Gaetz: Education "too important to be left to educators"

Senate Education Committee chairman Don Gaetz told local education leaders this week that the Bay area is "fertile ground" for the state's career education movement. But he cautioned that parents, community and business leaders should not leave all the decision making to educators. "Insiders are not bad. They’re good, because it’s a complicated world, and you have to be able to navigate that world. But education is too important to be left to educators," he told reporter Donna Winchester. Read on for the full interview.

 You implemented a rigorous program for career technical education when you were school superintendent in Okaloosa County, which you say can – and should – be replicated in other districts. Are you satisfied with the efforts districts in the Tampa Bay area are making along these lines?

Let me repeat what I said today publicly. I believe that the conditions are present, that the possibility exists for Pinellas County to be the new model for Florida in career education. The ingredients that I think are present are, first of all, the most dynamic business community support for career education, for changing the way schools are delivering high school education. I see a business community that is poised and ready to reform Pinellas County high schools.

The Tampa Bay area is the economic muscle of Florida. This is the manufacturing center of the state. I think that creates fertile ground for career education. It won’t be your grandad’s vo-tech, or a dumping ground for troublesome students and employees. What’s called for here is career technical education that’s at least as good as the best college prep education. So I’m encouraged, particularly by what I see in business community leadership and business community insistence that our high schools be reformed and that education be more academically rigorous and more career relevant.

How does the 2007 legislation that established a comprehensive reform package aimed at bridging the gap between education and industry play into this?

We have now in the environment all of the advantages of a new law which provides for a three-part joint venture among business, higher education and the school district to create institutes or centers of excellence that are driven not by the education establishment, but by the needs of the economy. And then there is the new law that provides weighted funding for career education if students complete the highest level of national industry certification.

I think the new law will help. I think the additional funding will help. I think moving the Department of Education out of the way so that career education courses can satisfy core course requirements will help. But the heavy lifting will have to be done by business leaders and by activist parents.

I heard you say today that when you asked your “customers” in Okaloosa – parents and students on one hand and business leaders on the other – what they wanted the school district to deliver, they basically told you the same thing.

They wanted the highest standards. We were at a different place in 2001 and 2002 when we began our journey. We were 27th in the state and slipping. In that environment, our business community and our parents and our students said it’s not enough that we do better. It was expected that we would set our standards for career education, and for all education, higher than the highest in the state. I heard that same kind of hunger from parents I talked to toady. I talked to a woman who has two children in high school and one in middle school. She said what resonated with her was the need for a standard that says that schools here aren’t just supposed to get better. Schools here should be the best in Florida.

I think that kind of expectation is the foundation for the kind of career education initiatives we’re talking about. We’re not talking about getting more kids into vo-tech. We’re not talking about just rearranging the furniture in the current system. We’re talking about lashing the resources of public education to the needs of the economy so that students have all the options, the option to go to college (and) the option of getting a high-wage job.

I think it will take some heavy lifting. The state of Florida has taken a major step, I think, with the most advanced career legislation in this country. All of the permission has been given. Now it’s up to local business leaders and activist parents.

And where do educators fit in?

I think the education establishment is one of three partners. But changing high school to really attract and hold students is something more than just educators can do. It takes the business community, and it takes higher education institutions. School districts are a major player. But in the reforms that are now in law, school districts are a partner. They’re not the sole controlling voice of what is taught, or who teaches, or what the credentials are. The vision here is that industry will set the standards. Industry will determine the curriculum, industry will qualify the instructors, industry will do the testing and assessment, and industry will award the credentials. That way, there’s real value added. Educators are partners, they’re very important partners, but they don’t have the answer book.

And were there complaints?

We were very fortunate in Okalossa County to have tremendous private sector leadership and an extraordinary school board and a community that said, “We expect you to be the best in everything you do. We expect you to be the best in Florida, we expect you to be a model in America, and we will accept no excuses.” They said, “We don’t want to hear about mobility rate, we don’t want to hear about race, we don’t want to hear about poverty, we don’t want to hear we’re a medium sized district without the leverage of a big district. Our children to us are the most valuable children in Florida, so we expect the best.” When you have a community that fills you sails with that type of fresh breeze, it’s a tremendous advantage.

What about those who would say Pinellas isn’t like Okaloosa, and that the differences are enough to make your career education model impossible to adopt here?

Okaloosa is different from Pinellas and Pinellas is different from Escambia. But an individual student who might be lost, whose opportunities might never be realized because we don’t excite him, because we don’t grab him and give him something that’s relevant, that’s a child whose location doesn’t matter. He can be in Tarpon Springs or DeFuniak Springs. We have an equal obligation.

The great thing about the Choice institutes and the great thing about this law is that it is adaptable, it sets very high standards and gives tremendous opportunities. I would violently oppose an inflexible template forced down on the brows of the Tampa Bay area or forced down on the brows of the Panhandle. There is the opportunity to create real education driven by the opportunities and needs in the economy. It’s not the Okaloosa model, it’s not the Pinellas model that should be forced on other people. We’re forced to look at the economic opportunities in our own markets and then build education backward according to the needs of our customers.

