A weekend interview about Florida's voucher program with Northwestern U. researcher David Figlio

Florida has the largest education voucher system in the country. And up to now, no one has been able to quantify whether children who use the vouchers to go to private schools get better schooling than those who stay behind. Northwestern University professor David Figlio finally has put some data to the question, and has concluded -- at least for now -- that those who leave perform no better or worse than those who don't. He spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about his research, his next steps, and his views on the spin that voucher advocates and opponents have given to his work.

What exactly prompted you to take a look at the way the voucher results are turning out?

Well, I've had a very longstanding interest in both school choice in general as well as the education of disadvantaged kids. This is the largest school voucher program in the United States, so in that regard I think it's a question of considerable national interest. And given that the vouchers are aimed specifically at low-income kids -- or kids from low-income families, that is -- it's targeting a key target population that is of direct interest to me. So to me it was very natural for me to think about what is happening to these schools, who is using the voucher programs, what schools are they choosing to go to, and is the voucher program leading to increased competition with the public schools, and are the kids doing better in the voucher program. Some of these questions I've investigated, and others I'm in the process of investigating now.

Were you surprised with what you discovered so far?

Not really. Well, okay. I'll tell you one thing that might be a little bit of a surprise to some people, although it wasn't much of a surprise to me because I expected it could go either way, is one result. The kids that participate in the corporate tax credit scholarship program tend to be worse off than other kids. They tend to be the ones really struggling. They're struggling kids going to struggling schools. They tend to be lower income. ... A lot of people who have historically opposed vouchers have done so because they argue it will lead to cream skimming, where the most motivated, the best-off kids, the highest performing ones would be the ones who leave. And in Florida, in this program, it looks like that is not true. It's the lowest-performing kids that are leaving disproportionately to use a voucher. ...

Did you talk to any of the participating families about why that might be the case?

UCF tweaks proposed academic cuts to save Statistics

The University of Central Florida is still proposing major academic cuts, but trustees on Monday will consider an amended plan that preserves the Statistics program -- a move that would save 12 faculty and two staff jobs and allow 75 students to continue with their studies.

To stay alive, though, the Statistics program will have to meet new "productivity goals," according to UCF officials. That includes increasing overall degree production. The amended plan also proposes to suspend but not eliminate the Actuarial Sciences program, also in the College of Sciences.

BOG seeking 21 new trustees for universities

Want to help shape one of Florida's 11 state universities? The Board of Governors that oversees the 11 is seeking new trustees for each of the institutions, at a time when those institutions need much guidance to deal with things like budget cuts and research ambitions.

The BOG will make the 21 appointments by January 6, 2010.

Tampa Bay science teachers to get evolution lessons

Via this workshop, “Controversial Issues in the Science Classroom,” at USF Tampa next week. Given all the political involvement, they probably need all the help they can get.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

New Gibbs principal wants school to go from F to B next year

Gibbs High Principal Kevin Gordon tells The Gradebook he’s going to issue a “100 point challenge” to his faculty, as part of the school’s turnaround effort. Under the state’s grading system, 100 points would be enough to lift F-rated Gibbs, which fell one point short of a D, to a B.

“It’s ambitious, but you set the mark high,” said Gordon, who was selected in May to replace Antelia Campbell. “It’s all about high expectations. We tell our teachers we want high expectations for our students. Why should we be any different?”

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

UCF sports scholar honored for civil rights leadership

A UCF sports scholar was recognized recently for his lifetime of achievements in civil rights activism, in a ceremony that drew the Rev. Jesse Jackson and former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

UCF professor Richard Lapchick was honored last week during an awards banquet at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund’s 38th Annual Conference in Chicago.

Kudos roll in for Tampa teacher

Gov. Charlie Crist says of Megan Allen, who was selected last night as Florida’s Teacher of the Year: “Not only is she a credit to her profession, but her contributions in and out of the classroom exemplify the type of teaching that has moved Florida’s education system to 10th in the nation.” Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith says "she has done incredible work in challenging and inspiring her students." Read more praise for Allen here.

Florida education news: Top teachers, sexting, wild-spending principals and more

TAMPA TEACHER IS TOPS: Megan Allen, a fourth grade teacher at Cleveland Elementary, is named Florida Teacher of the Year, the St. Petersburg Times reports. (Photo by Phelan Ebenhack/Special to the Times.)

STOPPING SEXTING: The Miami-Dade school district aims to be a national leader in curbing sexting, the Miami-Herald reports.

