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“Dropouts from the class of 2008 will cost Florida almost $25.3 billion in lost wages over their lifetimes.” Alliance for Excellent Education As our dropout rate continues to grow, that number is compounded every year. Sadly, it isn’t until we clearly tie our enormous economic loss to our soaring high school dropout rate that it…
As Florida’s children head back to school, the editors at the St. Petersburg Times wrote a piece today describing the very near future of public education in our state. Dire situations require strong leadership. We at Fund Education Now have been meeting with strong parent and business leaders throughout the state all summer. It has…
Orlando Sentinel http://bit.ly/pXNXR Threat of school cuts sent Orlando mom into action Leslie Postal Sentinel Staff Writer August 2, 2009 Sunday Spotlight Kathleen Oropeza Birthplace: Atlanta Resides: Orlando Occupation: Stay-at-home mom, active in PTA and school advisory council at Blankner School, one of the founders of Fundeducationnow.org Family: Husband, Keith; sons Nicholas, 9, and Alexander, As economic news…
BY SCOTT ANDRON sandron@MiamiHerald.com Miami Herald July 15th http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1142158.html Florida’s economy needs less onerous regulation of international banking and more investment in education, local business leaders told the state economic development agency Tuesday morning. More than 100 people turned out for a forum at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens to discuss the state economy as…
Orlandosentinel.com July 15, 2009 Sunday’s paper contained stories that should’ve left any taxpayer — no, make that anyone with a heart — shaken. Thanks to some in-depth reporting by Sentinel reporter Rene Stutzman, we learned that more than 70 of the state’s child-welfare workers have been caught falsifying records. The results? One child wound up…
FundEducationNow.org 07/06/09 *Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), HB 991, a priority of Education Commissioner Dr. Eric Smith was signed into law last month by Governor Crist. Required as part of the Federal No Child Left Behind Act, AYP measures schools based on a pass/fail system. To achieve AYP, schools must meet proficiency benchmarks in 39 separate…
Smart Money published June 29, 2009 Consumer Action by Lisa Scherzer School may be out for the summer, but across the country school boards are now wrestling with mammoth budget shortfalls that will require painful cuts in the upcoming year. Their own budgets1 in shambles, many states are inflicting deep reductions in K-12 funding. At…
By Leslie Postal and Denise-Marie Balona Orlando Sentinel Staff Writers June 26, 2009 Many of Florida’s top public schools — even its A-rated ones — need to work harder with students struggling to keep up with state standards,according to results from the latest school-accountability system. The new, complicated state program tries to identify how much…