New York, meet your new state education commissioner. Ties to Rick Scott, Michelle Rhee.

[madfloridian]

She was recently voted out as the school superintendent of Hillsborough County, Florida, which is the Tampa district.

She's apparently an ed reformer's reformer. But I gather she does listen and try to work with those who disagree.

From the Buffalo News:

Testing, teachers and failing schools will challenge Elia

Elia, however, is no stranger to divided boards or the politics that surround education. Earlier this year she became the subject of national attention when the Hillsborough County school board in Tampa voted 4-3 to terminate her contract.

Some of her supporters – including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan – and her work in Florida will likely draw criticism from those opposed to what is characterized as the school reform movement. She served as a transition advisor to Florida Gov. Rick Scott alongside former Washington, D.C., education Chancellor Michelle Rhee. She also designed and implemented a merit pay system for teachers.

At the same time, she acknowledged flaws with Florida’s implementation of the Common Core, including inadequate training for teachers, and worked to close several for-profit charter schools.

There is some concern about her strong support for charter schools, but she did attempt to close some which were run from out of town.

The debate around charter schools in Florida is very different than in New York, and the Sunshine State is considered very charter-friendly with one of the highest concentrations of such schools in the country. With more than 600 of them, the state has close to 10 percent of the nation’s charters.

Hillsborough County has 47 of them, and for the most part Elia said she supports their effort. But she also said they should be held accountable and to the same standards as traditional schools.

Last year, Elia received public criticism when she wanted to close three for-profit charter schools that served about 2,700 children in her district. In Florida, superintendents and local school boards have the authority to authorize and revoke charters. She argued that the schools were being run by an out-of-town management company, a violation of a district requirement they be locally operated.

Here is more about Elia and ties to Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee. Hillsborough County got over 100 million from Gates to put his policies into play.

From 2010:

Rhee in Tampa boasts about unpopularity. Head of schools there threatens tenured teachers.


Michelle Rhee, the outgoing chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools, speaks to urban school administrators during a panel on teacher evaluations at the Council of Great City Schools conference in Tampa on Thursday. (SKIP O’ROURKE | TIMES)

Rhee seems proud of her unpopularity.

"Be prepared to be Ms. or Mr. Unpopular," the outgoing chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools told an audience of urban school administrators here Thursday. "I am really good at this one right now."

Elia tells how many teachers she must fire.

On another panel in the adjoining room, Hillsborough County superintendent MaryEllen Elia was describing a kinder, gentler strategy to reach what is rapidly becoming a national goal: boosting teacher quality and winnowing out those who can't make the grade.

This does not sound kinder and gentler to me.

The district has told the Gates Foundation it might need to fire up to 5 percent or 425 of its 8,500 tenured teachers annually in the first years of the reforms, though officials say they hope intensive support for teachers will reduce that number substantially.


And that kinder, gentler approach? These are the words of the school superintendent to Arne Duncan who was also there.

"They're either going to leave or we're going to say, 'Let us help you leave,' " she said.

[KamaAina]

1. Nice pick, Cuomo!

He really is the Democratic equivalent of DimSon.

[HockeyMom]

2. From Florida,

Kiss your Tenure Goodbye.

[madfloridian]

3. Yep, Florida teachers lost tenure in 2011.

[hollysmom]

4. All you see on tv is cuomo in those pro-charter add - some think like give family choices

yea, how about my choice be kicking your ass out for sucking the teat of the government dry with payoffs and payola and syphoning money away from education and into your pocket.

edited because I can never see errors until I post, sheesh

[madfloridian]

5. More from the WP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/26/new-york-taps-new-education-commissioner-a-superintendent-fired-in-florida/?wprss=rss_education

Last January, the Hillsborough Board of Education voted 4-3 to dismiss her — without cause — with 2 1/2 years left on her contract. Members who voted her out have been on record as criticizing her for board-superintendent tension, her salary and benefits, and constituent complaints about too much high-stakes standardized testing and a lack of services for students with special-needs. She got a buyout worth $1.1 million in salary, benefits and unused vacation and sick time.

Elia, a former teacher in New York and Florida, was well-known in education circles in part because she was superintendent for 10 years in Hillsborough — far longer than the average superintendent — and because her district won $100 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a teacher evaluation system using student standardized-test scores as a key metric. She also negotiated a merit pay system with the teachers union, supported school choice and the Gates-funded Common Core State Standards (even though Florida wound up pulling out of the Core initiative).

....Carol Burris, an award-winning principle (Hey WP that's "principal&quot in New York, said this about Elia:

“It is now apparent why the Board of Regents did not reach out to stakeholder groups and inform them that she was a candidate–if her support for merit pay, the Common Core, Gates Foundation grants, the formulaic dismissal of teachers, and school choice were known, certainly there would have been an outcry from New York parents and teachers who have had more than their fill of test-based reforms. The message of 200,000 Opt Outs has not been heard.”

[ms liberty]

6. I grew up in Tampa and was educated...

In the Hillsborough County School System. I got a good education, but I graduated in 77 and moved away in 86. I don't know what has happened with it since then, but the way Florida seems to have devolved in general, I don't think I'd be pleased.

[madfloridian]

7. The county became one of Gates experiments with his paying the way.

Since the reformers always say they are successful even if they are not, it's hard to know how things really are there.

[Starry Messenger]

8. They just move these assholes around.

Talk about cronyism.

[madfloridian]

10. Exactly right.

No time wasted.

[Wilms]

9. ^

[madfloridian]

11. And a morning kick.

.

[Octafish]

12. Putting the ''fee'' into the future of public education.

Must make for good optics until then, though.

[olddots]

13. this is bad

Very , very bad