Help Wanted: Florida Commissioner of Education

Posted For

Sandra In Brevaed







The week of March 21 was full of newsworthy education related events coming from Tallahassee.


On Monday, Commissioner of Education Eric Smith submitted his resignation effective June 2011, stating:

“The time has come to allow our newly elected governor to have input through the State Board of Education on the type of leader to pursue his goals for education.”

It is not the Governor who hires or fires the Commissioner of Education. That task is a constitutional duty taken by the State Board of Education.

On Tuesday, Board member Roberto Martinez called for an emergency meeting of the Board to "swiftly organize a search" for a replacement by August. The same day, Willard T. Fair, chairman of the State Board of Education, sent an indignant letter of resignation effective immediately citing his displeasure with the way Smith had been "fired", the fact that the Governor had never met with the Commissioner, the manner in which the Governor had ignored the State Board. In his last act as chair, he rejected Commissioner's Smith's resignation. He refused to participate in the emergency meeting calling it a sham, that the Governor had a candidate, and the Board's role would become a rubber stamping of that selection. He asked that his letter be placed into the record at the emergency meeting.

On Wednesday, Governor Scott called Commissioner Smith for the first time since the resignation and also made calls to State Education Board members, some talked to him for the first time. Scott said he recognized the duties and responsibilities of the Board in the selection of a new Education Commission and would help the Board make that selection.

"I will be working with the Board of Education to find a new commissioner," he said. "It's going to be somebody that believes the same way I do."

Scott has yet to clearly identify what he believes the goal and mission of public education is and its effect on the final customer - students.

On Thursday, Governor Scott signed SB736 into law. The State School Board met via telecon and decided to hire a search firm to find a replacement. The search firm will be selected by their next meeting.

Governor Scott will name three to the State Board of Education, replacing those members whose terms have or will soon expire. Fair's term expired in December and agreed to stay on til a replacement could be found.

What relevant experience and expertise will fill the an incoming Education Commissioner? Here is one scenario.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Florida Education Commissioner
Salary $195,000 - $283,000
No experience in the field of education preferred.
M.B.A.
Senior or mid-level executive.
Manufacturing, IT experience preferred.
Broad graduate preferred.

The job requires skills necessary to implement a $700 million dollar federal grant, manage multi-million dollars contracts and subcontracts, vendors and a contingent of consultants deployed to support local school districts. Initiate an organizational shift to oversee a significant increase in the size of Department of Education and its role in implementing the legislative requirements of SB736.

Maybe the Broad Foundation has a candidate to fill this tall order

Visit Grumpy Educators to read the rest of Samdra's Education Blogs


© SandraInBrevard

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Bartleby Project

Yesterday the Republican controlled Florida House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 736, openly admitting they didn't have a clue how much it cost, or where the money is supposed to come from.  The bill will now go to Governor Scott who at the moment appears to have every intention of signing it into law.

Before we go too far, I'm not a teacher, or an educator, I'm finding  some of the demands teachers have been making nationwide unreasonable.  We're in a recession, they're demanding pay increases at a time when more people are getting fired than getting payraises.  I don't even want to get started on the union issues.

The RTTT related education reform proposals state legislatures are considering at the moment have nothing to do with payraises or unions, in my opinion it's best kept that way.

Cost estimates run into the Billions just to develop the tests and implement the program.  On top of this there will the ongoing costs of licensing, administering and analyzing the results.  The only certainty about the funding, is the biggest portion of it will  come from Florida Taxpayers.  The legislature made it clear they had to pass the law to get their paws on Obama's Race To The Top Money.  We'll spend billions so the legislature can brag they got a fraction of it back from Washington.

Over the last few months Sandra in Brevard has published 27 blogs on this website pointing out how the logic and research behind SB 736 is flawed.  In her blog  Data Mining: An Education Reform Strategy she points out that one of the purposes of the law is to compile as much personal information as possible about our children.   In Education Reform Like a Business: Funny Business Maybe? she points out that the performance of the testing companies themselves might be in need of a little evaluation.  A USA Today study showed wide swings in year to year test performance by individual students.

Then there is the old complaint I've heard so many times from parents, teachers and administrators about teachers being forced to teach to the test.  Yesterday I listened in disbelief as republican members of the Florida House of the dismissed that as a unfounded notion.  This law bases 50% of a teachers yearly income on the results of one test, and teacher's shouldn't be expected to teach to the test?  Then there's a little matter of teacher moral, Teachers counter education reform ideas on tests, pay.

The now infamous SB 6 Education Reform the legislature here in Florida last year was vetoed by Charlie Crist after a email and phone campaign conducted by teachers and parents.  Charlie had another reason for the veto, that reason was all about Charle's dreams of becoming a US Senator.  That won't happen this year.  Scott is showing no sign of wanting to go anywhere.  Even so I think an email campaign on the scale of last years million plus effort could convince Scott to change his mind if all the emails simply had one word on them. 

Bartleby

What is Bartleby?  Over the next several days I'll go into more detail, this video will expalin the general idea.



At first he'll have no idea what it means, when he first finds out he'll laugh it off.  If he starts to get the idea that hundreds of thouands of kids simply won't take the test, he'll realize he has a problem if he signs the law.

