Consider Florida's phenomenal educational progress over the last 15 years, due almost entirely to testing, accountability and great teaching.
Sadly, state teachers' unions and many public school leaders had to be dragged kicking and screaming into reform, into measuring performance by effective teaching, by parents who care, by communities sick to death of excuses.
And they still do.
While education reform in Florida has moved on, unions and some within the profession have not. They still look at what's best for adults, not for children.
Pushing the state Board of Education to halt testing while school boards and administrators "figure it out" -- which is what the unions have done -- is all about politics and about power. It isn't about what's best for students, isn't about performance -- in fact, it isn't about testing or education at all.
The unions feel their grip on public schools loosening. They feel threatened. They are using their money and their voice in a particularly vicious election year to make education reform a political issue rather than an issue of opportunity for Florida children.
In the 1980s, even with court-ordered busing still in force in many Florida communities, unions, administrators and school boards opened their minds and found a way to offer parents and students a choice. One after another, districts embraced the concept of magnet schools -- an important reform for the time that took creative thinking, restructured budgeting and enormous resolve. There was nothing political about it; it simply evolved.
Charter schools -- not all of them faultless to be sure -- nevertheless have come of age and offer parents further options. These are part of next-step reform. So areTax Credit Scholarships, which unfortunately are part of a lawsuit brought by the Florida School Boards Association and others.
It's hard to understand why.
Everything about tax credit scholarships is voluntary. These scholarships are paid for by businesses paying state corporate tax. Businesses can designate a portion of their taxes to help children in poverty, minority children and disabled children gain access to schools and services otherwise available only to families with the means to pay private school tuition.
Yet, if the lawsuit is successful, it's curtains for the 60,000 scholarship students in 64 Florida counties. They will be forced out of the schools their parents chose and made to return to traditional public schools -- more than a few of them failing -- at twice the cost to taxpayers.
Strangely enough, it's not the Legislature that has polarized these scholarships by political party. Here's what Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said in a recent guest column in NWFDailyNews.com:
"As a senator, I sponsored expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program in 2008. The programs hallmark is the historic bipartisan support it has in the Florida Legislature," Gaetz wrote. "The year of my sponsorship, I wisely yielded the closing speech on the Senate floor to the Democratic leader, an African-American. He was brilliant. This isnt about Republicans or Democrats. Its about whats best for kids."
In 2014, Gaetz ratcheted up the fiscal and academic oversight for the program so that students and their families and all Floridians would know how scholarship students are performing compared with like students in traditional public schools. Said Gaetz, "The auditor general is performing detailed financial examinations to ensure good stewardship of every dollar. I wish everything in education or involving tax dollars were this accountable."
Blaming Gov. Rick Scott for every problem that befalls K-12 education in Florida, every change the unions perceive as a personal crushing blow is completely absurd. The idea, I'm sure, is to get Charlie Crist elected because Charlie is going to stop the testing, stop the vouchers, curb the charter schools and end the Tax Credit Scholarships.
Charlie isn't saying much about what he's going to do. No wonder. Education reform is quite a conundrum for him. He can't open his mouth to the unions' liking for fear of evoking cries of "flip-flopper!"This is what was written in February 2012 about Charlie's confidence in public schools when he was governor:
"In March 2010, 5,500 school-choice supporters marched in Florida to demand more choice in education. ... Florida's then-governor, Charlie Crist -- who was seeking a new mandate as a U.S. senator -- saw the powerful winds of change and choice that were sweeping through Florida and decided to join the march and speak at the rally. During his remarks, Governor Crist emphasized the importance of school choice that 'provides parents an invaluable opportunity to choose a learning environment that gives children the best chance for success.'"
If Charlie wins, he'll be under union management. He took a lot of their money this election cycle. But it will be interesting to see how he lives down past allegiances while trying to undo Florida's 15-year gold standard for education reform.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
