SEEKING A BIGGER SHARE: Leaders of the Dayspring Academy charter school in Pasco contend that their school doesn't get all the tax money it deserves, so they're asking for more. Other Florida charter schools are taking the same position.
IGNORE THEIR IGNORANCE: The State Board of Education should overlook the religious-tinged views of those advocating against Florida's proposed new science standards, the Times editorializes.
'SHAMEFUL AND UNACCEPTABLE': Pinellas superintendent Clayton Wilcox and other district administrators are right to take the district's low graduation rate personally and to get moving to fix it, the Times editorializes.
MIRACLE OF MUSIC: A Martin County teacher uses music to help children improve their self-confidence, motor skills and social skills, the Palm Beach Post reports.
SEX ED ON SATURDAY: Hundreds of St. Lucie residents cram a Saturday public hearing to speak their minds on a new curriculum that would include information about condom use, the Stuart News reports.
WHO MOVES? File this one in the "it happens in every district" category: Broward parents inundate the district with complaints and opinions as the district gets ready to shift thousands of students to new schools, the Sun-Sentinel reports. It's happening in Alachua County, too, the Gainesville Sun reports.
ROBERTO CLEMENTE HIGH: The Brevard School Board already has given its tentative approval to name a new school after the baseball legend, but community members are objecting, Florida Today reports.
NOT MY SPACE: Leon County teachers have concerns about whether to communicate with students over the popular MySpace networking system, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
SUBSTANDARD SUBS: Some Lee County educators worry that students are getting too many poorly trained substitute teachers since the School Board lowered the degree requirements for subs, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.
RECYCLING REALITY: Central Florida educators spread the word of conservation, but their schools often "don't practice what they teach," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Get inside the world of Florida education with St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and the rest of the Times education reporting team. We'll bring you up-to-date information about the latest education trends, fads and news and dig deep into Tampa Bay area school issues.
I wish that the blog would include a history of the funding for Charter Schools since their inception. Every year, the law and/or the budget has been amended to get them more and special allocations of money. When the first charter school law passed, charter advocates claimed that they could do better than the public schools for 90% of the operations funding (no capital outlay). We said they were lying (and they were) but the powerful are allowed to lie and get away with it.
Since then, the rate of operational funds was increased to 95%, caps of 500 students for even getting the 5% administrative fee were created, a special captial outlay fund taken off the top of school PECO funds was created, a federal allocation was provided for startups and capital outlay. The school districts spend far more than they are provided to govern charter schools and for it they are constantly sued. I would also note that every charter school applicant has to provide a proposed budget that PROVES that they can fund their schools with the revenues provided by the LAW, which does not guarantee any funding from 2 mill or impact fees.
There has never (since the charters were created) been one single change to the law that was supported by the public schools. All this, and they generally deliver a product that is equal to the public schools except for a few schools that are much worse.
Posted by: Seekers of a Bigger Share are Wrong | December 10, 2007 at 02:03 PM