DeSantis basically said Florida’s accountability system is a fraud, so why doesn’t he do us all a favor and end it? (rough draft)

I think we know why but I will get to that in a second.

DeSantis redefined what public education is Friday; he must feel like he has a mandate what with that 33,000 vote margin of victory in 8.1 million cast.

He said, if the public pays for the school it's public school and it doesn't matter where they go as he called for another voucher program, this time to be paid for directly with public money. The other big one involves a complicated money laundering scheme where money is diverted from the state coffers and into vouchers.  

From the Florida Phoenix, 

Setting up the potential to reverse a 13-year-old court ruling that blocked the expansion of school vouchers, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday outlined a dramatic new “scholarship” program that would allow thousands more students to attend private schools with public dollars.

The program, called the “Equal Opportunity Scholarship,” is scarce on details, but DeSantis wants to start off by helping about 14,000 kids who have been on a waiting list in connection with another program called the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship.

Later on though, the new program will blossom, allowing 1 percent of Florida’s public school enrollment statewide to receive Equal Opportunity Scholarships if students are eligible. That would mean about 28,000 students, based on the current statewide student population of about 2.8-million.

But each year after that, the number of scholarship students would grow by an additional 1 percent of statewide enrollment, according to the governor’s office.

And unlike corporate donations for the tax credit scholarships, the new Equal Opportunity program would be funded the way traditional schools are funded – with so-called general revenue dollars that are largely from sales taxes. Lottery dollars and other funds also go into the state pot for schools.

The scholarship amounts would be a “slight discount” of the per-student funding in each district, according to the proposal. The statewide per-student average is about $7,400 this academic year.

The new scholarships, often called vouchers or voucher schemes by critics, come as traditional public schools are fighting for higher pay and benefits and public charter schools overseen by private groups have grown significantly over the years.

https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2019/02/15/an-unprecedented-expansion-of-school-vouchers-across-florida-lawsuits-are-likely-to-follow/?fbclid=IwAR2q8HzS2LNI1eX31uYBr8t79O2S5FLrIy5oOJkQ8siuRy6M3tODG1jDCOw

That’s right, we are going to directly pay, with tax payer money, to send children to schools that don’t have to have certified teachers or teachers with degrees or recognized curriculums where more than a few teach junk science and history, that have so little accountability you might as well say they have none. Since that’s the case, DeSantis is basically admitting Florida’s steroid filled accountability system is meaningless.  

If that isn’t head scratching enough, these children are also going to be required to take the FSA and adding insult to injury, local districts are going to be required to administer it.

But why?

How the students do isn’t going to affect a teacher’s evaluation, like it would in a public school.

How the students do isn’t going to affect the school grades either, because private schools don’t get school grade.

I don’t know if how they do will affect a district grade but I wouldn’t put anything past this governor.

Here is the thing, if none of those things matter for a student taking public money to attend a private school, then why should they matter for the students attending public school?

The answer is they shouldn’t.

Florida’s accountability system isn’t really here to evaluate, public schools and the teachers and students, that go to and work in them. It’s to bash them over the head… repeatedly until they submit or go away. Something DeSantis basicaly admits with this new voucher program.

You can’t honestly say testing is so important over here, while at the same time saying it doesn’t matter a hill of beans over there, or you shouldn’t be allowed to anyways.

Bush tried to do something similar 15 years ago but the Florida supreme court struck it down. Now that DeSantis has packed it, he thinks it will pass this time. That however won’t make it right.