How unbelievably insane is Florida? Let's start with VPK readiness rates.

From the Times Union

Voluntary pre-kindergarten, or VPK, readiness rates will not be issued for the 2013-14 school year, the Florida Department of Education announced last week in a memo.

The readiness rate measures how well a VPK provider prepares 4-year-old students for kindergarten based on state standards that describe what children should be able to know and do by the end of the program, according to the Department of Education website.

Technology problems stopped the state from giving the skills assessment last fall, which prevented the Office of Early Learning from developing readiness rates, according to the memo.

Results are typically released in the spring for the previous academic year.

As a result, the readiness status from 2012-13 will carry over for an additional year.

http://jacksonville.com/news/schools/2015-05-11/story/state-will-not-release-voluntary-pre-k-readiness-rates

First we’re giving 4 year old computer based tests, what the %^$#!!!

Problems with technology, oh dear who could have seen that coming, oh sorry just about everybody.

So the result from last year will just carry over. I suppose it doesn’t matter that none of the kids I imagine are still in VPK.

No results would be better than last year’s results but the state feels it has to hang numbers around people’s throats and apparently accuracy doesn’t matter in the least.

Last week was charter school appreciation week, let’s see how they did.

Two charter schools, one each in Duval and Orange County closed with barely any notice, while another in Broward County was told because of academic failures and refusing to divulge information from an audit it would be forced to close in 90 days.

Parents at a school in Alachua County bitterly complained about both nepotism and being pressured to pay fees.

The principal of a Palm Beach charter school, with a troubled past was caught with a student in her car smoking marijuana.

Then Florida virtual school took its own foundation to court over financial irregularities.

In Florida over 280 charter schools have opened, taken public money and closed leaving families and communities in a lurch, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted and children have had their educations and possibly futures harmed.

Some might be saying, but many charter schools are doing well, which quite frankly isn’t true. The Stanford Credo says Florida charter schools lag behind when compared to their public school counterparts and most of the only ones that are doing well have left the poor and mostly minority neighborhoods and fled to the suburbs where they have cherry picked children and siphoned away resources from schools there that were doing well.

In Florida, choice is just another word for privatization, and it would be one thing if charters were performing better than public schools but in truth the only thing that has improved is the bank account numbers of the operators.

Instead of outsourcing our kids’ education to for profit outfits who do a poor job, we should invest in our public schools because despite their problems, many of which were created by charter loving Tallahassee, they are by far the best thing we have going.

Three rich old white guys who never taught talking about education.

The real problem besides ignoring poverty is the powers that be would rather listen to them than the people doing the actual educating.

Bill Gates perhaps the smartest dumb guy in America says inner city charter schools are working. There are some that are working, generally however they are the ones that have more resources than their public school counterparts. Most successful charter schools have fled to the suburbs where they cherry pick resources and students from neighborhood schools invariably hurting them and doing a worse job.

Gates says longer school days and longer school years are having an effect. Hmm the reason public schools generally don’t have these things is a lack of resources. Buffet who has more resources than God, both loves McDonalds and says schools have enough resources. I guess we’re paying teachers to much. He does say McDonalds is more successful than charter schools, hmm maybe it’s because they pay their workers so little.

Here is the thing, we have to move past the shock of the cost of educating, it’s expensive as is imprisoning people I remind you. Furthermore since the United States by far is the wealthiest country in the world why are we so surprised when we spend more than other countries? It’s a shock to people on the right.

http://finance.yahoo.com/video/gates-munger-buffett-were-education-122000967.html

To read more click the link: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/08/what-are-bill-gates-and-warren-buffet-talking-about/

Parents recieve a strange letter after the Acclaim Charter School closes

Now I love the line through but I am a snarky blogger. Shouldn't we expect a little better from the assistant superintendent?

Let me just say this operator never should have received a charter and did you know they had the go ahead to open another charter school next year. The district is responsible because they outsourced several hundred of our kids futures to a mercenary looking to make a buck. Sadly they aren't the only ones operating in Jacksonville.

Superintendent Vitti couldn't be more wrong about charter schools.

It's all the states fault Vitti said in the Times Union when talking about charter school failings, you know the state which is run by his benefactor  and charter schools lover Gary Chartrand. 

Vitti criticized the state’s charter laws and rules, which he said aren’t strong enough to prevent these charter school closures.

“All charters are not created equally,” he said. “As a state we’re not differentiating among proven charter organizations and upstarts ... who do not have the financial and educational infrastructure to ensure sustainability.”

