Barely gone and buried by the Florida Department of Education, the now unconstitutional Florida Schools of Excellence Commission has a toehold for a new lease on life.
Sen. Stephen Wise of Jacksonville has filed a bill that would give the commission, which Gov. Crist let fade away without an appeal, new powers as an agency with the primary purpose of developing remedial charter schools as "an alternative to a public school found by the state to be chronically failing or below average."
One of the FSE's initial sponsors, Rep. John Legg of New Port Richey, told the Gradebook he had heard rumblings about changing the commission's reason for being, though he wasn't privy to the details. He remained noncommital about his support.
"The concept sounds good," said Legg, chairman of the House Pre-K-12 Education Policy Committee. "We've got to work out the details."
Some veteran Legislature watchers sounded jaded about the proposal. They suggested that school districts don't need another state agency to deal with charters, and guessed it had more to do with protecting the financial interests of the commission's status quo. The FSE spent nearly $500,000 in three years without ever seeing a sponsored charter open.
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.
Why would the Legislature keep this group? Because they are that stupid and, even worse, they always take care of their own. Classic public sector...no brains, no accountability and no ethics.
Posted by: | January 16, 2009 at 05:55 PM
Exactly how is this bill anymore Constitutional than the last one? They don't even make a weak attempt at addressing the concerns of the Court. I am starting to think that Sen. Wise is just trying to make Ron Meyer rich without actually making him work.
Everyone should go to the FSE link from the article. The DOE propaganda on this group is hillarious.
"Although we had a great start . . . " Huh? What have they done in the last three years? They have had more executive directors (3) than they have had students served by a school under thier perview (0).
What possible success could they claim? Why would the Legislature continue a group that is so wasteful and so illegal?
Posted by: | January 16, 2009 at 04:27 PM
The state budget won't balance and cuts to education appear to be cutting to the bone. NOT a good time to pass a bill that diverts any of the slim funding left away from the public schools.
Posted by: sandra | January 13, 2009 at 08:22 PM
These jerks who supposedly represent taxpayers in Tally are little more than two bit wh**es! Strikes me this is a just a ploy to keep a former member of the legislature, the most recent FSE Executive Director, fat and happy in a $140,000/year job along with the opportunity to pour more money into a black hole. Hard-working taxpayers and the Florida education system can ill afford this waste. And let's face it, the $500,000 reporteddly spent by FSE to accomplish absolutely nothing in three years of operation is far below the actual expenditures and merely the product of creative accounting. What a disgrace!
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 08:12 PM
Rep. John Legg is involved in operating a charter school. He derives income from charter schools. So how can he be impartial in any decisions involving public versus charter schools?
Mr. Solochek, you owe it to the readers to make Rep. Legg's conflict of interest public knowledge.
Posted by: conflict of interest? | January 13, 2009 at 06:14 PM