Who Is Accountabaloney?
In the Beginning We were Two:
Sue Woltanski and Suzette Lopez met through their online advocacy for public schools. After becoming friends and trusted allies in the fight for public education, they discovered that they shared much more in common. It turned out, they were close neighbors in the sunny Florida Keys. So, beneath the illuminated sun and beautiful palm trees, they would talk education, high stakes testing and issues of accountability. By nature, they are not complainers; they are problem solvers. They became increasingly concerned about the state’s exclusively test based, Education Accountability system. They knew the quality of their children’s education could not be completely evaluated on the basis of a few grade level test scores.
We are not against accountability. We believed educators and schools should be held accountable for providing a high quality, engaging education to all of our public school children. They also feel that legislators should be held accountable for their part in enacting failed education policy. The Florida Legislature has layered policy over policy, creating an Accountability system that is not just “fragile”, it is completely broken. The unintended consequences of poorly vetted education policy can not be corrected by more “policy bandaids.” Sue coined the phrase “accountabaloney” to reflect the lack of common sense and reason in Florida’s current system. If parents are to regain respect for this broken system, Sue and Suzette believed Florida needed (and still needs) a serious, state wide, discussion regarding the basic framework of the current system. Rather than enacting new laws, existing laws with unintended negative consequences should be repealed and replaced with policies reflecting current education research, not political ideology. Step 1 in fixing the problem, is acknowledging we have a problem. In Florida, we have an “accountabaloney” problem and Sue and Suzette decided to call it all out. They launched Accountabaloney in September 2015
Suzette Lopez by day is a graphic designer running her own business, by night a public school and special needs student advocate. She is a mother of two (now grown) “divergent/gifted” learners who attended Miami Dade County Public Schools. In February 2021, Suzette Lopez stepped down from Accountabaloney so she could focus on her family and her health. Suzette was the person who pushed me to start writing. She is an artistic genius, who made our website look great and created the eye-catching graphics that caught your attention. I am grateful to Suzette for her friendship and our years together with Accountabaloney.
Sue Woltanski is a public school advocate, retired pediatrician and mother of two (now grown) children who attended Monroe County Public Schools. She has served as a charter school board member and on multiple committees in the Monroe County School District. She is the founder of the grass roots effort Minimize Testing Maximize Learning. After writing hundreds of letters to legislators and editors, this was her first attempt at blogging.
On June 22, 2018, Sue was elected, unopposed, to Monroe County School Board District 5 and took office in November 2018. In August 2022, she won re-election (one of only 5 school board candidates, statewide, to defeat a DeSantis-endorsed opponent that night). She continues to focus her writing on the damaging effects of high stakes testing as well as Florida’s relentless privatization policy agenda. Florida’s public schools, after 25 years of being labeled as failing by a flawed Accountability system, are under constant attack by administrations driven by ideology and their future is threatened. By highlighting the laws and policies enacted in Florida, and their impacts on our public schools, Sue hopes her blog will inform those in Florida to join the fight to protect public schools and those in other states to defend their own schools from similar attacks.
Unless expressly stated, Sue’s continued writing will reflect her own opinions and should not be construed to represent the views of the Monroe County School Board.