All across the country states are canceling their high stakes tests. So far Florida hasn't and we should ask why.

All across the country state after state has canceled their high stakes tests as the Corona Virus rages across the nation. Florida however hasn't and I think we all know why.

Florida uses its high stakes test as a hammer to bludgeon, schools, students and teachers. The test here isn't used to guide or improve instruction, no it is used to harm public ed and the teaching profession and the reality is even Florida knows they are unimportant and used as a weapon. That's why 2000 vouchers schools don't have to take them but that is an entirely different blog.

Perhaps the biggest state to cancel their high stakes test is Texas.

From KTRE.com

Today, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he is waving the STAAR testing requirements for the 2019-2020 school year.

Keven Ellis, the chair of the State Board of Education, said the decision to promote a student to the next grade will now be a district and teacher-based decision.

https://www.ktre.com/2020/03/16/governor-abbott-waives-staar-testing-requirements/

Wow, letting teachers and districts determine promotion, what a novel idea.

Indiana has also stepped up to help waiving the 180 day requirement.

From Chalkbeat:

School districts in Indiana will be able to waive up to 20 days of missed classes, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Thursday in response to concerns about the coronavirus.

In a list of new guidelines, Holcomb said schools can use the days consecutively, or spread them throughout the rest of the year. This will allow schools to close without needing to use an eLearning day or make up the days later.

https://chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2020/03/12/to-curb-coronavirus-spread-indiana-schools-can-waive-20-days-of-missed-classes/

For some reason I don't think we're going to be back next week or probably even the week after. Florida is going to have to waive the 180 day rule. 

Even the Federal Government is considering waiving the tests.

Also from Chalkbeat:

States might be able to scrap their required annual tests for closed schools, the federal education department said Thursday, as concerns about the coronavirus swept the country. 

Guidance released by the U.S. Department of Education says it will consider waiving requirements for state-wide tests, currently mandated in grades 3-8 and once in high school. State testing occurs throughout the spring, and some school closures were already running into planned testing windows.  

https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2020/03/12/coronavirus-schools-testing-department-of-education/

State after state thinks this is a good idea. 

Even the ACT and SAT are being canceled and postponed

From the Washington Post:

Standardized tests — including the SAT college admissions exam and annual K-12 exams federally mandated in states throughout the country ― are being postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The SAT exam scheduled to be administered worldwide Saturday has been canceled in more than 15 countries, and a growing number of U.S. schools that host it are backing out.

The Saturday administration of the SAT was canceled by the College Board, which owns the exam, in some 20 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Italy. A shortage of proctors led to cancellations at dozens of U.S. schools set to administer the exam. (You can see the list here.)

The next ACT college admissions test is scheduled for April 4, with Friday being the last day to register, according to ACT’s website. Whether events will lead the ACT to cancel or reschedule that test remains to be seen.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/13/standardized-tests-including-sat-are-being-canceled-or-delayed-due-coronavirus-pandemic/

Friends, Florida's test is not designed to help or drive instruction, it's here to punish teachers, schools, and students. In a good year it is a bad thing and this is not a good year.

Then think about this, even if we are back in two weeks which is a big if, are all our kids going to be back? How about all our teachers? Those that do come back are they going to attend consistently, or is a sniffle going to have somebody home for a week.

It's time to cancel the tests and waive some days. It's the right thing to do and sadly since that is the case Florida will probably have to come kicking and screaming to it.

To learn, click the link: https://fundeducationnow.org/gov-desantis-think-of-our-kids-waive-fsa-180-day-requirement-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/

Public education and the teaching profession were killed this session and that should be the only take away

Andrew Atternury the Tallahassee Politico reporter tweeted about all that education received.

8 million for tech which had been zeroed out, 500 million for raises  and 40 bucks added to the base student allotment. Seems like a lot right, it's not, and it's a drop in the bucket to all we lost.

Sigh, first that 500 million for raises replaces the 350 million we had for the best and brightest, that's a net of 150 million which for an election year where give aways come fast and furious is almost nothing. Then since most of that will go to raising new salaries, veteran current teachers will have a smaller piece of the pie and veteran teachers practically nothing. This is literally as close to nothing as you can get for current teachers.

