Florida gives hundreds of millions to for profit schools while starving its public schools

This should make you really mad. Below is the allocation of maintenance and repair funds from Tallahassee and as you can see, charters get the lion's share of the cash.


According to the latest charter school report
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7778/urlt/SAR1819.pdf

there are 631 charter schools and 3115 traditional public schools, that means the legislature has allocated, a little more than 250 thousand to each charter school and 16,510 per public school school. That is also 534 per charter school student and a buck ninety-six per each public school student. That is how much they are worth to Tallahassee. This is not a new phenomenon either, no friends it has been going on for years.*

It's even worse friends because districts are also now required to share their tax revenue with charters. DCPS for example gave its local charter schools 3.8 million dollars last year,
https://news.wjct.org/post/duval-school-district-give-38-million-maintenance-dollars-charters

I want to remind you that almost half of all charter schools in Florida are run by for profit entities, um what other for profit entity gets such largess from the tax payers?

These charters that we are performing maintenance and upkeep on I remind you are not owned by the public and their owners use above as a means to further enrich themselves.
https://www.nationalmemo.com/charter-school-operators-enrich-real-estate/

My home town, Jacksonville, has a maintenance back log of over a billion dollars.
https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190201/funding-options-equity-at-issue-in-duval-county-school-facilities-planning

How is it right that we give so much money to charters many of which are for profit while neglecting our public schools? The answer is it is not.

*The state does not divide the allocation number by schools or students, above was just an illustration how one sided the program is. I also updated the figures to include schools that I had not originally included...

At this point nothing the FLDOE puts out about public education can be taken seriously: charter school edition

Have you ever noticed that when the state puts out a study about vouchers they always immediately include, “when compared to students of the same socioeconomic group”? They do so because they know if they were to compare all students that took vouchers to those that did not, everyone would want to get rid of vouchers. It would work against the narrative that the state wants to sell.

Well friends it’s the same things when the state puts out studies about charter schools. You see when they do so, now they don’t care about the socio economic status of children at all, it doesn't matter one bit and that is because here, that data wouldn’t fit with their narrative either.

From the Florida Phoenix,

FL’s charter schools for the most part perform better than traditional public schools when it comes to test scores on state exams, according to a Florida Department of Education report released Monday.

But the analysis also shows that traditional public schools have higher percentages of students in poverty.

Why is that important? Poverty – meaning kids eligible for free and reduced-price lunch – has long been a key indicator of achievement, with low-income students posting lower test scores than more affluent peers.

The report shows that 65 percent of students in traditional public schools are eligible for free and reduced lunch, compared to 54.9 percent for charters schools.

In addition, Hispanic kids make up 42.3 percent of the charter school population compared to 32.5 percent in traditional public schools. And traditional public schools have higher percentages of special needs students compared to charter schools. Those kinds of factors can impact test scores.

https://www.floridaphoenix.com/blog/state-praises-performance-of-fl-charter-schools-vs-traditional-schools-but-is-the-analysis-fair/

Poverty as everyone but the republicans in Tallahassee know is the number one factor when determining success in school, quite simply, as a group those students in poverty don’t do as well as those students who aren’t.

If we were to add ten percent to every score public schools received in the study Public schools would dominate private schools, not that other factors don’t influence the outcome.

Things like selection bias, charters picking who they take but more importantly who they keep, as well as the fact more and more of them have opened in affluent parts of town where poverty is less come to mind and are things the study doesn’t even begin to address.

So why no socioeconomic comparisons? We know they are capable of them. Well friends it's because they want to spin whatever they can to help their narrative that charters (and vouchers) are good and public schools are bad.   

Are there some great charters that do things the right way? Sure I imagine so, but the reality is how Florida does charters, a hodge-podge of mom and pops and corporate mercenaries looking to make a profit with both groups more and more avoiding poor kids as much as they can is an abomination and does us all a disservice. It’s a shame friends that at this point nothing the FLDOE puts out about education can be taken seriously and I think I proved so in the first two paragraphs above.