JOBS DOWN, APPLICATIONS UP: Vacant elementary school teaching positions in Alachua County are getting 100 to 250 applications each, the Gainesville Sun reports.

ANOTHER WILD-SPENDING PRINCIPAL: A second principal in Palm Beach County spent thousands of district dollars on meals and gifts, but this one isn’t in trouble, the Palm Beach Post reports.

TRANSFERRING PRINCIPALS: Alachua County removes the principals at its two F-rated schools, the Gainesville Sun reports.

SPARE A DIME: When students panhandle to pay for extracurriculars, the public should pony up, writes Tallahassee Democrat associate editor Meredith Clark.

“IT’S NOT JUST YOU PAYING A PRICE”: A judge scolds a former Brevard County teacher who had sex with a student and sends her to prison for five years, Florida Today reports.

JEB WATCH: The former Florida governor moderates a panel discussion at a national education conference in Tennessee and makes another pitch for national standards, the Tennessean reports.

PROPERTY TAX CAROUSEL: It’s Bay County’s turn to consider a tax hike to fund schools, WMBB.com reports from Panama City.

FEDERAL GRANTS APLENTY: Three Orange County schools have been picked for a new federal program that provides fruits and veggies to students in high poverty schools, the Orlando Sentinel reports. (More than 70 other schools in the state were selected.) Lee County snags a $450,000 federal grant to help the school district with emergency management planning, the Naples Daily News reports. (Lake and Polk counties also share $26 million divvied up nationwide.) Polk snags nearly $1 million to improve the teaching of American history, reports The Ledger. (Pinellas, Manatee, Lake and Volusia also got money from that grant program, the story says.)

Pinellas union officials cry foul

The Pinellas teachers union has accused district officials of unfair labor practices hours after receiving a notice of the district’s intent to adjust teachers’ paychecks to reflect a decline in property values.

The decline affects the salary supplement generated by a tax referendum based on the value of .5 mills levied each year on taxable property in Pinellas County. Beginning this month, 11.5- and 12-month instructional personnel will receive about $12 less per paycheck, or $290 plus benefits -- for a total of $341 -- for 2009-10. Ten-month employees will feel the pinch beginning in August.

“Unfortunately, there is no money remaining in referendum balances this year to offset this loss,” the district’s chief negotiator wrote in the notice that was sent to school principals and district officials earlier today.

PCTA posted on its Web site that “such action is a unilateral decision made outside the bargaining process and constitutes an unfair labor practice.”

Three Pinellas students compete in national banking contest

Three students from the Finance Academy at Northeast High School have returned to St. Petersburg after competing in the final round of the 2009 Junior Achievement Banks in Action North American competition in New York City.

Hillsborough teachers, district remain divided on contract issues

TAMPA -- One day they're close to an agreement. Next day, not so much.

With negotiators from the Hillsborough County schools and teachers' union due to resume contract talks at this hour, union officials say they're not yet prepared to accept a district proposal for furloughs next year, even if they take place in the spring semester.

"We don’t want to agree in advance to future cuts," said Jean Clements, president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers' Association. "If we need to come back to the table, we can come back to the table."

USF receives federal grants to help migrant students

TAMPA -- The University of South Florida will receive a total of $802,777 from two programs to help migrant students, the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday.

USF is the only institution in Florida to receive the funds, which come from two programs.

FAU's Brogan confirms he wants chancellor job

It's official: Frank Brogan, former lieutenant governor under Jeb Bush, wants to lead Florida's state university system. See below the letter he sent this morning to faculty and students at Florida Atlantic University, where he has been president since 2003.

The Board of Governors committee leading the search will review and discuss the 11 applicants during a conference call on Monday. From the list, the committee will choose a smaller group to interview in person on July 17 in Tampa. The committee will later in the day recommend a chancellor to the full Board of Governors, which is expected that same afternoon to make the final choice.

The letter:

Kirtley: Vouchers "strengthen public education"

Florida’s tax credit scholarships (which critics and some supporters call “vouchers”) are just one part of a modern public education system that is like “a cafeteria with nearly limitless entrees” and with no single one “categorically better or worse than the other,” John Kirtley writes in this op-ed, on the heels of this study.

Black students in Pinellas lag behind black students elsewhere

And in math and science, it’s not really close. Why?

