FL GOP Legislature pushes 15-year contracts for charter school "certainty"; 1 year for teachers

[seafan]

On Florida school reforms, lawmakers just getting warmed up

Patricia Mazzei writes in the St. Petersburg Times:

April 3, 2011

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In the pipeline: expanding charter schools and school-voucher programs, and rewriting wide-ranging rules that could require middle school students to pass civics and give schools with poor reading-test scores automatic F grades. There's also pension reform, a looming move that would require tens of thousands of schools employees to pay a portion of their retirement.

The far-reaching legislation would build on Florida's reputation for dramatic education reforms embraced more than a decade ago by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

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Bills moving swiftly in the state Legislature would make it easier for charter schools to receive approval, increase enrollment and set up new schools.

The Senate measure, sponsored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, would force school districts to accept charters that contract with universities and community colleges, eroding districts' power to deny new schools.

Districts would also have to grant 15-year contracts to "high-performing" charter schools to give them "more certainty," said Rep. Kelli Stargel, the Lakeland Republican backing a similar bill in the House.

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Everybody got that?

These radicals want to lavish unaccountable charter schools with 15-year contracts to assure them long-term comfort, while stripping teachers of any contracts longer than one year.

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Most striking is a change that would give schools an automatic F grade if students' test scores don't meet reading proficiency requirements — regardless of how students do in other subjects or how the school ranks in other areas, like graduation rates.

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Yeah, we don't need no steenkin' graduation rates in this law. Jeb Bush's legacy of failure MUST be preserved!


Because it's his way or the highway.



These legislators have another month to wreak havoc on our state.