Senator Gaetz Releases Report On Education Reform: May 5

On Friday, May 5, 2008, Florida Senator Don Gaetz released the following report regarding education reforms enacted by the 2008 Regular Florida Legislative Session. 

A copy of Senator Gaetz’ report is reprinted below.

 

Should you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact this office.

 
Major Education Reforms Approved by Legislature
 
Bills raise ethical standards for teachers, academic standards for students and grading standards for high schools
 
Dear Neighbor,
 
On Friday at 6:00 p.m. the Florida Legislature ended its 2008 regular session.  This is the first of several reports I’ll be sharing with you to discuss in some detail the issues I faced and the positions I took as your senator.
 
As Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, I’m devoting this report to several key changes in education policy.
 
Although the proposals had been crafted and presented months before, it was in the last 48 hours of the Legislative Session that major reforms to the state’s public school system were finally adopted by the Florida Senate and House of Representatives.
 
In fact, only minutes before Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio brought down their gavels for the last time, I was still working with my House counterparts to agree on final wording of a measure that expands scholarships for low income students.  Like last year when my proposal that reduced workers compensation premiums was passed in the waning seconds of the session, this year our Stand Up for Children Scholarship program was the last bill approved by the Senate.
 
Thanks to broad bi-partisan support, we were fortunate to pass six major education reforms in the Senate.  Five survived in the House and have been sent to Governor Crist for signature:

• The Ethics in Education Act, on which I was privileged to work with President Pro Tem Lisa Carlton (R-Osprey), deals with the tragically expanding problem of teacher misconduct.

The bill was inspired by an in-depth investigative series by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that documented hundreds of instances of Florida educators sexually exploiting students and insufficient safeguards and procedures to screen or punish wrongdoers. 
 
A Senate Education Committee study confirmed that school districts often fail to thoroughly check job applicants’ backgrounds before placing them in contact with children.  The study also revealed that some school districts are lacksidaisical about investigating allegations of teacher misconduct, allow unethical teachers to quietly resign instead of being fired for cause, and are passive or complicit in “passing the trash” to the next school or district.
 
The bill which the Senate passed unanimously and in which the House concurred obligates school officials to conduct thorough background checks on prospective educators, including contacting previous employers and using a state data system that identifies persons who have committed wrongful acts in the past.  The bill also requires superintendents to aggressively investigate charges of misconduct, forbids “confidentially agreements” and “side deals” that gloss over unethical behavior, establishes stiff penalties for teachers and administrators who abuse their positions, and protects students, parents and other employees who report instances of broken trust. 
 
Superintendents who fail to look into legitimate complaints or who attempt to cover up misdeeds of educators lose a year’s salary.
 
The Educational Practices Commission, a state board which decides whether teachers and administrators lose their credentials, is expanded to include parents and law enforcement officers.

• The Next Generation Academic Standards bill calls for the eventual replacement of the Sunshine State Standards, which now define curricula in Florida schools, with some of the most demanding scholastic benchmarks in the nation. 

I sponsored this bill in large part because of the desire of House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami) to increase Florida’s academic standing and to raise the performance of high school graduates.  The bill joins Florida to the American Diploma Project, a multi-state effort to align our standards and testing to the expectations of public and private colleges and universities as well as private sector employers.
 
The bill requires a stronger emphasis on civics and social studies, a project on which I’ve worked cooperatively with former Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham.  As well, students will have more options to satisfy the graduation requirement to earn one credit in the arts.
 
The legislation also authorizes the Commissioner of Education to develop end-of-course mastery examinations that would be standardized state-wide.  These exams would measure student proficiency as a basis for awarding credits and promotion to the next grade and help qualify teachers for performance pay. 

• The School Grading Reform expands how high schools are measured by the state.  At present, a high school’s grade is determined entirely by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.  Under the new legislation, the FCAT will comprise 50 percent of a school’s grade because only about half of high school students take the FCAT in any given year. 

Other factors that will now be taken into account include a high school’s graduation rate and student performance in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses as well as national industry certifications earned by students in career-technical courses.  As end-of-course mastery exams are standardized state-wide, those results will also figure into a school’s grade.
 
I sponsored this legislation so that there would be a more accurate and complete picture of how students and schools are doing.  Our bill passed the Senate unanimously before going to the House of Representatives where it eventually won the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
 
This measure doesn’t change the FCAT but, rather, broadens the grading system to include other valid yardsticks of scholastic achievement.  Right now going beyond the FCAT applies only to high schools because – unlike Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and national industry certifications for career courses – there are no similar non-FCAT measures that reliably determine student progress or regression in middle and elementary schools at the present time. 