Prompted by this St. Petersburg Times story about an applied math camp for minority kids, we took a closer look at the 2008 math and science FCAT scores for black students in Pinellas and Florida’s six other big urban districts. (The state Department of Education says the demographic breakdowns for the 2009 FCAT won’t be available until later this month.) The results, for Pinellas, are not pretty.

In every grade, in both subjects, black students in Pinellas do worse than black students in those other districts. In almost every case, it’s significantly worse.

Florida education news: Zeroes, bullies and shuffling principals

ZEROES MEAN SO MUCH:

Three of five Hernando County School Board members say they won’t support a controversial proposal to eliminate zeroes from the district’s elementary school grade books, the St. Petersburg Times reports. (Image from bigfatzero.com)

RAPE SUSPECT NEEDS MONEY FOR DEFENSE: The attorney for one of four Walker Middle School students suspected of sexually assaulting a classmate in a locker room needs money to hire experts, the St. Petersburg Times reports.

FOUNDER DEFENDS F CHARTER SCHOOL: A co-founder of Tallahassee’s Imagine School of Evening Rose, which the state deemed an F, says in this Tallahassee Democrat op-ed that a fairer grade would be “incomplete.”

PRINCIPALS ON THE MOVE: A Palm Beach County principal is suspended and demoted after admitting to spending thousands of dollars of district money on luxuries, the Palm Beach Post reports. The principal of Santa Rosa County’s only D school is now the assistant principal at an elementary school, the Gulf Breeze News reports. The NAACP plans to file a discrimination complaint after principal shuffling in Escambia County, reports the Pensacola News Journal.

STUDENT ACTIVISM: Students at Gulliver Prep in Pinecrest provide clean drinking water to people in Haiti, the Miami Herald reports.

MED SCHOOL BUZZ: UCF’s new medical school is only weeks from opening, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

BIG DONATION: The Polk County Commission votes 3-1 to give $1 million to Florida Southern College for a Frank Lloyd Wright visitors center, the Ledger reports. The dissenter says it’s not a good time to donate to private projects.

BULLYING GETS A HEARING: Bullying is a national crisis, says a mom who testified before a Congressional committee Wednesday. Her 11-year-old son killed himself after being called “faggot” and receiving death threats, McClatchy Newspapers reports.

Hernando no-zero policy faces stiff opposition

BROOKSVILLE — A controversial proposal to eliminate zeroes from Hernando’s elementary school grade books faces stiff resistance from School Board members and won’t come up for a vote this month after all.

Two proposed changes to the district’s grading policy have been pulled from the agenda of the regular meeting on July 28 and instead will be discussed during a workshop, school board attorney Paul Carland said Wednesday.

Carland said he wasn’t told by superintendent Wayne Alexander why the item was pulled or when the workshop will take place. Neither Alexander nor board Chairwoman Dianne Bonfield returned messages Wednesday.

But three school board members said in interviews Wednesday that that they have all-but made up their minds and won’t support either of the changes.

Pinellas' open enrollment period proves popular

Just one week into the Pinellas school district’s open enrollment period, more than 2,000 families have requested a school different from the neighborhood school to which they’ve been assigned.

Specifics on which students are requesting transfers and where they want to go isn't available yet. But it would appear that parents taking advantage of this option are dissatisfied with their new assignment to the school closest to their home as opposed to wanting to keep their child at a school he or she already was attending.

UF Prez seeks less cocktail in 'Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party'

College football season is right around the corner, and UF president Bernie Machen is negotiating with Jacksonville city officials to make the annual UF-Georgia football game in their city less about debauchery and more about actual touchdowns. Think less shots and beer specials, more ID checks and law enforcement.

Machen outlines those changes and others in a recent letter to Jacksonville Mayor Peyton, saying it is "imperative these safety issues be addressed before the next game."

Months after rape incident, Walker Middle School will get new principal

Updated 6 p.m.

TAMPA -- When Walker Middle School makes a fresh start in August, it will do so with a new principal.

Kathleen Hoffman, who led the school through its hardest spring following allegations of a brutal locker room rape, will retire this summer from the Hillsborough County schools.

Four students have pleaded not guilty to adult charges of sexual battery, accused of raping a 13-year-old classmate on four occasions at the school with a broom and hockey stick.

But Lewis Brinson, assistant superintendent for administration, said Hoffman had been considering retirement for some time, and her decision had nothing to do with the locker room incident.

"She told me it did not," Brinson said. "And I can only take her word for it."

Hoffman could not be reached for comment.