Shine was an epically bad school board member who flamed out spectacularly. Instead of slinking off to the shadows where he should remain, he has reared his ugly head in a new campaign to privatize our schools.
From WJCT,
A new Florida advocacy group is pushing for more school choice, as well as term limits for school board members and charter school independence.
The School Choice Movement, which launched in Tallahassee Wednesday, is led by three former school board members, including Jacksonville’s Scott Shine.
In an interview Thursday with WJCT News, Shine said school choice leads to academic achievement.
“When parents and students own the decision about what school they go to, it has a very positive and engaging affect on how well the student will do,” he said.
To promote that, the School Choice Movement will push for more scholarships and funding for transportation to allow more students to attend the school of their choice. Florida’s scholarship programs have come under fire by traditional public school advocates, who dislike that they divert education dollars to private and religious schools, which don’t have to operate under the same standards as public schools.
Florida already has one of the nation’s highest rates of privately run charter schools, as well as strong support for school choice in the state Legislature. The election of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointment of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran gave the school choice movement an additional boost.
First by now we should all know that choice means privatization and I would hope the thousands of parents who went to charter schools that suddenly closes would disagree with Shine.
Furthermore, some parents may think it’s a good idea to send their children to schools that teach junk science and history, that don’t have teachers with degrees, and that would be fine accept the tax payer is paying for it.
Then let’s talk about accountability as those schools practically have none while public schools have been buried so much that accountability, like choice is another word for privatization, might as well be replaced with punishment.
By the way there isn’t one serious study that says choice leaves to achievement in Florida but hey Scott has never been dependent on things like facts and evidence.
Can you imagine an unregulated charter system, not that they have much now? It would be worse than Ohio, where billions of dollars have been wasted and thousands of children’s futures have been handicapped, please google it.
What we need are high quality schools, schools with standards, not a hodge-podge of charters, and voucher schools, some of whom do it right but most of whom we don’t need and traditional public schools.
Shine joins two other former school board members Shawn Frost (Indian County) and Erica Donalds (Collier) who are known for their open distain for public schools, and support of privatization. It’s my opinion they should all be ashamed of themselves.
Scott, I hoped we were done with you, but I guess a leopard really can’t change his spots.
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