The Sun-Sentinel of Florida explains why Richard Corcoran is a disastrous choice for Florida’s public schools as Commissioner of Education. He is unqualified. He has no education experience. He is hostile to public schools and their teachers. He has done everything he could think of to shift local tax monies from public schools to charter schools. During his campaign for governor, Ron DeSantis never visited a public school, although 90% of Florida’s children attend them.
Put succinctly: “Richard Corcoran for state education commissioner? Sure. Why not make Tallahassee’s hostility to public education even more apparent?…
In Corcoran, DeSantis has an education soulmate. Last year, Corcoran leveraged his power as speaker to push through legislation that for the first time gave charter schools — which use public money but may be privately operated — some of the property tax revenue that school districts use for construction and maintenance. When Florida allowed charter schools in the mid-1990s, operators said they never would need such money.
“House Bill 7069, which legislators hardly got to read, did much more. It gave charter companies $200 million to build “schools of hope” near low-performing public schools but with no guarantee that the charters would take all the students. The bill made it harder for school districts to use federal money designed to help those same struggling students.
“Former Palm Beach County Superintendent Robert Avossa called Corcoran’s creation “the single largest piece of legislation to dismantle public education that I’ve ever seen.” True, but HB 7069 simply extended the attack on public education by Republicans since they took control in Tallahassee two decades ago.”
Elections have consequences. Floridians who value their public schools will have to fight for them, or see more of their tax dollars diverted to for-profit charter entrepreneurs and religious schools that teach creationism and racism.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a ridiculous situation.
90% of school families in that state have no representation at the state level. In fact, the public employees they’re paying are “hostile” to public schools.
We get the privilege of paying these “visionaries” for NOT doing their jobs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every ed reformer in Florida could stop showing up for work and 90% of the families in that state wouldn’t know the difference.
They’re irrelevant to public school families. The only time we notice that they exist is when they succeed in jamming thru one of their anti-public school initiatives.
No positive value to public school families, at all, yet we’re paying tens of thousands of them in government..
LikeLike
Whenever DeSantis tries to impose more privatization, communities should answer with protests and resistance. At least the League of Women Voters is a watchdog group that will ensure that these scoundrels have to adhere to the letter of the law.
LikeLike
The bill IS designed to kill public eduction, a thousand cuts and ways. This is a summary
Florida CS/HB 7069: Education
GENERAL BILL by Appropriations Committee ; Education Committee ; Diaz, M. ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Cortes, B. ; Donalds ; Fischer ; Roth
Education; Requiring the Auditor General to conduct annual audits of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind;
requiring that the lowest-performing elementary schools be determined by specified assessment results;
creating the Schools of Excellence Program;
providing charter schools are eligible for capital outlay funds pursuant to specified provisions;
deleting a provision requiring the Algebra II end-of-course assessment to be administered;
creating the Florida Best and Brightest Principal Scholarship Program; authorizing all students, including home education and private school students, to participate in specified virtual instruction options, etc. APPROPRIATION: $418,950,000.
There is much more in the bill. It is worth a look because these legislated measures are widely copied.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Floridans that value their public schools may have to fight just like Thomas Jefferson said. We are up against tyrants and if the justice system fails, there is only one way to deal with these tyrants.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure,” Jefferson wrote in a letter to William S. Smith, a diplomatic official in London, on November 13, 1787.Oct 17, 2009
If the justice system fails, the tree of liberty will die if we do not refresh the blood manure it needs to thrive.
LikeLike