• Accelerated Credits in Career-Technical Courses will allow students enrolled, for example, in pre-architecture or computer-assisted design courses, to simultaneously earn a credit in geometry.  To earn the additional credit, the student would have to pass a state-approved end-of-course mastery exam.

I chose to sponsor this legislation because of my experience in helping to develop the nationally-honored CHOICE Institutes during my time as Superintendent of Okaloosa Schools.  The CHOICE model is now spreading across the state as a result of the Florida Career and Professional Education Act which I was fortunate enough to pass last year. 
 
If a student can master the academic theories of a more traditional course while performing well in a career course that practically applies the same theories, my view is that he or she ought to be given the opportunity to “test out” and earn both credits. 
 

This bill, which unanimously passed the Senate prior to House consideration, directs the Commissioner of Education to choose three school districts to pilot the plan.  As successful results are reported, I will push to expand the accelerated credit measure state-wide.

• The Stand Up For Children Scholarship Program already allows 20,000 low income students to obtain scholarships to attend private schools.  The scholarships are funded by businesses which designate a portion of their taxes for the program.  The bill I sponsored this year, and which was the last measure approved by the 2008 session of the Senate, expands this highly successful program to more students.

Current law allows corporations state-wide to assign $88 million of tax payments to the program.  Our bill, the most broadly supported piece of substantive legislation in the Senate, expands the authorization to $118 million, which will permit an additional 5,000 students to participate.  The program had to turn away over $10 million last year due to caps imposed by existing statutes. 
 
The average family income of Step Up for Children Scholarship recipients is $23,000 for a family of four.  Forty percent of recipients are African-American.  Thirty percent are Hispanic.   The program has been studied by Florida TaxWatch and the LeRoy Collins Center for Public Policy at FSU, who report it saves the state millions of dollars.  The scholarship amount for next year is set at $3,950 per student, an increase of $200 over this year.  It costs taxpayers about $7,000 per student for the same individuals to attend public school.  Even with the scholarships, most families pay up to $1,000 for their students to participate.  There are 10,000 low income families on the waiting list.
 
Step Up for Children is active in 64 counties, including all five counties of coastal Northwest Florida.  I was honored to be joined by 19 other senators as co-sponsors, including the incoming Democratic Leader of the Senate, Senator Al Lawson.

• Charter School Reform Died in the House 

 The charter school movement has provided choice for parents and healthy competition for public schools.  But, like many grassroots movements, it has over time evolved into an industry dominated by large corporations and represented by influential lobbyists.
 
The Orlando Sentinel produced a remarkable and disturbing investigative series documenting the financial excesses and academic deficiencies of many corporate-operated charter schools in the state.  Unfortunately, widespread nepotism has led to unqualified family members of charter operators making six figure salaries and schools losing track of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers’ money.  Loopholes in current law have allowed many charters, which would be graded as poor or failing schools, to evade school accountability requirements. 
 
Our charter school reform bill, unanimously approved in the Senate, would have strengthened legitimate charter schools by curbing the abuses and ending the excesses of those who have wasted or lost large sums of public funds.  The bill unanimously passed the Senate but met stiff opposition in the House of Representatives from a well-financed and well-orchestrated lobbying campaign. 
 
As a School Board Member in Okaloosa County, I supported the approval of three charter schools in our county.  I believe in choice and in competition.  In my opinion, the existence of charter schools helped spur Okaloosa’s neighborhood public schools to become the highest performing in the state’s history.
 
Fortunately, two of those schools – Okaloosa-Walton College’s Collegiate High School and Liza Jackson Preparatory School – have become successful and are among the best in Northwest Florida.  The other, the Okaloosa Academy, was ranked as an F school by the state but is still permitted to function under the same corporation because of lax laws.  A charter school in Pensacola pleaded no contest to charges of theft of public funds and falsification of student records but is allowed to continue in operation, thanks to the same legal loopholes our bill would have closed.  
 
The House had four chances to pass charter school reforms this session but refused, insisting instead that charters be exempted from class size requirements and provided with more funding.  The charter reform bill died in the House’s lap after being repeatedly passed and sent across the Capitol by the Senate. 
 
This is an issue that I am morally bound to raise again next year.  People of good will can legitimately disagree about the best way these privately operated but publicly funded schools should be held accountable.  I’m hopeful that soon we can find common ground on this important issue with our partners in the House of Representatives.
 