Charter schools are public schools that operate independently of local school boards but are funded by taxpayers. They are given greater latitude by state law because they’re supposed to provide innovation and school choice for parents.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-05-05/story/military-themed-charter-school-jacksonville-will-close-its-doors-friday

I am sorry but just because you have deep pockets it doesn't mean you should be able to open up a charter school either. Opening one up should be incredibly difficult and involve a lot more than filling out a few boxes on an application and having a few zeros in a bank account.

People who open them, unlike the state board of education, should also have an education background. Educating children takes a lot more than just showing up.   

Furthermore charter schools should offer something that district schools don't. We shouldn't dilute what limited resources we have just because some family doesn't like gov'ment schools or bought the hype they are failing. Choice just for choices sake is a bad choice.

Charter schools are supposed to be parent teacher driven laboratories of innovation, not profit centers for real estate tycoons and investment bankers. The super thinks hey got deep pockets come to town, we'll outsource or kids futures to you.

For him to blame the state, shrug his shoulders and say there's nothing we can do is disingenuous. Other districts are fighting back as Duval hands over the keys to the castle.

Other districts are saying, no innovation, your boards not from here, you are trying to open a sister school to a failing school, no thanks, take it on down the road but not Jacksonville, we say how high would you like us to jump and we would like another, whether we need it or not.

The super should stop speaking out of both sides of his mouth. In the media he says there's nothing we can do but at the meetings and behind closed doors he has been the most accommodating super to charter schools in the state to the detriment of the schools he was hired to lead.

It is shameful.

It has been a bad week for Florida's charter schools

Krista E. Morton, 45, of Wellington, was arrested Wednesday after cops received a call about possible sexual activity in a parking lot by Lakeside Park in North Palm Beach.

Police say they found Morton in the car with a 19-year-old senior from the school. The report says Morton’s “shirt was unbuttoned, exposing her shoulders and part of her chest.”

Morton first told officers that she and the student were “just friends,” an arrest report stated. Then cops say she claimed he was a stranger she had picked up off the street because she was lonely.

Later, the 19-year-old student admitted to cops that Morton was the principal of his school.

http://extracredit.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/05/07/maverick-high-charter-school-principal-suspended-after-pot-arrest/

Parents described a crazy scene Thursday in the Acclaim Charter School, where only two teachers showed up for work a day before the school permanently closes.

Some parents said they learned Wednesday that the school was closing on Action News This Morning. 

The school had no choice but to shut down on Thursday, and there won’t be school on Friday, either.

Students and parents said Acclaim Academy was a madhouse Thursday when they dropped off their children.

"It's chaos.  It really is. Kids are running around jumping on the counters,” ninth-grader David Morphew said. 

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/news/local/westside-charter-school-shuts-down-early-after-cha/nmBYh/

Acclaim Academy Orange, a charter school, plans to shut down Thursday, leaving 181 students to find a new school for the remaining weeks of the academic year.  The Orange County school district had moved last month to close the school, which it said is beset by financial troubles and other problems.

Acclaim initially challenged the district's decision to push for closure, an action outlined in a letter sent in early April. But then Wednesday, the school told the district it would shut down the next day, school officials said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-orange-charter-school-close-post.html?

N.E.W. Generation Preparatory High School of Performing Arts will have to close its doors in 90 days for multiple academic failures and not submitting an annual audit that helps the school district track spending

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-charter-school-terminated-broward-20150505-story.html

All tax payer funded.

The District's shame continues, Oscar Harris moved to Ed White, popular Ed White administer sent packing

If you missed it Oscar Harris was the assistant principal at Westside High who was suspended after breaking up a violent fight there. I wrote he got a raw deal and the district sent a bad message to students and staff.

The district has now seen fit to compound their error as today with practically zero notice they sent Mr. Harris to Ed White high school and moved popular assistant Principal Tim Durkin to Westside high.

I spoke with a few members of the Ed White staff and they said they were besides themselves. That is was a tragedy that Durkin was ripped away from Ed White so close to graduation especially since he had been with this senior class since they were freshmen.

Another member of the faculty said Durkin was that type of AP that kept everybody motivated and enthusiastic also since he was in charge of the master schedule he was incredibly valuable behind the scenes too.

Who does this, another staff member added, who messes with peoples lives like this. Well apparently superintendent Vitti and the district do because to them staff members are merely pawns on a chess board to be moved at a moments notice without much thought to the consequences the move might make.

The district has bungled this situation from the beginning and now has made it worse and we wonder why staff morale is rock bottom.

I find myself missing Ed Pratt-Dannals.

How didn’t DCPS know the Acclaim Charter School was going to fail? Probably because they chose to be willfully blind.

DCPS should have been suspicious when their sister school failed in Osceola County. It was taken 

over by the district after consecutive F grades.

Osceola County are scrambling to find a new school for their children after their school suddenly closed.