Tell me more about the career education legislation.

It was passed by the Florida Legislature in 2007. There is a two-year implementation process. This is a year when the three partners in each county in Florida – schools, businesses and institutions of higher learning – should be planning and developing their plan for a career technical institute, at least one. And then next year is roll-out year for those counties that aren’t already proceeding. We have 16 counties already replicating the Choice institutes. Next year we’ll have more.

And how long does it take for the programs to be running smoothly?

From the gleam in the eye to the first graduating class for the Choice institutes in Okaloosa county was four years. Fortunately other people can learn from our false starts and our fumbles and our mistakes, and so I would expect here in the Tampa Bay area, the private and public employers here would be able to cut some lead time.

Which of our local districts would you say is closest to achieving the Okaloosa model?

I think Pinellas is about a lap ahead, but Pasco is beginning to do some serious work. So is Polk County. So is Hillsborough. But I think that thanks to the Pinellas Education Foundation, people like Bob McIntyre and Gus Stavros, they have taken the bit in their teeth and they’re moving fast and they have built the infrastructure of business support that I think will be irresistible.

Irresistible?

Yes. Once we get the parents and the kids involved, they’ll take it over. Customers and their needs will become the rocket fuel. It won’t need artificial insemination after the kids get involved.

But what about resistance from educators? I know you had some of that in Okaloosa.

You’ll see that. If career education or high school reform in Tampa Bay high schools is held hostage to control struggles, students will be the victims and the economy will be the poorer. The real struggle for better schools is not fought with parents and students and taxpayers. The real struggle for better schools is fought inside the education establishment. I tried in my kind of fumbling way to articulate that when I talked about who’s the customer. Is the system the customer? Or is the student and the parent and the taxpayer the customer? Progressive teachers unions that want to lead and survive will come to the understanding that the parent and student and taxpayer are the customer. We have to meet their wants and their needs. And that’s a struggle. But that is a fight worth having. That’s the hill to take and die on.

So you see the parents and the students and the business leaders as the customers?

Yes. We politicians and union members and school district employees, we’re servants of the system. We don’t own it. Better schools result when activist parents and business leaders decide to own the school system. In our school district back home, we have former educators who have served, and do serve, on the School Board, and they are among our best board members. They’re terrific. I’ve learned so much from them, particularly from a 36-year veteran of the school system. But we made a decision as a community that the School Board would be dominated not by insiders but by parents and taxpayers and business leaders. Sometimes it takes a couple of election cycles to make that happen. Insiders are not bad. They’re good, because it’s a complicated world, and you have to be able to navigate that world. But education is too important to be left to educators.

Comments

[terminator]

finally, someone who gets it.

when are we going to stop shoving every kid into the four year college prep mold?

that's why we have so many dropouts.

only one half of all HS graduates will attend college. only one half of those who attend will ever come away with a degree.

what we need are a lot more vocational, technical and alternative schools.

[John]

Please remember that k-12 education is intended to give citizens a basic understanding of how things "work." The actual job training can happen through apprenticeships starting at minimum wage. The Education community is probably in the best setting for deciding the scope and sequence of training citizens. NOT POLITICIANS.

[Terry]

Two thumbs up for Gaetz! Our current sytem of education does not provide a basic understanding of how things work. That is the whole point of this reform. Educators have created a curriculum that is comfortable for educators but excludes the community. The very community that pays taxes that pays the salaries of teachers. Almost half of our kids are dropping out of school because they are bored and cannot make the connection to real world applications --- because our educators focus on theory based intruction. And our universities continue to teach teachers through theory based instruction. In Florida we only graduate 14% of students from college and more than half that do graduate from college cannot find a job in field because they completed a major that does not match up with a job. We teach these students through theory based instruction with a very limited menu of courses that often do not match up with what leads to a job. And, then we wonder why we have 40% of our kids dropping out. Gaetz may be a policitian but he also was the superintendent that turned the 27th ranked school district into number 1 in the state. Pinellas County is 29th on that same scale. That scope and sequence that educators have created has failed our kids and our community.

[Bill from Michigan]

Hat's off to Gaetz and Tampa Bay! This is calearly the best path forward for all. Here in Michigan we'd give the back-forty to have a superintendent with this attitude. Follow Gaetz or end up like Michigan.

When I looked down at my little girl in her crib, I didn't wonder how she'd some day find her place as a cog in some corporate wheel. I had and do continue to hope that she finds her own path and that her education will be rounded and free of biased, profit driven influence, so that she can follow a direction that's good for her, not business.

Business does what's good for business, whether it means usurping our educational system for the sake of creating good workers to increase the stockholders bottom line, or moving entire industries out of the country for the same reason.

Business is welcome to contribute, to help, to offer input, but in terms of deciding the particulars of my little girl's education, stay the H away!

