haying someone $12.50 an hour was a "higher cost" option? What exactly SHOULD we do when asked to arm non-law-enforcement personnel? If the legislature isn't going to pay for the safest manner of protecting our children, it shouldn't make the mandate. Do we care if they can run? How accurate their target shooting is? Whether they're psychologically fit? Policing is a job for police. You and your buds in the FL legislature have allowed the NRA, and some extreme primary voters, to erode our foundational ideas about civilization.

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Jason Fischer I voted against that bill, but my point was that there is not a mandate to actually do what they are doing. Have you read the bill? I’m not sure how many of them have based on their comments.

Chris Guerrieri I wonder if Fischer has read the budget. I am sure voters will remember he snuck in 2 million for his donor's charter school while at the same time voting to kneecap public education.

Jason, Chris, yes, I'd love more information about what the $2M for KIPP was for, specifically, as I've been unable to find it. Can you please speak to what the money is for, Jason Fischer? THAT AMOUNT could pay for the deficit for the safety program more than three times over, given the $600k deficit I cited in my article on this thread. As for the bill, I am posting it below. The only thing worse than paying untrained, unscreened, un-deputized personnel to "protect" our children with guns, would be recruiting volunteers for the job, as part of the bill permits.

 Why do think he was put there?

Jason Fischer Ok that’s the link but did you read it?

Jason Fischer For instance, they could assign Officer Julie to elementary school A, assign her to school B, and assign her to school C. Then they could assign Officer Tad to School D, assign him to School E, and assign him to School F. And so on. That strategy meets the requirement of the law.

 Not all 105 pages yet, no. Skimming through, it looks like it covers a lot of ground for law enforcement. It establishes a grant for school safety, says sheriffs can create programs, mentions volunteers. Right now I'm more interested in the budget item that gives KIPP an extra $2M gift, without explanation (that I can find) in the budget. Can you please tell me what the $2M was for, Jason?

Jason Fischer Guess what? They already do it that in Duval.

Jason Fischer Julie Don’t get distracted by the trolls. It would be easier for other people to follow if we stick to your OP.

Jason Fischer Julie so I have read every page. The guardian language does address your questions about psychological evacuations and so forth. It’s voluntary program for the School Board and it’s voluntary for the Sheriff. That program is not a mandate.

 We don't do it in elementary schools. Officer Tad, Julie, or any self-respecting responsible adult, is highly unlikely to volunteer for such a position, and less likely to do it for $12.50 per hour. If the idea is to have someone on hand for immediate "protection," then why would School A bother to call "Officer Julie" (who is a non-law-enforcement person) away from her rounds at School C when the police might arrive even faster? If we want to make schools safer, we need to fund police officers to do the job. We need to put a substation in every high school feeder pattern, and make the schools part of the patrol process, instead of/in addition to untrained personnel patrolling our elementary schools.

 Jason, basically, the law is saying, "We think it's a good idea to do this, and we'll give you just enough money to get you started if you choose to do it, but don't expect us to appropriate the actual money it would take to do things appropriately." MY POINT is that instituting this bill responsibly takes money that is not coming from Tallahassee.

The mandate comes in taking the grant money, which is insufficient to do the job responsibly.

And I am still waiting for your answer re:KIPP.

Jason Fischer Julie DCPS already assigns an SRO to every school, in elementary schools they just float between locations. So that law did not require them to do what they are doing.

 Jason Fischer WHAT THEY'RE DOING (the board) is trying to take the idea, take the grant money, and implement a RESPONSIBLE program according to the grant's mandates.

Jason Fischer For this particular section about officers/armed security, every school DCPS already has an assigned SRO so they already meet the letter of the law. No mandate to hire more police / guards unless they wanted to.

 Yes. They wanted to. And with the funds, they're trying to increase their force. But the money is insufficient. If I give my child $25 to go get ingredients for a meal to feed my family, but I know the ingredients are really going to run $40 if we're all going to be fed, then yes, he can "choose" to (a) pull money from his own pocket, (b) tell everyone they're eating PB&J and he's not going to the store, or (c) spend the $25 but not buy what it takes to make the meal I requested in a manner that feeds everyone satisfactorily.