Another tragedy befalls Stoneman Douglass as Florida republicans push guns on teachers

Tragically a young woman who survived the 2018 Valentine's day massacre, suffering from post traumatic stress killed herself earlier this week. 

From the USA Today 

A recent graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the Parkland school shooting has died by suicide, the student's mother told CBS Miami.

Sydney Aiello was 19 when she died Sunday, according to a GoFundMe page set up in her honor. 

"She lit up every room she entered. She filled her days cheerleading, doing yoga, and brightening up the days of others. Sydney aspired to work in the medical field helping others in need," the campaign says.

Aiello was friends with Meadow Pollack, one of the 17 people killed at the Parkland shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, CBS Miami reports. Cara Aiello — Sydney's mother — told the station that her daughter was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that day, but was not in the building where the massacre occurred.

Sydney Aiello had been recently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and struggled with a fear of classroom settings, hindering her ability to attend college classes, Cara Aiello told the station. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/22/parkland-high-school-shooting-survivor-dies-suicide/3250499002/

The Republican legislators in Tallahassee apparently learning very little from the events at Stoneman Douglass are renewing their efforts to have teachers carry guns.

From the Miami Herald,

In introducing her 36-page school safety bill Thursday, Florida House Education Committee chairwoman Rep. Jennifer Sullivan wanted to be clear: “This bill does not require a teacher to be armed.”

It would, however, allow school districts to let teachers voluntarily participate in Florida’s armed guardian program if they pass a rigorous background check and complete required training. And it passed the committee along party lines, after nearly two hours of comments and debate.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article228189544.html

They say because teachers won't be "required" to carry guns it's okay, well friends its not and for a variety of reasons. There is no evidence that says having more guns in barely trained hands will keep people safer while there is plenty of evidence that says the opposite. This is a build the wall solution that might satiate republican's fever dreams but doesn't address the problem. We need more social workers and mental health counselors in our schools, not guns and bullets. It's not almost like they don't want to address the real problem, no friends it is exactly like.

In the rush to put police or armed guards in schools we are sacrificing positions that will actually make a difference and keep people safe. 

From the Hechinger report, 

LOS ANGELES — Teachers are demanding more counselorsand mental health support to better meet the needs of students, with Oakland’s educators becoming the latest to join in the red wave of those striking for better conditions. 

Here in California, many counselors are responsible for supporting more than 1,000 students each, and this is quadruple the ratio recommended by the American School Counselors Association. In Los Angeles, teachers launched a historic strike in January, in part because 80 percent of elementary schools do not have a full-time nurse. 

Why don’t schools hire more counselors? A report out today from my organization, the ACLU, shows that schools are indeed hiring: police officers. Instead of spending their money on a long-proven solution, counseling, they are putting their resources into enforcement and discipline, even though there’s little evidence that these measures keep students safe, much less improve their emotional well-being. When educators fail to address students’ record levels of depression, anxiety and trauma, schools become a conduit into the justice system, and then into prisons, instead of to a better life.

https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-7-million-attend-schools-with-police-but-no-counselor-aclu-report/
   
Let me ask you this question. If the legislature thinks it is so important that there be armed personnel in school, why is it to much to ask that they fund professional police to carry them? Aren't our children worth it? Tallahassee obviously doesn't think so.

Duval stakeholders need to stand up for their Schools

By John Meeks

If you are a stakeholder in Duval County Public Schools, I ask that you not wait until 2020 to develop hindsight on what you could have done to help save our students from being shortchanged again.

Spring is here and its time again for principals throughout the district to meet with their respective faculties and school-related personnel to review their budgets for the 2019-20 school year.  The odds are that cuts will be made.

For starters, there are schools that were categorized as Title I due to a hiccup in how those schools are categorized as such.  Due to recent natural disasters and FEMA claims, a larger number of schools received additional funding which now goes away next school year. 

At the heart of my worries, though, is that we are in the middle of a legislative session during which our state’s elected leaders are preparing an education budget that could mean the difference between continued austerity and a fighting chance for our traditional public schools. 

