Various bills in the 2011 Florida legislative session dealt with ‘school choice’. SB 1546, SB 1620, and HB 1329 all passed the Florida legislature before they ended their session in the early hours Saturday morning. The Republican majority rejoiced! Governor Scott has thrown his support behind the bills that expand student choice in education.
However, some people say that the bills that were passed are a concerted attack on underfunded public schools. The Florida Education Association (FEA) believes that the Florida legislature does not think too highly of it's public schools. After the past two legislatives sessions where teachers have been dragged through the mud, I agree with the FEA.
Let's take a look at a few of the 'school choice' bills from this 2011 Legislature session.
SB 1546: High Performance Charter Schools
Charter schools that are considered to have a clean financial record (audits) and a school grade of an A or B are allowed to expand in order to boost enrollment and add grades to the school.
Pro: More choice for students. There is a wait list of around 30,000 students who wish to enroll in an A or B charter school around the state and now many of those students will be able to attend a charter school.
Con: Charter schools may now be able to operate with little oversight. How can we say that they will not overstep their boundaries with this expansion on charter school legislation.
SB 1620: Digital Learning Act
This bill requires that by the 2011-2012 school year, all students entering 9th grade must complete at least one course online as part of the graduation requirement. By 2014-15, all statewide end-of-course assessments must be administered online. The bill also creates online charter schools.
Pro: More and more universities and community colleges have an online option, so students who take an online class in high school will be more prepared to successfully maneuver through an online class or program if they already have experience in that online learning environment.
Con: Do we really want to put our end-of-course assessments online? I'm all for saving trees but I question administering end-of-course exams online. Doesn't anyone remember when FAIR was released and every school district was testing during the same window? The entire system crashed because it was overwhelmed with the number of students using the site at the same time. Think of the student as well. They may not be comfortable reading and taking exams online. What do you do then? Force them to take the test online? What happens if they do poorly on the test because they are uncomfortable in that testing setting? Do we say, "ah who cares.." and move on??
The FL legislative session was one for the books! These two bills are just a sampling of what passed in regards to Education during the 2011 FL legislative session.
Search Terms: School choice, charter schools, online schools
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