Then that 40 bucks to the BSA is a joke too. First it's about a one percent raise which doesn't keep up with inflation and most of that will be clawed back as Tallahassee has increased pension payments. This is nothing as well. What are we thanking Tallahassee for?

Then what did we lose? How about 200 million to vouchers that now families with incomes off 77k can use and hundreds of millions more to charter schools which will now receive a per proportion cut of tax referendums. They showered vouchers and charters with money and threw some nickles at teachers and for some %$#&ing reason Fedrick Ingram the head of the FEA thinks we should thank them. This is his tweet from last night.

  The budget has just been finalized. We appreciate that the Legislature recognized that salaries and not bonuses are a better approach to teacher compensation. The allocation of $500 million for teacher salary increases is welcomed and appreciated.

https://twitter.com/fedingram

I feel like Fedrick Ingram and the FEA have Stockholm syndrome as they thank Tallahassee adding the caveat, we have more work to do. We shouldn't thank them for doing all they could to destroy public ed which is what they did this session and the nickles they threw out us in an election year. Tallahassee shouldn't be thanked, they should be called out as Public Ed and the teaching profession took a beating and that's the only take away we should have.

We got rolled and acknowledging that will inform people that we need to work harder to elect pro education candidates. He also shouldn't be worried about making Tallahassee mad, because they don't care about public ed and the teaching profession and are going to do whatever they can do to destroy it anyways.

Fed's milquetoast leadership is getting us killed and he better acknowledge that fact and change it or get out of the way.

Let's face it friends, the FLDOE has never had teachers or public schools best interests at heart, the Corona Virus is no exception.

All over the country in states hit a lot less harder than ours, schools are closing yet our FLDOE and governor shrug their shoulders. Lets face it friends Tallahassee hasn't really cared about public ed and teachers for years now. Why not risk their health if it saves them a buck.  

UNF Professor Chris Janson writes: 

 I'm going to be watching developments both locally and nationally over the next few days. Unfortunately, many experts are noting the expansion of infections in the US (as much as we can tell given the criminally incompetent lack of testing) is following a similar pattern to Italy, with us being about 10 days behind. If that holds, the decision to close all schools in this country will be obvious by the end of the weekend. And that is horrifying. Our only chance now is to flatten that curve of infections. We can't do that while also sending 130,000 kids to school together along with the thousands of teachers and staff. Ohio has 5 confirmed cases but estimate 100,000 infections. 

We have at least 44 confirmed cases in FL with 1 in Duval. By the way, many of you now know that Mayor Curry publicly stated his frustration that he wasn't even notified about the Duval case. The FLDOH is stonewalling attempts by the press to disclose testing info (how many, confirmations, etc.). So why on earth would we trust the judgments of the FLDOE? They don't even have the information required to make a sensible decisions. There is great uncertainty and that won't change soon.

The emotional duress and trauma we are all experiencing right now is rooted in uncertainty. We're all feeling it and it is anguishing. UNF has shut things down on campus. That helps. Less uncertainty. What DCPS teachers and staff are experiencing now must be excruciating. I know that my two DCPS high school students (senior and sophomore) are petrified. They see TPC shutting fans out, NCAA and NBA shutting down, movie releases being pushed back . . . and then they get a message from relaying the DOE's message to "continue normal operations at this time." My 18 year-old's response was, "what are normal operations? Empty soap dispensers? Soggy rolls of paper towels sitting in pools of water on the sink counters - if they're there at all." Absurd. It's also absurd to EVEN CONSIDER moving forward in our schools with damn standardized testing under these circumstances now. 

Or are we going to just act like our students and teachers are completely devoid of feelings? This is trauma on a national scale and moving forward with any tests is complete folly and an obscenity. EOC, AP, IB, FSA. Doesn't matter. They no longer will be testing content knowledge, but only ability to tolerate uncertainty and de-escalate the impacts of trauma.

My role as a parent includes helping my sons work through the anxiety, trauma, and uncertainty this event is causing. One way I'm doing this is telling them NOT to worry about having to be glued to their phones waiting for the next update from DCPS. Their safety, our safety, is not dependent on what the FLDOE or the superintendent decides. WE DECIDE. We decide whether they go to school or not (and if they decide that it's safer at home I'll make damn sure that deciding to do so does not negatively impact them academically).