I traveled to Tallahassee over the course of my spring break to learn about how I could personally connect with the Florida Legislature regarding public education.  What I saw was a legislative body that has made up its mind to continue to throw money at charter schools in the form of more scholarships to lure students away from traditional public schools that are being deliberately underfunded by our state government.

Take for example, the scholarship that bullying victims can use to leave their neighborhood school to attend a charter or private school.  This is predicated on the false notion that traditional public schools are not sympathetic to the needs of bullied students.  There are many factors that tie the teachers’ hands.  And, if the bully is receiving Exceptional Students Education (ESE) services, there are going to be a lot more hoops through which to jump.  How much support does the state lend to mental health services in our public schools? 

And speaking of ESE services.  I noticed the continued support for McKay and Gardiner Scholarships that are designed to help students with special needs.  I find it curious that our state is eager to find private and charter schools for students with special needs but is unwilling to adequately fund services for our student with special needs in traditional public schools.  And, no, inclusion has been used and abused beyond recognition.  We all know that inclusion has its purpose when used to help mainstream more and ‘warehouse’ less.  We have seen, however, inclusion being used as a way to cut essential push-in, consultation, self-contained services to save a few dollars.

When it comes to working in traditional public schools these days, we are doing everything we can to save dollars.  I have gotten used to picking up copy paper when I make a run to Costco.  I have gotten used to stapling upwards of 120 copies because we cannot afford staples for our copy machine. 

It’s more than just supplies that are suffering under cutbacks after cutbacks.  I am tiring of seeing schools being disrupted by the surplus process every year.  Because of lower student enrollment and education funding that has been stagnant since 2007 when accounting this FTE per student amount for inflation, we are unable to keep an entire faculty Intact from August until June anymore these days.  I firmly believe that this climate is what is causing a decline in colleges of education, a mass exodus of frustrated new teachers, and a looming shortage crisis that should already have raised alarm bells.

Now is the time.  Now is the time for us to contact our state legislators to demand that they properly fund our public schools.  Now is the time for us to contact our school board members and demand that they budget our schools fairly to ensure that every student receives the best education.  Now is the time take action that will make 2019-2020 what we want it to be for our students and our community. 

Please speak up and speak out for our schools!

Can black and poor families please choose the police they want to protect them?

Black and minority families have been failed by the monopoly imposed on them by the police.

Black men are incarcerated at higher rates and get longer sentence than white peers.

We as a country have failed all to many black families.

https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/

Poor communities of color often have higher crime rates than similar white neighborhoods and people of color are more likely to be the victims of crime and the monopoly of police departments have failed them over and over again and this is why we must allow these families to have their tax money follow them in the form of vouchers to the police department of their choosing. One police department in a community is a monopoly and these monopolies have failed our communities of color for way to long. Parents after all know what is best for their families and they should be able to choose what police department is best able to keep them safe and crime away.

Police departments are often run rough shod over by their unions who we all know only care about their cushy salaries and benefits and not about taking care of families, keeping them safe and solving crimes. 

More police departments will create competition and innovation and this will lead to more success in policing which will lead to more families being safe and less crime. Capitalism has shown us this time and time again.

Friends if we truly care about families of color, then we must give them the choice and fund that choice as well.

People want to give them school vouchers, well friends its the monopoly of the police that cause many more of their problems.

Now don't get me started about fire departments and mean inspectors.

Above was inspired by the comment below that was posted on another blog,

The comparison I like to use here is suppose that this happened with police officers. We decided that we needed to have police choice vouchers because I alone as a parent know what is best for the security of my kids and I'd like to have a private police force funded by tax payers that I can choose to use for me instead of being forced to use this public option. Also, the private police force doesn't have to go through any training to be a private police officer and there are no regulations on how they police or accountability. They may be terrible police officers and eat doughnuts all day. All the fixed costs that the public police force has in terms of police cars, offices and jails they have to eat as I take my money to a private security company. It reduces their capability to share costs to provide a public service. Meanwhile, the legislators want to make sure things are fair. So they give the charter police force capital outlay money taken from the public police force so they can't even maintain their buildings. The public police force are getting it on three sides--reduction in funds to operate, reduction in funds for buildings going to charter police and reduction in citizens to protect because of private police vouchers. Do people see how flipping ridiculous that sounds? Would police be literally up in arms on the street if that happened? You're damn right they would be and so would citizens.