Other education policy issues:
Mandatory PE and Droopy Pants
 
Two other education policy issues brought me helpful comments and advice from neighbors in Northwest Florida. 
 
I certainly didn’t sponsor a bill that would have substituted more physical education for music and arts programs in our school.  However, I did join with Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla (R-Miami) in amending that bill to change more middle school PE mandates into an option which parents can evaluate and decide for themselves. 
 
Our amendment softened a requirement that could have crowded out band, chorus, forensics, and other visual and performing arts courses.  Instead, parents can choose those courses or after school participation in sports or physical activity as an alternative to an expanded daily PE requirement for sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
 
Anyone whose child has ever been a member of a Northwest Florida marching band or JROTC program knows that those courses provide as much or more physical activity and discipline as a middle school PE class.
 
Also, I didn’t sponsor and didn’t vote for a bill that would have involved the State Legislature in deciding whether students’ pants hang too low.  As a parent, myself, and as Superintendent of Okaloosa Schools from 2000-2006 I have insisted on dress codes and have supported school uniforms.  But I believe the Legislature has enough state issues to tackle that we should trust local voters to choose School Board Members who will establish student dress codes consistent with community standards. 
 
Although the “droopy pants” bill passed the Senate despite my “no” vote, the Governor made it clear he would not sign the bill so it was shelved by the House of Representatives.  
 
   
School Funding Cuts are Real, But Not as Deep As Originally Feared
 
The 2008 Legislature faced an almost $5 billion negative swing in revenues compared to a “normal” year.  Public education comprises nearly a third of the state’s budget.  So, while it was inevitable that public education would receive its first funding cut in nearly twenty years, I’m relieved that the reductions weren’t nearly as serious as had originally been feared. 
 
Instead of a 5 to 10 percent across-the-board cut in public school funding, which some forecasters had projected, the Florida Education Finance Program was reduced by a statewide average of 1.8 percent.  Other segments of the budget were cut far more.  Even within the education budget, the state Department of Education was reduced by 10 percent with some DOE categories cut by as much as 28 percent.  In my judgment, those are the right values in tough times:  to make the most significant sacrifices the furthest away from students.
 
As a side note, I joined with Senator Mike Fasano in sponsoring a budget amendment to cut the salaries of Senators, House members, the Governor and Cabinet by 10 percent and re-direct the $600,000 savings to education.  The House offered a 2 ½ percent cut in elected officials’ salaries.  I’m disappointed that, in the end, the budget included a 5 percent cut instead of a 10 percent cut in this item. 
 
Undeniably, the comparatively shallow 1.8 percent reduction in school outlays is still less money for next year than this year. 
 
I had hoped that there would be no funding adjustments in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs.  However, the realities of the worst budget situation in 32 years overwhelmed my objections and those of other senators who joined me in supporting these vital programs for high-achieving students.  As our economic circumstances improve, I will do all I can to restore and even expand that categorical funding.
 
Parents, teachers and taxpayers wrote and called during the session to express their strong preference that, if cuts had to come, local school districts would try to buffer any impact on the classroom by making disproportionate reductions in district overhead and administration.   Remembering the deep mid-year cuts we faced in Okaloosa Schools after 9/11, I recall with pride that our School Board reduced district office expenses by millions but didn’t lay off one teacher or affect one academic program.  As a taxpayer, I have every hope that our elected School Board Members and Superintendents will do their best in what is certainly a challenging year.
 
The five education reform measures we did pass will result in better schools and better student performance.  The best teacher ethics law in America, higher academic standards, more accurate school grades, accelerated credits in career education, and expanded scholarships for low income students represent an education record I’m proud to bring home. 
 
Every one of these improvements came from concerns expressed and proposals made by educators, families and taxpayers here in Northwest Florida.  As is always the case, the best ideas don’t come from Tallahassee.  The best ideas come from people who confront the realities and the issues every day in their jobs, their homes, their schools and their communities. 
 
Just as in my first legislative session last year, I owe so much to Representative Ray Sansom (R-Destin), who now becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Speaker-designate Sansom has been generous with his advice and help and steadfast in his support of good public policy.
 

Thank you for the remarkable privilege of speaking for you in the Senate.  Please let me know your feelings about the education bills I sponsored.  Your comments, criticisms and guidance help me be a better senator.
 
Respectfully,
 
Senator Don Gaetz