School leaders fear impact of Scott's budget proposal

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI 

TAMPA When Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his budget plan last week, the sheer size of the proposed revenue reductions knocked the wind out of school officials across the state.

In Pinellas County, schools Chief Financial Officer Fred Matz said he took the numbers to Kevin Smith, the assistant superintendant for budget.

"We looked at it and we started laughing hysterically," Matz said. "It's one of those, we just couldn't believe it. We had been talking about potential budget cuts of almost $30 million, and this is almost triple that."

The reaction in Hillsborough County was a bit more subdued.

"I don't laugh about budgets," said Superintendant MaryEllen Elia, who nonetheless described herself as surprised and concerned. "We anticipated that there would be cuts...This was more severe than I thought it would be."

From his introduction of the budget at a Tea Party gathering to proposals to change everything from how things are done to the words used to describe them, Scott has upended the budget process in ways that have legislators and local officials reaching for answers.

Continue reading this Tampa Bay Tribune Article here

posted by lesliepostal

As I wrote earlier, the Senate's merit-pay bill got another favorable vote this morning. Here's more of the discussion and questions that arose during the two-hour meeting (which touched on nothing else).

The bill would largely follow Florida's Race to the Top plan, which 64 of 67 school districts have signed on to, using test score data (from FCAT and other tests) to judge teacher quality wherever possible. Such data from a three-year period could count for half a teacher's evaluation.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Sarasota, delivered the bluntest argument for bill's passage: She said districts haven't removed bad teachers, even though they could have done so under current pay systems.

"We had a process. You didn't have the courage to use it," she said.

With more than 90 percent of teachers earning good evaluations, yet many students still struggling on FCAT, something is amiss, she said.

"We've started to forget what business we're in. We're not in the employment business. We're in the business of moving kids from point A to point B," Detert said.

Florida looks at taking school textbooks completely digital by 2015

Get ready to say goodbye to bulky books. There's a move to go all-digital in Florida classrooms.

State education officials rolled out a five-year proposal this week that calls for all students in K-12 to use only "electronic materials" delivered by Kindles, iPads and other similar technology by 2015.

"This project reinvents the way students learn and will revolutionize instruction in Florida," says the plan presented to the state Board of Education Tuesday. Both Senate and House education committees will have hearings on the subject today.

"Digital is here. We can choose to ignore it, or we can choose to embrace it," said David Simmons, chairman of the Senate Pre-K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee. He predicted legislation would be filed after another round of committee meetings.

Continue Reading this St. Petersburg Times article   

Oregon legislators to consider Florida-based education reforms

Legislation for Florida's 2.7 million students banned social promotion for third-graders, gave bonuses to teachers whose kids passed AP exams, and gave schools letter grades. If a school receives an F two years in a row, it must hand over a portion of its state money and allow its students to attend any other public school in the state.

Wingard, R-Wilsonville, has proposed six bills that mimic the Florida plan. The Oregon House Education Committee is expected to spend a week discussing the bills later this month.

Continue reading this article from the Oregonian  .