Tallahassee pitches its end game for public education. Will this wake up the unions and have them fight for the right to strike?

For over a decade Tallahassee has underfunded education and attacked the teaching profession. That's like the set up before a spike in volleyball. Now they are going in for the kill with their massive and overtly unconstitutional voucher scheme.

Let me explain it like this. Say I wanted to sell one million pencils. I couldn't do it tomorrow just like Tallahassee couldn't pass a law saying lets end public education and the teaching profession as we know it, today. No, I would have to build capacity. I would have to find manufacturers, suppliers, retail space etc. Then once I had everything in place, I could sell my million pencils.

Two weeks ago DeSantis proposed massive tax breaks for charter schools to expand into 250 neighborhoods, hmm do you know who tax breaks hurt, those entities that depend on taxes like schools. 

Then this week, an unprecedented expansion of vouchers passed the house education committee, quintupling down on the already devastating bill that passed the senate education committee a week before.  

From the Miami Herald, 

The House bill, like its Senate companion, proposes to create a new voucher called the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which is designed to eliminate the waiting list of about 14,000 low-income students for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. Both chambers propose to fund the voucher through general revenue dollars typically set aside for school districts.

 

However, the House version represents a much more aggressive approach. Rather than offer 14,000 vouchers — like the Senate does — to match the number of students on the wait list, the House proposes to fund double, at 28,000 vouchers for the next school year.

 

The House also would allow families from a much broader income bracket to be eligible. The House bill would allow families making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $77,250 for a family of four, to apply for the voucher, according to the bill analysis. That income threshold would steadily rise over time, allowing families that make up to $96,572 to participate in the 2022-2023 school year.

https://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2019/03/house-voucher-expansion-bill-passes-its-first-committee-after-emotional-debate.html

There was no debate about ending the accountability, standards, certifications, etc that are required from public schools and teachers, and that private schools are exempt from, just a race to end public schools as fast as possible.

Why didn't they day 280,000 or 2.8 million? Well friends its the pencil analogy, they have to build capacity but make no mistake, that is what they are doing.  

At this point I don't know what more Florida's unions need to see their end game and their silence seems more and more like complicity.

Friends, we have to fight for the right to strike, and perhaps, and I mean just maybe, perhaps the only thing that Tallahassee and the people of Florida will listen to.   

Local representatives, Bean, Fischer and Yarborough steer millions in public money towards their donors charter schools. Just another day in Florida.

Representative Fischer and Senator Aaron Bean want to give the KIPP school two million dollars extra and representative Clay Yarbourough wants to give the Tiger academy an extra million. What do these two charters have in common? They were founded by men who regularly give the three legislators campaign money.

The KIPP school was brought to town by Ponte Vedra businessman Gary Chartrand who is one of Jason Fischer's earliest and biggest supporters. The KIPP school is not located in Fischer's district nor is it likely many children living in his district attend the school, but that has not stopped Fischer from funneling millions extra over the years to the KIPP schools.

Fischer has also repeatedly called for an audit of DCPS schools saying they have enough money and just need to live in their means. Yet for some reason KIPP needs millions extra annually?

Fischer says it is one of the best performing schools in its neighborhood. I think that is arguable. It serves a smaller proportion of free and reduced lunch students than the nearby schools and KIPPs school grade is more up and down than a yo-yo and that probably has to do with the massive staff turnover it experiences. 

I wonder though if Fischer ever considered that the reason (he thinks) it is doing better is because year in and year out its gotten considerably more money than the surrounding schools? Isn't Fischer and I am sure it's lost on him, actually saying, if schools have more money they will do better? Lets give all the middle schools in the area an extra two million and see how they do. I submit they would do much better than the KIPP school, but unfortunately that isn't how the system where legislators reward their donors works. 

“I am dedicated to seeking funding for KIPP because they have a proven model-nationwide.   KIPP alumni graduate at four times the rate of their lower-income peers,” said Fischer, in an email to WJCT. 

