HB1483: Susan Valdes Switched Parties—Now She’s Setting Public Schools Up to Fail

HB1483 is on the Education Administration Subcommittee agenda for Wednesday, 03/19/25, at 10:30 AM.

Florida State Rep. Susan Valdes is a former school board member who was reelected as a Democrat to her 4th and final term in November 2024. In December, after a failed attempt to become the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee chairperson, she announced on X that she had changed her registration to Republican and would caucus with them during her final term. She said she wanted to be part of GOP House Speaker Danny Perez’s vision which “focuses on empowering House members to work on real problems facing our community.”

One of those “real problems” appears to be Florida’s School Grade calculation… apparently, not enough public schools are labeled as failing and Valdes’ HB1483 will “solve” that problem…

HB1483 is cleverly titled the “Schools Committed to Outstanding Results and Excellence (SCORE) Act.” It would change Jeb Bush’s legacy A-F School Grades calculation, designed to be an easy to understand system of ranking Florida’s public schools based on test scores, by aligning the calculation with the traditional classroom grading scale, where 90% of the total possible points (and above) would earn an A, 80-89% a B and so on. In doing so, school and district grades will plummet.

The bill would also mandate that each student’s report card must display the school’s overall grade, ostensibly for transparency purposes.

Private voucher schools, of course, would continue to function without transparency, calculated school grades, state required academic standards or accreditation.

[It should be noted that requiring school grades to be on students’ report cards would delay the issuing of report cards until well into the summer (when school grades are calculated). Parents are not going to like that.]

Transition to Valdes’ New School Grade Scale

The transition to Valdes’ new school grade scale will be incremental and take place over the next 5 years. For the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, all school grades will be calculated using the current SBE adopted grading scale:

• Elementary Schools
  • A = 62% of points or greater
  • B = 54% to 61% of points
  • C = 41% to 53% of points
  • D = 32% to 40% of points
  • F = 31% of points or less
• Middle, High and Combination Schools
  • A = 64% of points or greater
  • B = 57% to 63% of points
  • C = 44% to 56% of points
  • D = 34% to 43% of points
  • F = 33% of points or less

For the subsequent school years, the bill would require the Department of Education (FLDOE) to use the following grading scales for all schools when calculating school grades:

2026-27 school year

• A = 70 percent of points or greater;
• B = 60 percent to 69 percent of points;
• C = 50 percent to 59 percent of points;
• D = 40 percent to 49 percent of points;
• F = 39 percent of points or less;

2027-28 school year;

• A = 80 percent of points or greater;
• B = 70 percent to 79 percent of points;
• C = 60 percent to 69 percent of points;
• D = 50 percent to 59 percent of points;
• F = 49 percent of points or less;

2028-29 school year and thereafter;

• A = 90 percent of points or greater;
• B = 80 percent to 89 percent of points;
• C = 70 percent to 79 percent of points;
• D = 60 percent to 69 percent of points;
• F = 59 percent of points or less

The Impact:

Under this new scale, a school currently rated A with 62-64% of total points would drop to a D by 2029. Statewide, the number of A-rated schools would plummet, while the number of failing schools would surge.

The current Staff Analysis claims the bill would have no fiscal or economic impact – which is absurd. Imagine the cost of the state providing turnaround funding to 1,800+ “failing” schools…

School District Grades would also plummet. By 2027-28, Florida could have no A-rated school districts. By 2028-29, almost all of the state’s 67 school districts could be labeled D or F.

It is no coincidence that the Florida CItizens Alliance, a self-proclaimed education watchdog group that supports book banning and privatizing public education, is currently advocating for the exact same grading scale for Florida’s schools and districts – saying “Florida schools are actually in a major crisis academically, despite PR efforts by the Florida Department of Education to persuade taxpayers into believing the state has the very best schools in the nation.” I suspect Rep. Valdez has been asked to carry this terrible bill.

The bill currently has no senate companion. I recommend calling Rep. Valdez’s office [(850) 717-5064] and telling her how bad HB1483 would be for public schools.