SB736 Heads to Senate Education Appropriations Committee

Posted For

Sandra in Brevard





SB736 got a unanimous vote in the Senate Pre-K12 Education Committee and will now be considered by the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education Pre-K12 Appropriation. The subcommittee is chaired by Senator David Simmons and Senator Bill Montford is VIce Chair. Committee members are Senators Nancy Detert, Paula Dockery, Anitere Flores, Evelyn Lynn, Jeremy Ring, Gary Siplin, and Stephen Wise. They will meet to discuss SB736 on February 15.

Some members of the Educations Appropriations subcommittee already showed some irritation with Governor Scott's budget plans for education that includes a 10 percent cut and a suggestion districts use this years funds to make up for the cut next year. Here are some highlights of their comments:

Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, cast doubt on Scott's suggestion to plug some of the hole with stimulus money districts were given to spend for the current school year. "I just don't think that's as straight an arrow as I would expect," said Lynn, chairwoman of the Republican Senate Conference. "I look at it as a little smoke and mirrors."


"Regifting," Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, interrupted.


"It seems a little bit improper," Lynn said.


Chairman David Simmons, R-Maitland, said some districts, including Broward - the state's second largest district, had already spent the money. Simmons said he's awaiting a report on all the districts.


"We'll have a better idea about whether this is real or not," Simmons said.


Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander pointed out to the governor's budget staff in his committee that their math did not add up correctly. While the staff showed cuts of $4.6 bilion in spending, Alexander pointed out the "real cut" adds up to less than $3 billion.

Reaction from the House side was similar:

“A 10 percent reduction is a significant cut,” said committee Chairwoman Marti Coley, R-Marianna.


Coley and Rep. Janet Adkins scolded Scott’s office for trying to "have it both ways" with the education budget. Scott said he’s against the use of federal stimulus money, but his office tacitly encourages school districts to use the money to boost per-pupil spending.


“It’s imperative that you go back and you redo the numbers,” said Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach.


"Committee members also questioned why budget categories had been renamed and changed. The so-called FEFP — the state's complicated, longtime school-funding formula — gets a new moniker, for example, and is now the Education Choice Fund.


Such changes make it hard to compare Scott's spending proposal with prior years' budgets, they said. "I don't know how the math adds up," said Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland."

Reaction from Sandra In Brevard

Last year there was no detail on how much SB6 was going to cost. The Appropriations Committee must explain this year how much SB736 will cost and given the proposed cuts where the funds will come from precisely. And "fiscal impact is indeterminate" is not an acceptable response. If they do not develop a cost analysis, there's no point going forward.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/08/2057172/lawmakers-demand-budget-details.html#ixzz1Dgbq3R74

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/02/gov-rick-scotts-k-12-budget-called-smoke-and-mirrors.html#ixzz1DgaK2EXH

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/02/scotts-4-6-billion-in-cuts-dont-add-up.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-scott-education-budget-folo-20110208,0,5917927.story

SB736: Fiscal Impact Indeterminate

Posted for

Sandra in Brevard




The Florida Senate Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement for SB736, filed by State Senator Stephen Wise, appeared on the PreK-12 Education Committee website. On page 11, Section V: Fiscal Impact Statement reads as follows:

A. Tax/Fees Issue: None

B. Private Sector Impact: None

C. Government Sector Impact:

"The fiscal impact of this bill is indeterminate.

According to the DOE, there will be additional costs to the districts for monitoring the use of evaluation criteria by supervisors and administrators.

As part of Florida's funding in Race to the Top, the DOE will assist school districts in their development of assessment items that may be used for locally developed assessments. Specifically, the DOE will provide the following:


Resources for districts to develop assessment items for "hard to measure" content areas, including Physical and Health Education, Fine Arts, and World Languages; Assessment items for core academic areas (Math, Social Studies,


Science, Language Arts, and Spanish) for grade levels and content areas that are not already tested by FCAT or state end-of-course assessments; and Development of a technology platform that will provide districts secure access to high-quality assessment items and tools for the creation and administration of student assessments.


The DOE notes that over the next three years the grant will provide funding for the development of end-of-course exams in most subject areas. The DOE also noted that additional resources or user charges will be necessary to maintain an assessment item bank or platform at the conclusion of the grant period.

According to the DOE, there are over 400 charter schools in Florida. The DOE reports that there will be a significant impact on its staff to review the evaluation systems for these schools.

It is not anticipated that the bill revises the total funds for instructional personnel and school administrator compensation."

Senator Wise seemed to indicate that he would focus on getting legislation written, but let the Senate Education Appropriations Committee figure out how to fund it. No cost analysis ever emerged for last year's effort (SB6).

Given the current state of the economy and Governor Scott's newly released budgetary measures, it is impossible to guess if SB736 is fundable even if a cost analysis emerges. With the proposed additional slashes to education funding, it would be unreasonable to divert a single remaining local dollar and/or resource to new tests and database development. Race to the Top funds extends to those school districts who signed on. The analysis does not address funding for districts that are not getting Race to the Top support.

Reports suggest that the Governor's proposal was not received with smiles and cheers in Tallahassee. While Scott proposes lowering the forced property tax, he cannot control local (county) education property taxes. If SB736 turns out to be an unfunded mandate, will local governments have to look at local increases they control?

The devil is in the details and we just don't have enough of that. Scott's proposal has to be voted on by the legislature and it looks like Scott needs to convince them. Simply stated, there must be no unfunded mandates and no encroachment on local control.

Read the full bill analysis here: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/736