People should know that the KIPP school doesn't graduate anyone. It's a middle school, once ninth grade rolls around the students have to find another school. Furthermore did anyone notice how he qualified his statement with "Nationwide"? He had to because it is unlikely even students from KIPP Jacksonville's first class have graduated college.  

Yarborough at least has the decency to support a charter school in his district. He told WJCT news, Tiger Academy stands out as a high-performing school in an underserved neighborhood.  It's grads are C, B, C,C, C, D, D. Solid after a slow start but not spectacular. There are numerous other schools in the same area that do just as well if not better. They just aren't sponsored by the Baker family like the Tiger academy is.

Speaking of the Baker family, we often here about a small, rich and white cabal of power brokers that run our city from the back room. Your Rummells, your Chartrands, your Bakers and a few others. Well friends, Bean, Fischer and Yarbourough know that if they want to keep moving up, they have to ingratiate themselves to these men, they have to carry their water. So what do they do, they funnel millions to these men, Baker and Chartrand's pet charter schools.  

Furthermore last year these three voted on a budget that gave Duval County Public schools forty-seven cents extra in discretionary spending which is about sixty thousand dollars or 2.94 million less than they want to give their donors charter schools. How does that make sense? How is that fair?

Even if you love charter schools and think they should replace public schools this should outrage you as there are thirty other charter schools in Jacksonville, some doing pretty well, even better than the KIPP and Tiger schools are, who aren't getting anything extra. I guess their owners are donating to the right people.

Politicians giving millions extra in public money to their donors charter schools while voting to starve our public schools is just wrong no matter how they try and justify it.

We deserve better.

Indiana, Maryland, and Tennessee teachers may be the next to strike while Florida's teacher leaders sit on their hands

All over the country teachers are striking and protesting not just a lack of pay and poor work conditions but also against the privatization of their schools and they are winning. Everywhere except in Florida where the most brutal and destructive legislative session in recent memory, and we have had some doozies, where the republicans in Tallahassee once again plan to marginalize the teaching profession, and step up their efforts to privatize our schools is on going. When will our union leaders fight for our right to strike, perhaps the only thing Tallahassee will listen to? 

From the Baltimore Sun,

Thousands of Maryland teachers and education advocates are expected to pour into Annapolis for a march and rally to push for more school funding Monday night.

The “March for Our Schools” will lead to road closures and traffic delays.

The Maryland State Education Association is bussing in thousands of participants. Annapolis officials expect at least 7,500 participants, which would make it one of the largest rallies in the state’s capital city in the past decade.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-teacher-rally-annapolis-20190310-story.html? 

From the Tennessee Education Report,

Lying low doesn’t work, but there is another way.

All across the country, teachers are supercharging the routine of lobbying and elections with a far more powerful tool: they are going out on strike.

Teachers in West Virginia, Arizona, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Kentucky have used collective action to transform the political landscape. They’ve decimated charter and voucher legislation, stopped further spending cuts, and pushed policies that actually benefit student outcomes: lower class sizes, more nurses and counselors, an end to toxic testing, and paying teachers adequately so school systems can retain them for more than a few years.

There is clear tangible evidence that strikes work. A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that “protests by teachers and others last year helped lead to substantial increases in school funding in Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.”

It didn’t matter that striking is illegal in many of these states or that the state government is dominated by anti-union Republicans.

When teachers found the courage to strike they found out that the community—and often even their boss—had their back

With so many school districts struggling to make ends meet, striking teachers found that their demands for increased state funding had the support of their local administrators. Because superintendents closed their schools during the nine-day West Virginia strike, teachers didn’t lose pay and the strike rolled on.

http://tnedreport.com/2019/03/tennessee-teachers-could-be-next-to-strike/?fbclid=IwAR35mpUVg99Fu4ATlUkypIqzPBF49KwSWJk-H8kp3MwXqqWxh45OiIeKlq8

From the Indianapolis Business Journal,

n a fiery Facebook post, Kokomo teachers union president Nicki Fain Mundy tallied the toll: It took her 14 years and a master’s degree to crack a $50,000 salary.

