FundEducationNow.org

FL: Excellent piece from Patty Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters Florida. 20 yrs of single party rule & politicians think they have the right to rob us of our voice when we approve ballot initiatives. Direct Democracy will continue to be disgraced unless we send legislators like Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg and Rep. James Grant of Tampa packing. They are doing their level best through House Bill 7037 to gut Florida’s citizen-initiative process to amend the state Constitution. This is is after they worked to implode our Amendment 4 vote to restore felon voting rights. Last year Brandes & Grant passed SB 7066 which was essentially an astronomical poll tax. Anyone had enough? Keep voting for these guys & you'll get more. Thank you, Patty for using your voice and fighting against this injustice. #FLPublicEdVoter

FL SB 1498 pushes privatization to new levels! It will be heard this Monday, 2.17.20 on presidents day - a Federal holiday. Click the link below and send a letter to every member of the Senate Ed Committee right now. Use your voice! #FLPublicEdVoter Direct link to take action: https://bit.ly/2SuG5vr

1 Throws a district school into instant turnaround status upon earning its first “D” or “F”
2. If a “D” or “F” turnaround school does not earn a “C” or better within a year, the Commissioner of Education may recommend closing the school, rep-purpose it as a charter or assign it to and external operation.
3. Bypasses school board authority by allowing external operators to be state universities or colleges
4. Makes no provision to restore “turnaround” schools to the district
5. Shortens the time allowed for school districts to help struggling schools
6. Significantly accelerates path to privatize or close low performing schools
7 Robs districts of their constitutional authority to oversee their own schools
8. Grants Commissioner of Education new powers to deny district requests to close schools

FL: As we go through our own controversial pre-K bill where babies will take high stakes tests & be labeled & sorted when they're barely past potty training...look at what New Hampshire is up to. A Virtual learning pilot for the babies. #FLPublicEdVoter

FL: Wondering why there are so many CTE (Career & Technical Ed) bills this session? In places around the nation CTE is at the heart of expanded privatization by corporations seeking to control the choices of students.

"And Virginia’s embrace of a business-driven CTE goes beyond the rewriting of the curriculum. It’s about sorting children, schools, and whole communities into education destinies that are firmly welded to labor markets determined by industries."

Tech companies want to control student choices but are misers when it comes to investing in public schools:

"Businesses don’t really pay a significant percentage of taxes that support schools, he argued. “They take a lot more out than they put in".....Tech companies are notorious non-contributors to local schools. Microsoft has for years avoided paying taxes in Washington state, where it is based, by setting up a subsidiary in Reno, Nevada, which has no corporate tax, according to an investigation by Washington-based KNKX. That tax dodge may have shortchanged Washington schools by $8 billion, based on at least one estimate KNKX found."
#FLPublicEdVoter

FL: Get your Civics lesson here! This is a dangerous lunge toward authoritarianism - full stop. #FLPublicEdVoter