Prediction: Florida’s De-reg Will NOT Include the Policies Designed to Advance School Privatization
On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, the Florida State Board of Education (FLBOE) is required to submit their de-regulation recommendations to the Governor and Legislature, in anticipation of legislative adoption during the 2024 legislative session, as per 2023’s HB1. Such recommendations are supposed to “provide more flexibility, efficiency, and reduce unnecessary regulation for public schools” in an attempt to “level the playing field” following the state’s expansion to Universal ESA vouchers last session.
This summer, Senate President, Kathleen Passidomo, encouraged the public to provide feedback to the board “that could help lead to lawmakers ‘cutting red tape for public schools.’” It is expected that the Senate will begin the de-regulation discussions during the upcoming committee weeks.
In the meantime, we will wait to hear the “FLBOE recommendations…”
I placed “FLBOE recommendations” in quotation marks because, at the last FLBOE meeting on October 18,2023, Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., asked the FLBOE to delegate that responsibility to him and, of course, they did.
For the record, HB1 clearly called for the State Board of Education, NOT the Commissioner or his Department of Education staff, to review the entirety of the state’s Early Learning-20 code and make recommendations for repeals and revisions, after considering widespread input. The FLDOE did collect input via a department online portal but, by relinquishing their responsibility to the department, the state board, also, avoided hearing public comments regarding “their recommendations” before “their submission.”
What will NOT be on the deregulation list? Anything having to do with Florida’s Accountability system, school grades or the high stakes attached to state mandated standardized testing. In fact, during the October 18th meeting, the FLBOE voted to raise the stakes by raising the bar on passing scores required for high school graduation in public schools. Since private voucher schools are not subject to any of these accountability measures and, in fact, Florida’s accountability plan was originally designed to offer vouchers so students could “escape” public schools it labeled as failing (see Jeb’s A+ Plan circa 1999), I am skeptical there will be any real “leveling of the playing field.”
Let me say that in a different way… while most associate the A+ plan with testing and school grades, it is important to recognize the plan ALSO, from Day One, included the intention of using the school grades to promote privatization of public education via expanded school choice:
- Assess annual student learning against high standards.
- Clearly communicate school performance to everyone: i.e. Grade every school on an A-F grading scale.
- Reward high performing and improving schools and require turnaround plans for low performing schools.
- Provide alternatives to children in chronically failing schools via public and private school choice.
Governor DeSantis and the FLDOE are constantly celebrating Florida’s success as the state with “the most school choice.” They will not tinker with the accountability system that drives that narrative.
So what will be recommended? Perhaps they will eliminate teacher certification or school accreditation requirements, repeal class size restrictions, or eliminate some of the State Requirements for Educational Facilities (SREF), which are part of the Florida Building Code designed to establish minimal safety standards for school construction and promote the physical welfare and safety of students? These are all reasons that Florida’s families continue to choose public schools over low quality, unaccredited strip mall voucher schools with non-certified teachers. This is NOT the sort of level playing field our schools need.
Still stakeholder groups have submitted recommendations.
The Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) submitted a recommendation list that covered topics including construction costs, budgets, enrollment, school choice, instructional delivery and accountability. Their pitches included proposals to:
- Eliminate the need to provide a seat for every student residing within the district, due to the passage of universal eligibility for education choice programs, which are expected to reduce the number of students attending district-run schools.
- Create “transfer windows” for students who switch from private or home school to public school so school districts can minimize disruptions in the middle of the school year.
- Provide school districts with blanket flexibility comparable to charter schools, which are exempt from entire swaths of state education laws.
“We’d like for them to recognize all parental choice equally and give school districts the same flexibility and opportunity to innovate provided to other publicly funded options,” said Brian Moore, general counsel for FADSS.
The Florida School Boards Association submitted proposals to:
- Provide ALL schools with the same level of flexibility as high performing districts and charter schools.
- Give parents/guardians more choice over retention/promotion decisions.
- Repeal corporal punishment (yes, Florida law still allows this in schools).
- Reduce burdensome administrative processing and reporting.
- Repeal limits on cost per student station on new construction or renovation of school buildings.
Both groups appear to have mostly stayed clear of the third rail of the Accountability system. This is disappointing but not at all surprising.
Accountabaloney is now 8 years old. In our very first blog post we called for:
“a serious, state wide, discussion regarding the appropriate use of standardized test data. This should include review of the mandatory third grade retention, graduation requirements, VAM scores, the effect of state mandated EOCs on a student’s GPA, and the A-F school grading system. Florida should consider the use of existing, less test-based accountability systems. Rather than enacting new laws, existing laws with unintended negative consequences should be repealed…
Now, eight years later, there is an attempt at deregulation but I expect none of the laws with well documented, (unintended?) negative consequences will be considered for repeal, the high stakes will remain, children will be retained, abusive testing and test prep will consume class time and lawmakers will continue to enact laws that disrupt rather than improve our public schools. Already the FLBOE has passed on its opportunity to have any real discussion.