Educators remember that the decision to protect your own and the community's safety is yours to make. Not the FLDOE or your district leadership.

It's time for Florida to cancel school (draft)

Okay, my rational brain tells me we are over reacting to the corona virus, that my chances of catching it are minimal. Then however I look around and see they canceled the TPC, postponed the NBA season, March Madness will be played without crowds, all the public colleges have gone to on-line learning and so much more. If all those things are to much of a risk, then how can we shrug our shoulders put our kids and teachers in just as much danger?

Heck my district has already canceled field trips for the rest of the year.

Georgia is considering closing their schools for two week.

https://www.ajc.com/news/education/governor-schools-should-consider-closing-for-two-weeks/m6ccgfuAQkJBVtrXNiM8YI/?fbclid=IwAR3q1Mwf-aCI2-bDzfHMzFmEF7CHBUQyTiKqVKWLrBn-kKRpYob7HK8-

Ohio and Maryland have canceled K-12 school.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/03/12/coronavirus-school-closings-ohio-maryland-washington-seattle-king-closures/5036252002/?fbclid=IwAR3T-ZQGv_nXWEkyqKVuLMOBCqTrgxNJoTYO49RPgBQxE-vQFseRzj-ozNI

Indiana gives it's schools a 20 day waiver to protect against the Corona Virus.

https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Indianas-governor-announces-steps-to-protect-public-from-coronavirus-568747361.html?fbclid=IwAR04L_4muVBBuDlBkZlPdzXCChUEFOlw7U5qnk33vGXJPxhFfubcGnn__Sk

This is also the best time to cancel school. I get it no time is good but most districts are either rolling into or out of spring break. What's an extra couple weeks if it stops a pandemic. 

Also I get this would undoubtedly cause some pain for a lot of families what with missing work or providing child care but the thing is Florida is sitting on 534 million dollars that it plans to give as a rebate to the most profitable companies in the state. They didn't expect it but there it is. Instead of helping the most financial well off why don't we use that to help families that would be hurt by a school shut down.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Florida is about to give more than $500 million to some of its biggest corporations.

That’s enough to more than double state funding for pre-kindergarten, where Florida currently ranks in the bottom 10 in the country. It’s more than the state will spend this year combating toxic algal blooms, fighting the opioid epidemic, buying conservation land, subsidizing adoptions and rebuilding beaches -- combined.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-giant-corporate-tax-break-20190814-daprqqcvnzef7jlp5ad4yqzcpm-story.html

Or I don't know maybe help out with the Corona Virus.

Florida has money, we just like to give it to the wealthy not the everyday person. I guess our lobbyists aren't as good.

Then lets talk about testing, it should be canceled going forward. There is going to be a lot on people's minds for the next few weeks and probably a lot of absences if school isn't canceled as well. Testing will have even less value than usual, besides Senator Stargell who should be the poster child for the opt out movement inadvertently just admitted it is unimportant, if the parent thinks so anyways.

This is an exchange she had with Senator Lee about putting some accountability on vouchers, which we just allocated an extra 200 million for. Families with an income of 77k are now eligible for them too, so much for them being here to help poor children right?

Anyway here is the exchange, from Poltico Reporter Andrew Atterbury's twitter page.

Sens. Tom Lee and Kelli Stargel are going round and round about private-school oversight right now. Lee is proposing an amendment requiring the state to gather more data on private schools.

2

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Andrew Atterbury

@ALAtterbury

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Stargel: Do you feel that the parent doesn't have the ability to decide what school is best for their child? Lee: I think that's a narrow view of accountability 

https://twitter.com/ALAtterbury

A narrow view of accountability to say the least.

Testing in Florida is a club to punish, the fact we now invest over 1.2 billion on voucher schools who don't have to do any real testing should tell you all that you need to know.

I know what the arguments against are too. Schools are the places where some kids get their meals and where they feel safe. It's true and it breaks my heart but that is part of a bigger problem. Schools shouldn't be end all be alls for children and we need to start address that issue in a way that doesn't put all the responsibility on our public schools. To much is put on our public schools and not nearly enough is given. Then people might point out that young people "seem" to be less susceptible, um well what about teachers and their families, we can give them a good luck, but we can't give them a raise? No thanks.

