Florida’s high-stakes school reforms in court

by: Kathleen Oropeza|Guest Columnist Orlando Sentinel Parents of children in public schools are well aware that the high-stakes testing season is here. What they may not realize is that Florida’s marquee public education trial is under way in Leon County. Pay close attention. This is as big as it gets: Getting to trial has taken seven…

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Vote today, Florida!

Your vote is your voice.  When we don’t vote, our democracy suffers. Our children need to see us as active participants in the voting process. If you don’t know where your polling place is, you can find it here. Here’s some important points about voting from the Florida Division of Elections: The polls are open…

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Florida’s A-F Accountability trial begins today

Florida’s marquee public education trial, Citizens for Strong Schools, filed in 2009, begins today. Thanks to the herculean pro bono efforts of the Southern Legal Counsel, this is truly a citizen-driven lawsuit.  Just about every “education reform” policy legislators have imposed on our children and teachers through Florida’s A-F Accountability scheme is on the table.  Fund Education…

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FL Senate: Walk away from monster train HB 7029

Urgent help needed today. Rep. Fresen has turned HB 7029 into a 170 page monster train chock full of charter school perks. The bill arrived in the House containing some rare charter school accountability measures such as preventing operators from profiting off of third party real estate schemes. That’s gone. Take action now. Tell the Senate to…

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Take Action: Reject disgraceful 1% increase to Public Ed

The Florida House and Senate appropriations chairs have agreed on public education funding. Floor votes to adopt the final budget take place this Friday, March 11th. Unfortunately, instead of a promised “historic” funding level to public education, legislators have agreed to a disgraceful 1% increase. Take action today. 1% to public education is unacceptable. The current…

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Budget no place for Best & Brightest

Take action today and urge the Senate to stand strong and deny the grossly biased Best & Brightest from being rolled up into the Budget, avoiding open debate. We strongly object to the House’s cowardly path of letting Best & Brightest hitch a ride in the budget and expect the Senate to reject the House’s…

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Budget disgrace: 1% to public ed is unacceptable

The Budget Conference met this weekend and by 9:20 pm Sunday evening, discussions hit a wall over everything but shaving their meager per pupil funding increase from 2% to  1% to be funded from general revenue, not another property tax increase as Governor Scott proposed.  This is an election year rejection of a craven pattern…

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