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Chris Guerrieri Julie maybe he doesn't have an answer about the two million. Also what Duval does now isn't for safety, which i believe is what the bill mandates. Think about this, if something happened at one of officer Julie's schools while she was at another, Fischer would be yelling the loudest about how public schools weren't keeping our children safe. He wants to have his cake and not pay for it and so he can send that money to his donor's pet school.

Chris Guerrieri Then according to the press release it says assign one or more safe school officer at each school facility. It doesn’t say one could be at three schools.

 And reading the whole Bill is your job Jason Fischer. We hired to do that and when we need answers, again it's your job to answer us. Don't deflect by asking if we read the whole Bill. I was on the Hill in DC for years. Aides read the whole Bill and a Senator goes over it. They do read it if they are responsible.

Chris Guerrieri The summary says the same thing. One or more at each facility. Looks like fischer is the one who needs to read the bill.

 Jason Fischer, I appreciate your time today and will add an addendum to my post in order to be as clear as possible. I would appreciate even more if we could tell the taxpayers why KIPP is receiving its $2M gift from the state.

There are lots of things in the bill that are NOT optional, that will require extra work and /or personnel.

Jason Fischer Ann unlike some folks I do read bills before voting on them. In fact going back to my days on the school board they had a process of voting to approve contracts before finalizing contracts and I refused to vote for something I wasn’t allowed to read. That was one of the first changes they made when I got there. Also, I didn’t deflect by asking if people discussing the bill had actually read the bill. It seems to be common that people have issues with bills that they’ve never even read and as data based person I like to read something before I make definitive statements on it. More to the point about deflecting, I answered questions on it

 You justified my comment. That's your job.

 I also appreciate your comments here.

Jason Fischer Julie I always enjoy talking to you about issues, even when we disagree. You’re an advocate who is articulate, respectful, and you clearly care...basically everything Guerreri isn’t. The world could use more people like you and John Louis Meeks Jr.

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Chris Guerrieri You know when i have a disagreement with someone, i don't say go look it up. I post the information. Both the press release and summary say one or more safety officer at each facility. Not that they can be divided up but seriously that’s about the same as doing nothing. If Fischer is sure that is what the bill says why doesn't he site it.

Chris Guerrieri And jason i just don't have the patience for liars, self promoters and people who would hurt children to enrich themselves. I will own that while pointing out once again you have given no answer to the kipp expenditure.

 I understand that taking the grant money is optional; I stand by my position that if we're going to recommend doing something optional, we pay for the most responsible way to choose that option. However, there are 50 provisions in the bill that are not optional, i.e., they begin with the word, "requiring," and many of them pertain to individual schools and school districts, i.e., the bill does mandate increased duties related to school safety, regardless of whether the districts take the grant funds or not. There is a LOT to unpack in this bill. Thank you for making me pour over it more diligently, Jason.

Chris Guerrieri One last thing the summary which i have open in front of me says, requires, not hey, if you feel like it.

Jason Fischer Chris you’re referring to the article you wrote about law and I asked if you read the bill, and you dodged & dodged and cited a letter by someone who didn’t write or vote on the bill. If you’re gonna pretend to be a journalist you shouldn’t get credit you shouldn’t get credit for me doing your homework for you.

Lastly, and I’m not posting any further on this thread, it appears to be the governors preference that at least one SRO is physically at the facility the entire time and frankly that was my position when I was on the school board. It’s expensive but would be better for protection. However, the language was specifically crafted the way that it is so that it wouldn’t too expensive and not be an“unfunded mandate.”

Chris Guerrieri My piece wasn’t about the law, my piece was about not funding education. You can rest assured i have read the bill now. And about that 2 million for kipp.

 Jason Fischer What you're saying is the legislature wanted to give some money toward the cause. What we're saying is to do it right, it's going to take more. We both have legitimate positions. We disagree on what might have been the better course.