If you disagree I get it. I for one am just so tired of public schools bearing the brunt of everything and then being treated like they are second class and I believe the bottom line is if the state thinks something is to risky for adults, then its time they started thinking about the state's children too.

The Florida house tries to seize control of collective bargaining

From the Accountabaloney twitter feed. If you aren't following it, you should be. 

https://twitter.com/FLBaloney/status/1237368561519247360/photo/



Fred Piccolo the houses spokesperson blamed Democrats for killing teacher raises.

Make no mistake - Democrats last night knowingly or unwittingly voted to kill a pay raise for teachers. To double down, the amendment they all voted NO on required all the money to go to teachers. Yeah....my reaction last night.
https://twitter.com/FredPiccoloJr/status/1237366186322604034

It isn't there but he included a minion saying, whhhaaattt.

Right, all the democrats had to do was have districts give up local control of collective bargaining, and put that in the hands of the public ed hating commissioner of ed, Richard Corcoran, to get their raises, or some of them anyways. I mean what could go wrong?

I don't know if this was their plan all along or it just came to them as they conspired to further undermine education, but either way it shows just how much they care, or make that don't.

To read more, click the link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/house-dems-stood-strong-2020?source=twitter&

The house wants to cut higher education to pay for the Corona Virus, um, what???

Andrew Atterburry tweeted:
The Florida Legislature is split on cutting millions of dollars from college and university budgets for 2020-21, money that one House budget writer said could be used to help finance the state response to the coronavirus:
https://twitter.com/ALAtterbury/status/1237156833439232001

Um what???

Jacksonville writer and education activist pointed out also via tweet:
Wait, cut higher ed to offset the effects of coronavirus? Don't we think we might need our research universities & medical schools right about now? Where do they think doctors & epidemiologists come from, anyway? All the "hard" sciences are taught in liberal arts colleges.
https://twitter.com/julieinjax/status/1237159596147515398

Man Florida really hates education doesn't it. That's a rhetorical question by the way.

Then JEM on twitter pointed out there was a better way:
State GDP is over 1 trillion dollars.. time to tap the rainy day fund and quit cutting money from those that can least afford it. People are dying and it will get worse for Florida if actions are not swift and decisive. Time to act is now. Ball is in your court
https://twitter.com/JerryMead9/status/1237327628568272896


Friends, I really don't know what to say. It's like we are living in the upside down.

Hopes for teacher raises in Florida fading fast.

Let me say, I think teachers will get something, well some teachers anyways, it is an election year after all, but recent developments in Tallahassee should dampen all our hopes that it will be anything substantial. 

Andrew Atterbury Politico's education reporter tweeted, 

It appears as though the Florida Legislature is spending $500M to improve teacher salaries in 2020-21. The House tonight lowered its offer from $650M to $500M, matching the Senate. House leaders stood firm on a $50 BSA increase, needed to offset looming pension costs.

https://twitter.com/ALAtterbury/status/1236460510935240704


Let's address the second part first. So the state is going to give districts 50 dollars more for the BSA and it's this money that has been traditionally used to fund raises. Then the state is going to take every penny back and more to address a pension shortfall that Tallahasee created.

You might be wondering what about that three percent teachers have been paying for the last decade, shouldn't that have shored up the pension? Yeah it would have if the state wouldn't have cut how much districts have to contribute because they wanted to give districts less money.

In short they are going to give districts more money to pay for pensions they neglected. Brilliant! and Florida sucks!

Then it gets worse. Originally the house said we will give 650 million to raise the starting salary of just classroom teachers leaving veterans and other certificated staff out. The senate said well we are going to allocate 500 million but let some of that go to veterans and other low paid staff. So now in committee they have somehow agreed to the worse parts of each others proposals. Less money for fewer people.

Year of the teacher? More like throws some nickels at teachers while giving sound bite after sound bite that the rubes will eat up.

You know who really won this session? If you guessed charters and vouchers you got it as both our set to get hundreds of millions more.

