The Network for Public Education reposted this analysis of school funding in Florida by Sue Kingery Woltanski. She was not surprised to discover that the state provides much more aid to students in non-public schools than to those in public schools. Imagine what a difference that money would make if it were directed to public schools, where it belongs. Florida now subsidizes the tuition of every student in private schools, religious schools, and home schools. Most of that state money goes to students who never attended public schools. Florida is underwriting the
In this post, Sue Kingery Woltanski breaks down the finances in just one Florida district to show how taxpayer-funded vouchers are actually resulting in more taxpayer dollars going to private schools than to public ones. Reposted with permission.
What Monroe County’s numbers reveal about Florida’s broken school funding priorities
I saw this image today, and it prompted me to take a closer look at the numbers for my Florida school district: Monroe County.
SURPRISE! Here is the state funding breakdown for Monroe:
- Monroe’s 8,457 Public School students (district and charter) receive $181.86 each from the state (for a total of $1,537,924).
- While Monroe’s 743 Family Empowerment Scholarship voucher recipients receive $6,786.03 each from the state (for a total of $5,040,326).
What if that $5,040,326 was used to fund Monroe’s public school students instead? Per pupil funding would be nearly $600 more per pupil, which could translate into teacher raises of $8,000/year or a reduction in class sizes, expanded electives, richer learning experiences, or some combination of all of the above – all of which could directly improve classrooms and student learning
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dear Ms. Ravitch,I’m a retired Illinois teacher who is incredibly grateful for your blog and the way you write about education issues and policy. In retirement, I supervise student teachers. This is rewarding and gives me an opportunity to contribute to the profession. I have met some incredibly gifted cooperating teachers who are mentoring those entering the profession, and I’m grateful for them and their dedication. Friday, I met with a cooperating teachers and my student teacher, and the cooperating teacher shared with me that the district has implemented a new grading scale under the guise of standards based grading. As he explained it to me, the new grading scale is 80-100=A; 60-79=B 40-59=C;20-39=D. Only if one has below 20% does one fail a class. This was an administrative effort to reduce failure and raise graduation rates. He said they were told they had to do this to make graduation attainable for everyone. This is a large unit school district so this policy impacts many students. I was appalled. I am writing to you because I would like to know if this practice is widespread. I don’t want to damage the relationship between university I work for and school districts, but I do not believe this is good for kids. As educators we need to support kids in reaching high standards, not make the standards so low no one can possibly fail to meet them. The teacher expressed that this diminishes a student’s likelihood of success in college. I would argue it diminishes likelihood of success in anything as I do not know of a job in which a 20% accuracy or success rate is acceptable. I’m sure someone thought this was going to be helpful, but I vehemently disagree. Would you consider looking into the prevalence of this and seeing if there is any research on long term outcomes?In any case, thank you for all you do.With best wishes,Melissa
Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
LikeLike
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for writing. I am not aware of a study of grading standards.
When Common Core was spreading across the nation about 10-14 years ago, the standards were made impossibly high. “Proficient” was confused with grade level, and many pundits made dire predictions about the condition of education.
A correction was needed to the Common Core testing standards. But from what you describe, your district has gone too far in lowering standards. The ranges are far too broad. An A that represents 80-100 is not an A.
Teachers must call on administrators and the school board to recalibrate grades. What you describe is a gutting of standards.
LikeLike
I’ll say it again, although I am confident everyone is tired of hearing this from me: This is why the Network for Public Education is worth supporting financially.
LikeLike
DeSantis is doing everything he can to undermine public public education. His so-called Schools of Hope are yet another scheme to hurt public schools. In addition, he is proposing eliminating property taxes for Florida residents. Although the governor claims that public education will be provided for under this plan, like Trump the public cannot believe anything the manipulative DeSantis says. I believe it is just one more attempt to consolidate power in the state government and undermine home rule, and it is part of a bigger libertarian scheme to eventually cut all public funding for education and make it a personal family responsibility, which, of course, will benefit the wealthy. Like a lot of initiatives from the GOP, the plan starts off appearing somewhat reasonable, but I think it would quickly turn into another right wing power grab and a way to benefit the super-wealthy that have high property tax bills.
LikeLike