The numbers tell her that she’s making far less than college-educated professionals in other fields. She fights for small raises but watches her pay disappear when insurance costs rise and when the rising cost of living bites deeper and deeper into her paycheck.

Indiana’s legislative leaders are pledging to find money to increase teacher pay, which, at an average salary of around $50,000, ranks the lowest among neighboring states. But so far, their proposals have included studying the problem, asking districts to save money to fund the raises, and funneling small increases to schools in the hopes that teachers could get pay bumps.

These lukewarm proposals, plus an overall concern that Indiana lawmakers don’t value teaching, could create conditions that lead to a teacher walkout. State teachers union leaders aren’t encouraging action just yet, but other local leaders say they want lawmakers to know that teachers are fed up and fired up.

“I’m ready to walk today. I’ve been ready to walk,” Mundy, a high school English teacher, told Chalkbeat. “When you demand more and more and more of teachers and are willing to give them less, and you make it very clear that what we do isn’t respected—at that point, that’s when I’ve decided I think it’s time to walk.”

https://www.ibj.com/articles/72547-indiana-teachers-unions-want-more-but-would-they-walk-out

Friends, teachers can stand on the side of the road and wave signs, we can wear red for ed, we can blog, we can write letters to the editor and none of it matters because we aren't having a policy debate. This is not a disagreement between two earnest parties. The republicans in Tallahassee want to destroy the teaching profession and replace public schools with charters and private schools that take vouchers. Evidence, facts, reasonable arguments don't matter to them because they don't care and our union leaders need to understand that and fight for our right to strike, while there is still something to fight for.    

State rep wants millions extra for his mega donors pet charter school

Even if you love charter schools and think they should replace public schools this story should outrage you. 

Annually Jason Fischer representative out of Jacksonville inserts extra money in to the state budget for the KIPP school above and beyond what they are supposed to get from the state. This year he wants an extra two million, this in addition to the two million he had the state give them last year.

http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/03389/ByCategory

Why this charter school, which isn't even in his district? Well it probably has to do with Gary Chartrand and several others related to the KIPP school giving Fischer buckets of cash  

These are irrefutable facts.

Gary Chartrand is responsible for bringing the KIPP charter school to Jacksonville.

Over the years Chartrand (and his friends and family) have given thousands of dollars to Fischer.

Fischer had a two million dollar grant given to the KIPP charter school last year as well.

 https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/5001/BillText/er/PDF

Line 111

Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Jacksonville (HB 2851) (Senate Form 1756).......................... 2,000,000 

Fischer also voted for a budget last year that gave our school district just an extra 47 cents per pupil in discretionary spending which in Duval was about 70 thousand dollars or 1.93 million less than he wants to give the KIPP charter school. 

Those are all irrefutable facts.

Last year after the bill failed he just had the money inserted into the budget. Bill fails, put it in the budget anyways, that's how it works in Tallahassee because it has become so broken after twenty years of republican rule. 

https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/sponsoredbills.aspx?MemberId=4639&SessionId=86

Now some of you might be thinking why should I care what a representative in Jacksonville does, well there are a couple reasons, first that is two million in Tax Payer dollars, that came from all of us and second, his donor, Gary Chartrand was also on the state board of education, and let that sink in.

Chartrand the founder and benefactor of the KIPP charter school gave Fischer thousands of dollars and Fischer has rewarded him with two million for his charter school. Though he is not the only one. Mayor Curry also a huge recipient of Chartrand's largess had the rules of the Jacksonville Children's Commission (now the Kids hope Alliance) changed in order to give the KIPP school nearly a million dollars two years ago.  

Where as outrageous as this is just standard operating procedure for the republicans who operate as if they can do whatever they want.

For example new education commissioner and former speaker of the house, Richard Corcoran’s wife is a charter school operator and he joined a half dozen other legislators who either they benefit or their families benefit from public school kneecapping and charter enriching legislation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article151418277.html

Manny Diaz chair of the senate education commission, works for a college that runs a charter school that funnels students from the charter school into the college and makes six figures for doing so. 