Tallahassee wants public ed to fail but rather than just drown it in the bath tub, something they know would be unpopular, they are doing as little as they can without people being able to say they did nothing.

Sigh

To read more, click the link:
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/322248-budget-conference-lawmakers-agree-to-spend-500-million-on-teacher-raises?fbclid=IwAR3mj_qj3h4eN10f-gn_qFoWEiB0srTa6H30WLRKuFe3Xr6rz0yPETRJWoo

3 charts which will show you how bad vouchers in Florida truly are? Why do we spend over a billion dollars on them again?

Well any day now with HB 7067 Florida is going to add another 200 million dollars to our voucher bill, despite the facts families don't keep them and don't need them.

You should pause and read this tweet thread from the Florida Education Association where education chair and home schooled  high school graduate Jennifer Sullivan, whose bill to expand vouchers it is,  repeatedly refused to answer questions or said I don't know. At one point she said it doesn't matter that there isn't a wait list we are expanding them because we can.

https://twitter.com/FloridaEA/status/1235945111231639554

Well I thought I would present you with a couple charts explain why expanding vouchers is a wasteful and terrible idea.

First 61 percent of voucher students give them up after two years, that number goes to 74 after 4.



If we are being honest there are lots of reasons why kids might give the vouchers up but because being counseled out or receiving a substandard education are probably two of the biggest.

Next, most of the kids receiving vouchers come from schools that the state considers successful. 73 percent of kids from the latest year data is available came from schools that received a C grade or higher.


Then finally despite the explosion of vouchers, private school enrollment has remained flat. This tells me that for the most part we are just giving money to families that already planned to spend that money. It would be like you going to the store to buy five dollars worth of cheese and the government on the way in going, hey want five bucks for cheese?



Sigh

Voucher schools are allowed to discriminate that and instead of addressing it they are expanding them.

Voucher schools don't have any academic standards instead of addressing that they are being allowed to expand.

Voucher schools have so little accountability you might as well say they have none, and instead of addressing that they are being allowed to expand.

Friends at some point we have to agree that vouchers aren't here to help kids, nope, not even close, they are here just to hurt public schools.

Voucher hypocrites dominate Tallahassee Politics

Just a heads up, I am stealing a lot of this from the Twitter feed of Richard Birdsall. https://twitter.com/rbirds12

Okay by this time tomorrow Tallahassee will have allocated about another two hundred million dollars to voucher schools that have so little accountability you might as well say they have none. One of the chief pushers of vouchers Randy Fine says, he just wants kids to have the same opportunity his kids have to attend a private school, except his kids aren't attending the private schools that vouchers pay for, not even close.    

From ReDefined Ed, the voucher industries very own web site.

While disagreements with his son’s school inspired a career change, they also resulted in a change for Fine’s family. He eventually grew so tired of fighting with public schools that he pulled his children out, and enrolled them in a private school.

“We became frustrated with a number of things taking place in school,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of choice where we live. There aren’t close charter schools. We tried homeschooling, but found for us it was difficult.”

He’s made millions running gaming and consulting companies, so he could easily afford the tuition. But he said all families should have that same option.

“That is why I ran” (for office), he said. “I was frustrated with both Common Core and administrative policies that put bureaucracy over student performance.”

After putting his children in private school, he said they have thrived at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne.

“There is no Common Core,” he said, referring to the set of educational standards for teaching and testing for English and mathematics that became a hot-button issue in the years before he ran for office. “It is focused on teaching math, not some ideologically driven method of teaching math. It is an environment where they flourished.”

https://www.redefinedonline.org/2017/11/rep-randy-fine-champions-school-choice/  

So the republicans implementation of common core is a reason to take kids out of public schools and put them into private ones? Yeah okay, but here is the things, the private school he sent his kids to is a lot different than the private ones the vouchers pay for.

The tuition at the school Fine sends his children to is between 11 and 16k. The average tax credit voucher is between $6,775 to $7,250. Then that school also 750 dollar application fee, and a 500 dollar maintenance fee, among I am sure many more in addition to the tuition. Why, partly I am sure to keep voucher parents out and the "right" kind of families in.

