The Florida Democratic Party Tuesday lashed out at Gov. Rick Scott for flip-flopping on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), then issuingan executive order to leave it behind.
PARCC was meant to measure student achievement under Common Core State Standards.
"When the political pressure rose on Common Core, Scott instinctively ran back to his tea party base, offering wholly unsubstantiated claims about federal government intruding on Florida's education system," read the statement from the FDP. "This is despite his endorsement of Common Core last August. This is despite his own Department of Education, which 'debunks all the rumors of federal intrusion through Common Core,' as the Tampa Bay Times' John Romano reports.
"By isolating Florida from the other states, Rick Scott isn't just hurting our children. He's hurting Florida's economic competitiveness, because states whose education systems are unable to be systematically evaluated will lose the tough competition between states' new jobs."
FDP Chairwoman Allison Tant dismissed Scott's decision to pull out of PARCC, claiming the test is what Floridians have wanted all along.
"Rick Scott is isolating Florida from the rest of the country, depriving parents of any means to compare their kids' performance to other states," she said. "The bipartisan consensus around high standards and common-sense testing is strong, it is what Floridians want, and it is what Common Core provided. But, like so many times before, Florida's students, teachers, and parents are collateral damage of Rick Scott's tea party pandering."
The Republican Party of Florida jumped on Tant's rationale, saying she doesn't seem too familiar with Florida's future education standards or the test it is abandoning.
"I don't know that [Tant] understands PARCC or Common Core," Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry told Sunshine State News. Curry said Tant would be better off trying to get her own party in order before making external attacks.
Over the last few weeks, Tant has come under fire for her failed leadership after singing the praises of short-lived CFO candidate Allie Braswell, who had filed for bankruptcy three times. Just this week, House Democrats ousted Darryl Rouson as the next speaker of the House.
Curry also noted thatseveral legislators were quick to show Scott supportin his decision to pull out of PARCC.
"We saw a number of Republicans and others that commended the governor on his action," said Curry. "What [Scott] simply did was pull out of PARCC, which is the federal government's intrusion into our testing ... there are people, there are teachers, there are parents on both sides of the debate in the state of Florida, and the governor's been listening to them. Ultimately, what he's going to do is make sure we have the highest academic standards available to our kids."
Support for PARCC had already shown signs of fading out even before Scott's executive order. Over the summer, Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford wrote a letter to former Commissioner of Education Tony Bennett publicly advocating against the assessment test. Gaetz and Weatherford expressed hesitation over PARCC due to the fact that the assessment had not been developed, designed, or tested. They were also concerned the test would be very costly and time-consuming for Florida's schools.
Gaetz and Weatherford weren't the only ones speaking against PARCC. Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, even filedlegislation against the assessment testin the Florida House. Her bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral, and Doug Broxson, R-Midway.
The assessment test also gathered considerable criticism not only from members of the Legislature, but from the public as well. Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, which has been particularly vocal against not only PARCC, but Common Core, commended the governor's decision to pull out of the testing.
"TheFlorida Stop Common Core Coalition heartily commends the governor's efforts to hear the concerns of Florida parents and citizens about the many problems with the Common Core system of standards, aligned assessments, and data collection," wrote FSCCC in a statement released Monday. "These include issues regarding quality; state and local control; parental rights; the teaching, testing, and data collection of psychological parameters; and cost. We thank Governor Scott and look forward to working with him, the Legislature, Commissioner Stewart and the state Board of Education."
After Gov. Scott's education summit in August, Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, criticized the governor and suggested Scott needed to "clean up the mess and start from a good place" with Florida's education. Bullard also slammed "overtesting" and a "failure to listen to stakeholder input" as just some of the misfires that had "muddied the water of education."
Scott's executive order would essentially start a clean slate for Florida's assessment test. Under the order, the Florida Department of Education will also be required to gather public input on the standards that will affect the state's new assessment test. That means members of the public will be able to have face-to-face conversations with the state Board of Education to respond to -- and guide -- the path of Florida's future in education.
But ultimately, Lenny Curry said Tant should be cut some slack for her mistakes.
"I think we ought to forgive her," he said about Tant's latest attack on the governor. "I think she's probably got her hands full with the mess they've got over there [at the FDP] right now that they're trying to fix."
Reach Tampa-based reporter Allison Nielsen atallison@sunshinestatenews.comor follow her on Twitter at@AllisonNielsen.