But maybe they’ll surprise me… we will see…
Could you describe the process by which you would bring these voucher programs to a conclusion if you had power? Would you repeal them effective immediately or would you forcibly remove families from the program in phases? How would handle the process of forcibly integrating hundreds of thousands of families back into the public system? Given compulsory education laws, would you use the force of the state through law enforcement to make dissenters comply with your repeal? Please be specific
I am not advocating for that. If I had the power, I would repeal the state’s over-regulation of the public schools and return local control to locally elected school board. I would ask the Legislature to fulfill its paramount duty, and fully fund a high quality system of free public schools that allow all students to obtain a high quality education. I would not do anything to the voucher programs – they are by and large accepted at low private quality schools. If our public schools were de-regulated and well funded, the low quality schools would eventually close on their own accord.
The de-regulation process, attached to HB1’s expansion to Universal ESAs, is supposed to “level the playing field” for district managed public schools. In Florida, the major difference between voucher schools and district managed public schools are related to the state mandated high stakes standardized testing and the misuse of those test scores. Over the past 25 years, the tests have been mis-used to label schools as failing to encourage families to leave for private options.The overbearing high stakes of the Accountability has encouraged a narrowed curriculum and a focus on test preparation. These things are bad for students and inhibit innovation in our schools.
This is from a letter I wrote to the Senate Ed committee last session:
“Finally, I reject the idea that public schools need a “leveled playing field” to compete with these voucher schools. Have you visited these schools? They are often unaccredited, their teachers are uncertified, they are in basements and strip malls. 61% of voucher recipients return to public school within 2 years. Public schools need to be deregulated so they can innovate and best serve the 2.9 million students who attend them. They need funding which, at a minimum, keeps up with inflation. And we need a legislature who will embrace their paramount duty, provide adequate provisions and recognize our public school system for what it is – the first and best choice for Florida’s families.
To paraphrase the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, “I ask no favor for my public schools … All I ask of our legislature is that they take their feet off our necks.””
You can read more here: https://accountabaloney.com/index.php/2023/02/19/an-open-letter-to-the-senate-education-prek-12-committee-re-sb202/?fbclid=IwAR1-wOZbzs2LvBG3vXUM5_GtCTZ9LpjzeXAMyzpSKnOXZatdUO1jnhILuag
Enjoy your weekend.
So drilling down, your argument is the following(?) –
-On an up and down floor vote to eliminate voucher programs in Florida, you would vote no. Presented with a bill from the legislature to sign to end the voucher programs, you would veto. Is this correct?
-You would deregulate public schools to your preferences, and “fully fund” them. What would be the per pupil spending amount annually that would constitute “fully funded” and how much would that go up each year? Two unambiguous numbers please
-As a result of #2 #3, every low quality private school in the state would close and as such the voucher program would “by and large” cease to exist? But because many high quality private schools do accept the vouchers, they would still be eligible to receive them? (Assuming your direct answer to #1 is no?)
Is this summation accurate? Quite fascinating
No, Mr. Lindsay, your summation is not accurate.
First of all, I am not now, and never will be, in the position to vote up or down on eliminating the voucher program in Florida.
Fully funding public schools is also a pipe dream in Florida. Public schools should be funded so that teachers make about the median income in their community, food service employees and bus drivers can afford to live in their communities, kids don’t need to pay for after school sports and parents don’t have to pay for basic school supplies. I can’t tell you what that number is but, with Florida’s education funding being 42nd in the country and Florida’s cost of living being 22nd highest, more investment is warranted. At a minimum, public education funding in Florida should keep pace with inflation, something it hasn’t done in 15 years.
Which high quality private schools accept vouchers? In Florida, the most prestigious do not.
The question you should be asking is why doesn’t Florida want to invest in their public school system, which remains overwhelmingly popular despite attacks by you and your friends? Why do people like you advocate the elimination of public schools, the same public schools that fueled the greatest post war economy in the world, creating a country that built the computer and biotech industries and literally landed people on the moon (you aren’t such a conspiracy theorist that you deny that, are you?)? Does Florida have some excellent private schools? Yes. But the majority of those accepting vouchers are sub par, despite years of Florida investing in them at the expense of its public schools.
In my community, like many across the state, our schools were built for our community by the efforts of generations of local citizens. They have pride when their grandchildren graduate from their alma mater.
The current Florida legislature knows that our private school system, as a whole, cannot compete with our public school system. How do I know? Because they refuse to hold them to the same standards or allow transparency or accountability for the public.
Again, I think you need a better hobby than trolling me. This week, I will be expressing my gratitude for the hard working individuals who saw the value of public education and worked to make it the best it could be for their community. My father was one of those people, as was my grandmother. I hope you have something to be similarly grateful for this Thanksgiving Week.
You don’t answer the questions directly because we both already know the answers. You should own what you would actually do with power. You should own that “fully fund” our schools is never a number, always simply hammer to wield power and protect broken systems. Your preening moralizing around direct questions is entirely uninteresting and you should be truly suspect of the intelligence of anyone it fools. As always, everything we say about what others are doing with power is ultimately a mirror to what we actually want to do. Reflect on that truth with gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving!