Interim Committee Week #4: Education NOT Meeting.

Governor Ron DeSantis wants the 2020 legislative session to be “The Year of the Teacher,” promising to significantly boost minimum teacher salary to $47,500. He says funding for his scheme ($603 million) can be found within the budget and is just a matter of priorities. Finding $603 million in the Education Budget will be tricky. The legislative committees must be busy trying to satisfy the Governor’s priorities and balance their budget…

Here is the Education schedule for Committee Week #4:

Monday, November 4

• The Senate Education Committee is NOT meeting.

Tuesday, November 5

• The House Education Committee is NOT meeting.

Wednesday, October 23

• Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education is NOT meeting.
• House PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee is NOT meeting

Thursday, October 24

• House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee is NOT meeting.

Let’s cut to the chase, despite Governor Ron DeSantis declaring the 2020 legislative session to be “The Year of the Teacher,” promising to significantly boost starting teacher pay, not a single K-12 education committee is scheduled to meet during Committee Week #4.

Not a single one.

This makes two weeks in a row that neither the Senate Education nor the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education will have met. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education will have only met ONCE during the first four committee weeks:

Only once in four weeks? How will they figure out how to fund the $603 million Governor DeSantis needs for his teacher salary scheme? Remember, during the only meeting they have held so far (10/16/2019), senators essentially mocked the FLDOE when their budget requests failed to mention anything about teacher salaries.

We wonder: what negotiations are occurring behind closed doors? Or is teacher compensation already a dead deal?

Also, remember the Senate’s 2019 legislative strategy? After several years of being dominated by the House, a week before the start of the 2019 session, the Senate Ed committee presented all their priorities in a single bill (SB 7070), rather than present and debate individual bills on their merits. By filing a “train bill” early, even before session started, the Senate was able to control the K-12 legislative process in 2019. Such train bills represent poor legislative practice but are (unfortunately) a great way to pass unpopular policy. Lumping multiple ideas into one train bill, limits public input, as citizens must choose the portion of the bill they most want to address during restricted time for individual comments. Senators who want their education priorities passed must resign themselves to support the train’s questionable policy. Last year, the Senate’s strategy worked for them. They got what they wanted. We expect a replay of the same strategy this year and, no doubt, Senators are already negotiating to get their priorities on that train.

Maybe that’s why they’re too busy to hold public meetings…

There remain two more committee weeks (the week of November 12th and the week of December 9th) before the 2020 Legislative session begins in January 14th. Will education committees meet then? We will see.

The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), on the other hand, continues to appear to “listen.” The Department has completed the recent phase of their  Florida Standards  “Listening Tour” and has embarked on another series of public meetings across the state, this time regarding Workforce Education. According to their press release, the FLDOE “will be hosting a series of public hearings, in-person and virtually, to collect input that will help to inform the development of the state’s career and technical education workforce plan.” Governor DeSantis’ goal is to make Florida the top state in the nation in workforce education by 2030 and to ensure every Florida student is prepared for the jobs of the future.

Let’s pause for a moment to think about the true purpose of an education: Should it be merely economic development and job training? Or should it strive to be something more? Should the goal go beyond workforce training and focus on the development of curious minds and well rounded members of society? This is a conversation that was well overdue when we first wrote about it in 2016. We are still waiting…

Regardless, Governor DeSantis is focused on job training, striving to make Florida #1 in the nation for workforce education, whether that is a good idea or not. You can learn more about his plan here. If you have concerns you should speak out at a public hearing near you:

• November 4 – Leon County, Lively Technical College, 1-3 p.m.
• November 5 – Okaloosa, Northwest Florida State College, 1-3 p.m. CST
• November 7 – Duval County, Florida State College at Jacksonville – Nathan Wilson Center for the Arts/South Campus, 1-3 p.m.

If you can’t get to a listening stop, you can sign up for a webinar on November 12th:

• Virtual Public Workshop on Perkins V #1, 10 a.m. – noon
• Virtual Public Workshop on Perkins V #2, 4-6 p.m.

Needless to say, we will continue watching and waiting. If we want to save public education in Florida, we need everyone to be paying attention (even when meetings are not taking place). Please follow along with us this legislative season (on Facebook and Twitter), stay informed, help us call out the accountabaloney and defend our public schools.