[Jeff]

When I looked down at my baby girl in her crib, I didn't wonder how she'd some day find her place as a cog in some corporate wheel. I had and do continue to hope that she finds her own path and that her education will be rounded and free of biased, profit driven influence, so that she can follow a direction that's good for her, not business.

Business does what's good for business, whether it means usurping our educational system for the sake of creating good workers to increase the stockholders bottom line, or moving entire industries out of the country for the same reason.

Business is welcome to contribute, to help, to offer input, but in terms of deciding the particulars of my little girl's education, stay the H away!

With that great idea, we won't leave surgery to the surgeons, financial decision-making to the economists, or leave flying airplanes to the pilots. We'll just let business leaders figure it all out.

[Jason]

"Education too important to be left to educators." That headline kills me. That's like saying that "Medicine is too important to be left to doctors" or that "Auto repair is too important to be left to mechanics." How can anybody actually buy into this nonsense?

Yes, we teachers work for the public and have a responsibility to our "customers." However, we are trained in numerous learning styles, child psychology, in addition to our content areas. We are the experts -- not the politicians who sell out to corporate interests.

When politicians get their way, we end up with "pre-tests" that the students know have absolutely no impact on their grades. Now, I ask you, if you were a teenager and you were told to take a test that didn't count, would you take it seriously? No. Of course not. When I was a teenager, I wouldn't have either!

Education is too important to be left to the politicians!

[The professor]

I cannot believe people actually think educators develop curriculum. The fact that politicians set policy that develops curriculum, constructs tests, designs standards and creates accountability without speaking to educators or students is a real travesty. I agree with the premise of adding workforce intiatives to public education but some of you should spend less time on here blogging and try to last one DAY in my high heels. Back in the real work where kids smoke "happy cigars", have sex in the open, fight to kill, text message like it matters and curse without conscious, I STILL LOVE THEM and work hard to help them succeed. What are you doing to help?

[Timmy!]

Yeah, and when the economy tanks those narrow skills will pull them through, right?

We don't know WHAT jobs are on the horizon so we must have the skills, training, knowledge and ability to adapt to FutureChange.

Studies indicate that the current HS student will change jobs 7 times in their lifetime.

Are the Detroit schools preparing their kids for a future in the auto industry?

How many classes in "Strawberry Production" can Plant City High fill?

[eloquentmind]

The problem is that removed bureaucrats and business leaders see educators as mere "units" who cannot be trusted ethically or professionally. This conclusion is absurd and contributes to the erosion of our national school system and the overall value of our public educators.

All of us have been a student at sometime; however, it does not mean we are equipped to make decisions which we believe educators cannot (who are the very people that get the education and certification and training to make and contribute to these decisions).

I can balance my budget, pay my bills on time, and run cost analysis in my own house hold, but I would be a fool to think that I can understand Sarbanes Oxley and tell our CPAs what to do.

Again, teachers and other various educators are disrespected and trivialized. Forgive me; I shouldn't be so angry since this disrespect is the status quo in today's culture.

We ask our teachers to educate, control, disapline, entertain, train, form, reform, and raise our kids... Have we ever thought that this is too much to do effectively with what little time and support educators have, particulary for high school teachers. The break down of the family unit is just as much to blame.

Education doesn't fail people, people fail education when they do not value it. It is a personal choice to value and seek education, and no one can force that hand.

[Bewildered]

Politicians should make sure there are jobs left for our youth.

[Toward Love]

In a quick nut shell. Reference is made to take the teaching away from the teachers. Doesn't anyone already realize that they have already done so?
When we have individuals who have NEVER set foot in front of students, telling teachers what and how to teach...come on? If one of those businessmen disagreed with the quarterback's play I guess he would just go buy the team.

While the good Senator has made remarks that could/should be offensive to educators in the past, this quote in context (not the headline) shouldn't be offensive to anyone. All it really says is that in career education that it isn't JUST the educators who need to be invovled. The business community, parents, etc. should make sure that we aren't producing the very best farmers if that isn't what the community needs. If you ignore the headline for the blog and read the actual quote, it just suggests that their are other stakeholders to the programs. This is true for our basic curriculum as well, but everyone would rather pretend that it is ok for parents to just ignore their responsibilities because so many do.

[brian]

thats fine, because government is too important to be left to the politicians...

[Alexis]

Stop blaming the teachers! It is the lawmakers making a mess out of the system. Every year teachers are bombarded with new laws that we have to implement. Teachers know what children need,but we are not the ones making the rules. People who are handing down the laws have no idea about the developmental needs of a student. We are made to do things that totally disagree with our beliefs as educators. Parents must speak up. The children in this FCAT generation are going to suffer.

[rollingeyesasiread]

FCAT should be used as a guage to see what teachers are teaching the students. Teach ! Training is for the trade schools. Keep kids in class ! Monitor suspensions.. Dr. Wilcox .. pay unexpected visits to your schools, see how many kids are in activities that are not academic based to justify grant/pilot funded positions.. FTE ? Joke !