There are many such examples.

The republican party is not leading us, they are lording over us as they enrich themselves and their donors and they do so at the expense of the teaching profession and public education and quite frankly friends it should outrageous us all.

Jason Fischer wants two million extra for the KIPP charter schools

Even if you love charter schools and think they should replace public schools this story should outrage you. 

Annually Jason Fischer inserts extra money in the budget for the KIPP school above and beyond what they are supposed to get from the state. This year he wants an extra two million, this in addition to the two million he had the state give them last year.

http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/03389/ByCategory

Why this charter school, which isn't even in his district? Well it probably has to do with Gary Chartrand and several others related to the KIPP school giving Fischer buckets of cash  

These are irrefutable facts.

Gary Chartrand is responsible for bringing the KIPP charter school to Jacksonville.

Over the years Chartrand (and his friends and family) have given thousands of dollars to Fischer.

Fischer had a two million dollar grant given to the KIPP charter school last year as well.

 https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/5001/BillText/er/PDF

Line 111

Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Jacksonville (HB 2851) (Senate Form 1756).......................... 2,000,000 

Fischer also voted for a budget last year that gave our school district just an extra 47 cents per pupil in discretionary spending which in Duval was about 70 thousand dollars or 1.93 million less than he wants to give the KIPP charter school. 

Those are all irrefutable facts.

Last year after the bill failed he just had the money inserted into the budget. Bill fails, put it in the budget anyways, that's how it works in Tallahassee because it has become so broken after twenty years of republican rule. 

https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/sponsoredbills.aspx?MemberId=4639&SessionId=86

Now some of you might be thinking why should I care what a representative in Jacksonville does, well there are a couple reasons, first that is two million in Tax Payer dollars, that came from all of us and second, his donor, Gary Chartrand was also on the state board of education, and let that sink in.

Chartrand the founder and benefactor of the KIPP charter school gave Fischer thousands of dollars and Fischer has rewarded him with two million for his charter school. Though he is not the only one. Mayor Curry also a huge recipient of Chartrand's largess had the rules of the Jacksonville Children's Commission (now the Kids hope Alliance) changed in order to give the KIPP school nearly a million dollars two years ago.  

Where as outrageous as this is just standard operating procedure for the republicans who operate as if they can do whatever they want.

For example new education commissioner and former speaker of the house, Richard Corcoran’s wife is a charter school operator and he joined a half dozen other legislators who either they benefit or their families benefit from public school kneecapping and charter enriching legislation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article151418277.html

Manny Diaz chair of the senate education commission, works for a college that runs a charter school that funnels students from the charter school into the college and makes six figures for doing so. 

There are many such examples.

The republican party is not leading us, they are lording over us as they enrich themselves and their donors and they do so at the expense of the teaching profession and public education and quite frankle friends it should outrageous us all.

Jason Fischer has been an ardent foe of public education and supporter of charters and we should all know why.

We all know who the Seaside Charter school is for and if you are poor and black it's not you

The Seaside Charter school represents all that is wrong in Florida's education system.  Established by affluent whites for affluent white paid for by the public dime.

District 2 has some of the finest schools not just in the city but in the state. If District 2 was its own school district it would give St. Johns county a run for number one. 

If charter schools were created to save mostly poor and minority students from failing schools, what they were originally and disingenuously sold as then there is absolutely no reason for their to be any charters east of the inter-coastal.

If the founders of the Seaside Charter school really cared about kids that the public school system has failed why did they set up in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in town? The answer is they don't they just wanted their kids to not go to school with yours.

Seaside segregates its self by putting requirements on parents and by eliminating services that poor and many families of color rely on. They don't provide lunch and transportation and they require parents to pay 250 dollars for supplies, though, you know more is always appreciated.  A district official outraged by their hypocrisy told me, “yeah... that’s not going to serve a disadvantaged or minority population at all...”

You might be saying, but students are chosen by a lottery, that is poor and minority kids apply they have just as much chance of getting in as anybody. Well friends that may or may not be true. You see charters are charged with doing their own lotteries and do so with no over site from the district. So maybe but who knows. A very wise man once told me, its better to show me than tell me, but sadly charters are under no obligation to show anyone.

