A Review of Committee Week #1 and a Look Ahead to Committee Week #2 – January 25-29, 2021.

A flurry of bills hostile to public schools and public school employees were filed this week, including a bill to destroy Florida’s public employees’ defined benefit retirement plan/pension (SB84), another bill attacking public-sector unions (SB78) and, as we predicted, a bill (SB48) dramatically expanding and transforming Florida’s private school voucher programs into Education Savings Accounts, which has been the endgame dream of the privatizers since day 1.

(Of note, SB78 and SB84, as well as SB52 and SB264 (to be heard in committee this week) are all filed by newly elected Lee County Senator Ray Wesley Rodrigues, who previously served 8 years in the Florida House representing District 76. Rodrigues has not been assigned to Senate Education committees and never served on any House Education committee but, sadly, that hasn’t caused him to shy away from destructive, anti-public education legislation.)

What else is happening with Education in Tallahassee? Here’s a look back on Committee Week #1 and forward to Committee Week #2.

Review of Committee Week #1

During Committee Week #1 we saw:

• The Senate Education Committee heard presentations setting the stage for expanding Florida’s current private school voucher program. Step Up For Students’ CEO, Doug Tuthill suggested this could be the year for Universal ESAs, the ultimate goal of the privatizers agenda where families are given a debit card and choose from an array of private education options on an “all you can eat free market buffet.” Tuthill promised the senators that they would be hearing a lot about ESAs this session. (see SB48 above)
• The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education heard presentations on CARES Act funding for Education, including a panel of superintendents who outlined their spending of the CARES funding.
• At the State Board of Education meeting in Daytona, Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran, laid out his plan to “defeat Massachussetts” on the 2022 NAEP test. SPOILER: it didn’t involve fully funding public schools but it does involve a lot of test preparation and data collection.
• The House Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee heard a presentation from Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education who insisted recent flat NAEP scores mean now is the time to double down on Jebucation policies like progress monitoring, 3rd grade retention and other data driven practices. For example, the presenter, Dr. Burk, touted expanding state mandated standardized assessments to preschool and early elementary grades, saying tests only take 20 minutes and that teachers need that data. (Early Childhood experts, like Defending the Early Years, would disagree.)
• The House Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee also heard a lovely presentation on the importance of the importance of literacy-rich home environments, advocating for programs like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
• The House Secondary Education & Career Development Subcommittee heard from The National Skills Coalition, a national advocacy group funded by the Gates Foundation, Walmart and other corporate giants and focused on workforce development. Workforce development is a priority of House Speaker Chris Sprowls who outlined, in his Inaugural address, plans to apply Bush-like accountability standards to workforce programs (i.e. measuring outcomes metrics instead of inputs).

Looking Ahead to Committee Week #2

Here is what is on the Education Advocacy Calendar for the Florida Legislature’s Committee Week #2.  Of note, there are only three Education committees meeting this week. This week’s presentations will primarily focus on Workforce Development and, on the Senate side, bills are beginning to be heard. All meetings can be viewed on The Florida Channel.

Tuesday, January 26th

9-11:30 AM: Senate Education

(Public testimony for this meeting will be received from Room A3 at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, in Tallahassee.)

The Committee will hear its first bills:

• SB 52, Rodrigues (R-27)
  • Creates a “scholarship program” that provides dual enrollment classes to all students (private schooled, home schooled and, eventually, public schooled) at no cost to the student. This is part of the development of the marketplace of education offerings for students to choose from. Funding will be provided for homeschooled and private school students next year. Public school students will be added the following year.
  • The bill also allows that university board of trustees may implement a bonus scheme based on awards for work performance or employee recruitment and retention. (Bonuses, which are one time payments, rather than salary increases are popular reform measures, remember Best and Brightest?)
• SB 264, Rodrigues (R-27)
  • Requires Florida’s public Colleges and Universities to “conduct an annual assessment of the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at that institution”. The State Board of Education will then, apparently, rank institutions based on “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented and members of the college community feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom.”
  • On 1/21/21, Rodrigues filed a “Delete-All” Amendment to his bill which adds to the rights to “free-speech activities” on campuses: “A Florida College System Institution or a state university may not shield students from expressive ideas” and defines “shield” as “to limit students’ access to or observation of ideas and opinions they may find uncomfortable, disagreeable or offensive.” Delete-All amendments are a favorite of our legislature but such amendments are problematic because they lack transparency, making it difficult to sort out exactly what new changes are being made.
• SB 220, Brandes (R-24)
  • Exempts searches for new leadership of state universities or Florida College System institutions from many public record laws, removing many portions of such searches from the public eye.

The Senate Ed Committee will also hear presentations on “the alignment between postsecondary education and labor market demand.”

4-5 PM: House Education & Employment Committee.

This will be the first meeting for the newly named House Education and Employment committee and, reflecting their new name, they will hear “presentations on comprehensive, coordinated workforce and education systems that respond to the rapidly changing needs of the workforce.” Per the agenda: “As no filed bills or draft legislation will be considered at this meeting, public testimony will not be solicited and seating will be limited to the Members, invited presenters, and the press.”

Wednesday, January 27

2-3 PM: House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee

The House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a Budget Workshop. Again, “As no filed bills or draft legislation will be considered at this meeting, public testimony will not be solicited and seating will be limited to the Members, invited presenters, and the press.”

NOT MEETING: Senate Education Appropriations, House Early Learning Elementary Education Subcommittee and House Post-Secondary Education Lifelong Learning Subcommittee.

If we want to save public education in Florida, we need everyone to be paying attention (even when only a few meetings are taking place). All meetings are live streamed and archived at thefloridachannel.org. Please follow along with us this legislative season (on Facebook and Twitter), stay informed, help us call out the accountabaloney and defend our community’s public schools.