Acclaim Academy Charter School in Kissimmee was ordered to shut down after earning its second consecutive F grade.

They called him the Bernie Madoff of Charter schools.

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/parents-scrambling-after-osceola-county-charter-sc/nkRmQ/

Maybe it was because their CEO Dennis Mope was to busy with his other gig buying and selling schools. Yep his other business is called Schools for Sale inc.

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dennis-mope/16/972/742

You see guys like Mope don’t think of education as a noble profession, where teachers help the next generation become productive citizens, preparing them for adult hood, they see education as a money making opportunity and who cares if the public is taken for a ride and kids are hurt.

According to Mope’s linkedin page he plans to open 40 schools in 5 years, the truth is he never should have been allowed to open one.

As despicable as I find Dennis Mope, I think Superintendent Vitti and the school board deserve the lion’s share of blame. They were elected to be in charge of our kids’ education not to roll over like sheep and outsource their futures to for profit mercenaries and snake oil salesmen. This was a debacle that could have been avoided.

Next week 250 kids ill be plucked from the Acclaim charter school and placed in the public schools they never should have left. It all could have been avoided if we had a super and board more interested in doing the right thing rather than bowing down to charter school operators. They should care more about our kids than what Gary Chartrand thinks or wants.

FOR SHAME!!!

Charter schools are done with poor black kids, now they want white middle class ones.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words and the cover of the latest report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools speaks that and more.

You see the cover features six well-dressed apparently middle classes white kids and a Hispanic boy waiting in line. The subtext is hundreds of thousands of children across the nation are waiting for room in charter schools. The reality however is the picture reveals just what today’s charter schools are going for, middle class white kids.

No longer are charter schools here to save poor and mostly minority children from failing schools, nope, you see that’s too hard. If the professionals in public schools are struggling the novices, mercenaries and charlatans in charter schools are failing in a staggering fashion.

In Ohio charter schools are doing dreadful when compared with their peers and in my home state of Florida over 280 charter schools have opened taken public money and failed through a combination of poor fiscal management and performance.

The charter school industry has gotten the word too. Now they routinely set up shop in affluent neighborhoods hoping to draw middle class white kids from the successful schools they would have otherwise gone too. These parents have fallen for slick advertising campaigns, ironically funded by public dollars, or the constant and erroneous drum beat that public schools have failed often orchestrated by charter school supporters and investors.

In my hometown of Jacksonville Florida on May the fifth, the school board, most of who have taken thousands of dollars from charter schools approved a charter school on the wealthier side of town just as they announced a charter on the poorer side of town would be closing some five weeks before the end of the year.      

The four public schools closest to where the new charter school operated by the for profit Charter Schools USA will open next year have historically been some of the best schools in Jacksonville and three of them were less than 90 percent of capacity.  I know this because it is in the report prepared by the school board yet despite this they approved it anyways.

The owner of the new school has learned his lesson two because CUSA’s attempt to open charter schools in the poor parts of Jacksonville have met with very poor results.

There can no longer really be any pretense that charter schools are here to improve the educational outcomes. The truth is most of the ones that do well either poor extra resources into their schools like the KIPP schools who spend about a third more per child, longer school days, smaller classes and don’t back-fill when a child leaves and the ones that set up in affluent neighborhoods where they can steal resources from the public schools there undoubtedly hurting their effectiveness.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words and the Alliance’s picture of their report showing the type of kid they are going after should really tell you all that you need to know.   

Sadly I am not techno savvy enough to capture a screen shot but if you click the link you will see exactly what I am talking about.

http://www.publiccharters.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/waitlist_web.pdf

Duval County Public Schools ties teacher’s hands and then blames them when a fight occurs.

Teachers and administrators getting in trouble for breaking up fights.

Students getting the barest or no consequences for getting in fights.

Schools allowing kids to get in multiple fights before stepping in because of the new discipline policies enacted by superintendent Vitti.

It’s a minor miracle that more students and teachers haven’t been serious injured.

Well now friends we can add the district blaming teachers for not intervening when a fight occurs to the list.

From ActionNewsJax

We went to the district for answers. Spokesperson Tia Ford said that the expectations for educators to contribute to student safety is laid out in state law, and further specified in staff contracts that vary from position to position. She also pointed us to the state’s Code of Ethics for educators, which we found says staff shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from harmful conditions.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/news/local/mom-says-school-employees-didnt-intervene-middle-s/nk9Ws/

Are you kidding me? The district has created the harmful conditions in our schools. Their indifference to violence and their creation of a discipline policy so lax it practically encourages violence has led to these harmful conditions.

What reasonable effort has the district made to protect our children? The answer is none.