Then if you look at their registration form they ask questions beyond just race that might indicate if they are their type of student or not. They ask:

Student resides on federal property

Student resides in low rent housing

Parent employed on low rent housing in Duval County

Name of last school attended

School type (public including charters, private, pre-k and home education)

Student residence information (who to they live with, both parents, single parent, guardian, etc.)

Is student a teen parent

Check all that apply,

The student has been arrested or prosecuted for a violation of criminal statute resulting in a charge

The student has been expelled from school

The student has been involved with the juvenile justice system

Then parents are told to sign under penalty of perjury which they point out is a felony.

https://www.cognitoforms.com/SeasideConsortium/StudentRegistrationForm

Um how many parents do you think stopped right there because they didn't want to risk being prosecuted for a felony?

All of these questions can be used to weed out applicants that Seaside doesn't want to admit and does anybody think they haven't? If so have you seen them do their lottery?

Seaside was denied an expansion because they lacked diversity, then feigned outrage, well after reading their application,  I submit that may have been their attention all along.

You might be surprised by who voucher schools DO NOT have to take.

Public schools have to take an educate every student that shows up regardless of religion, race, intellect and ability, socio-economic status and sexual preference. That’s what public schools do, private schools however that accept vouchers don’t have the same obligations.

Private schools that take vouchers, that take public money, billions in public money, don’t have to take:

Muslim kids or children with any religion they disagree with or don't like,  or that is not theirs

Kids to who English is a second language

Refugees and immigrants

Kids with learning disabilities

Kids with intellectual and physical disabilities.

They don’t have to take kids that have discipline issues.

Kids from single parent households.

Private schools that take vouchers don’t have to take LGBTQ kids.

Any kid for any reason

Voucher schools don’t have to take anyone they don’t want to and for the ones they do, at any point they want, like after they are paid and public schools are no longer eligible to receive money, they can get rid of them.

Why don’t they have to take those schools? Because they are private schools and they can take and keep whoever they want.

Friends in this era of limited resources whats better, public schools that have to take any child, that have standards and accountability, or schools that can take whatever they want and teach whatever they want, what friends, is the better choice...  

Vouchers are a bad deal for all of us, there is no standards and there is so little accountability we might as well as say they have none.

We should demand better.   

Kimberly Daniels "cram her religion down our throats" bill gets one step closer to passing

I am pretty and deservedly hard on the republicans in Tallahassee but without a doubt the worst legislator there is Democrat in name only Kimberly Daniels.

Fresh off another, yes another round of ethics violation, she is one step closer to passing, her cram her religion down our throat bill. 

https://www.wokv.com/news/local/jacksonville-state-rep-kimberly-daniels-faces-new-ethics-case/AHbvbCe34vmBwYoPNvrq6N/

Anyone want to bet is she was Muslim and it was the Koran she was pushing, the bill would be staled in committee.

From the Tallahassee Democrat:

 A House panel Thursday backed a proposal that would require public high schools to offer elective classes on religion and the Bible amid debate about whether the courses would be constitutional and religiously neutral. 

Bill sponsor Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, said the classes would be objective and that students would not be forced to take them. Supporters also pointed to the historical role of the Bible, which Daniels described as the “best selling book” of all time. 

“This is a public policy issue, not a worship issue,” Daniels said before the House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee approved the measure (HB 195). 

But opponents questioned the objectivity and religious neutrality, in part because the courses would not include instruction on such things as the Koran.

“I don’t know how you can have religious neutrality if your curriculum is just focused on one holy book,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said.

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2019/03/07/florida-bible-religion-classes-public-schools-hb-195-kimberly-daniels/3096753002/

Teachers are leaving the classroom in droves. Tallahassee is more interested in arming rather than paying teachers and DeSantis is trying to dramatically increase the capacity of charters and vouchers in an effort to privatize education, and here is the ethically challenged Daniels pushing her religion on children. Up is down, black is white, dogs are playing with cats and people are jumping on the furniture, that's things are all messed up.