This is where Richard comes in with an incredible Tweet thread.

https://twitter.com/rbirds12/status/1235571361428340738

FLRep. Randy Fine's aversion to subsidies while promoting $1B subsidies to private schools. Fine says he wants all children to have the same benefits as his own children have. But do FL ed vouchers really provide that?

No, they do not. Fine casually mentions he spends $10K+ on tuition for *each* of his children for private school tuition. Let's say they attend Florida Prep in Melbourne. Just an example. I don't where they actually go to school.

Florida Prep sits on 11 acres of prime southeast FL real estate. Lots of amenities: sports field, tennis courts, "landscaped gardens." Videos on the school's webpage show students kayaking in lush rivers, playing guitar, creating robots. All for day student tuition of $14.2K.

VERY graduate has been accepted into a college/university. But what if you are a lower-income parent taking an ed voucher from one of the several programs offered by the state? Not quite the same. Some examples his children may attend if their family was not wealthy.

Florida offers a private school located in a small office within a strip business park. 24 students spanning K-12 grades. 4 teachers w/degrees but no experience teaching beyond 3rd grade. Except on with limited experience to 6th grade. No public info on curriculum.



Another school on offer is located in an all-purpose building next to a gym. 78 students K-9. School has a Facebook page with little info and a link to what you imagine is the school website. Instead, the link is to a church in Lakewood, CA. No info on teachers, curriculum.



Yet another school Rep. Fine says is equivalent to a public school ed educates 48 students K-12. Their website assures parents that their teachers have some kind of life experience qualifying them to teach. Perhaps a retired Navy cook teaching marine science. No other info.



Florida Prep DOES take vouchers, but it would only cover a bit less than half the tuition. The parent - presumably lower income - would have to come up with the other $7K+/year. Rep. Fine and the state offer a false equivalence. Vouchers do not offer the same options Fine has.

Sigh

At some point we have to admit vouchers aren't about improving things for children and are entirely about hurting public ed.

This time tomorrow despite the fact voucher schools are allowed to discriminate, their teachers don't have to have certs or degrees and they can teach dinosaurs and humans lived together, we will be sending them 200 million more on top of the billion or so we already do, in tax payer dollars. Think about that. 

To read more click the link: https://fundeducationnow.org/take-action-house-vote-on-anti-public-ed-hb-7067-tomorrow/?fbclid=IwAR3MoKjNzsDLSD8hTDOjckEgsVVKJyOQ-WHM-ZNamo6qTDBrhANqjADDD2U

Ex city council member Schellenberg files for Hershey's school board seat

Oh Jacksonville you love a recycled politician living off the public dole don't you. That wasn't a question as Matt Schellenberg has filed to run for school board district 7 against Lori Hershey.

Until past summer I didn't follow city politics very closely but the few times Schellenberg came up it wasn't good.

Here is a piece I did and the title is Schellenberg represents all that is wrong in city politics, so that should give you an idea what it is about.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2019/06/city-councilman-matt-schellenberghtml

And here is another where he refuses to support the school tax referendum.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2019/06/curry-and-councils-specious-reasons-not.html

Are you seeing a pattern here?

At every opportunity he has denigrated and refused to support Duval County public schools yet he thinks for some reasons, my guesses are hubris, ignorance and disdain for public ed that he should replace Lori Hershey who has been overall a very good school board member

I say overall because to be honest I think she is to close to JPEF and there's a few comments about working with charters I don't like, but it's easy for me to log bombs from the cheap seats while she is in the fray and don't think for a second that my 90 percent friend is my ten percent enemy. Plus Mrs. Hershey if you are reading this communication under Green between the district and staff is as bad as ever and maybe you can work on that during your second term.

Since Hershey got to the school board she has been a tireless and fierce advocate for public education and she walked the walk even before getting to the district.

Every election cycle there are a half dozen candidates who loved kids and schools so much they had to run but when they don't win, you never hear from them again. That wasn't Hershey who ran in 2012 against Fischer. No she stayed in the game and fought for kids and even if I disagree with her here and there, she is somebody I want to continue to fight for us.

Schellenberg, what has he done for public ed? Nothing but undermine it. We don't need another recycled politician on the board, especially one that seems to have nothing but disdain for public ed.