Times of Florida » education reform

Put the brakes on state university tuition hikes

Staff — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:10:37 +0000

For four years straight, each of Florida‘s public universities has raised its tuition as much as state law allows, with the blessing of their state overseers.

Enough already. Though nine of 11 public universities, including the University of Central Florida, are seeking another round of 15 percent hikes, the Florida Board of Governors should slow the tuition treadmill during the board’s meetings this week in Orlando.

The timing couldn’t be much worse for Florida universities to max out on tuition hikes.

More than four years after the Great Recession rocked Florida’s economy, the state’s unemployment rate is still higher than the national average. It’s already a struggle for many students and families to afford tuition at today’s rates, much less budget for 15 percent increases every year.

Meanwhile, the typical student debt load in Florida has climbed to more than $21,000. That’s lower than the national average of about $25,000, but high enough to mean many graduates will be hard pressed to find work in Florida’s weak job market that’ll cover the cost of repaying their student loans and allow them to launch independent and productive adult lives.

The popular solution out of Washington to rising college costs is simply to prolong artificially low interest rates on student loans. Keep the easy money coming, even if it enables tuition hikes that push students and families deeper into debt.

The more responsible approach is for universities to put the brakes on tuition hikes.

The University of Florida made a move in that direction recently when its trustees voted to seek a 9 percent increase next year instead of 15 percent. It was quite a turnaround, considering that earlier this year UF President Bernie Machen helped persuade lawmakers to pass legislation letting the university raise tuition as high as it wanted. Fortunately, Gov. Rick Scott, an outspoken opponent of tuition hikes, vetoed the bill.

Florida’s Board of Governors shouldn’t rule out higher tuition altogether. The average tab in Florida, less than $5,700, is cheap compared to the national figure of more than $8,200. And lawmakers have slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for universities in recent years, putting schools under pressure to make up the difference.

But as the chairman of the University of South Florida‘s Board of Trustees, John Ramil, said after the school voted to seek an 11-percent tuition hike next year, “We are giving the state government cover by continuing to raise tuition.” It’s up to lawmakers, he correctly said, to provide enough dollars for universities.

And it’s up to the Board of Governors to make sure the burden of bankrolling the system doesn’t fall too heavily on students and their families.

BOG budget committee is okay with tuition hikes (tampabay.com)
FIU will have highest tuition among Fla. schools (miamiherald.com)
UNF, 9 other universities seek max tuition hike (news4jax.com)
11% tuition hike proposed by USF Board (abcactionnews.com)
Board To Vote Of Florida Universities’ Tuition Increases (miami.cbslocal.com)
Florida board approves university tuition hike (jacksonville.com)
UNF students to see 13% tuition hike (news4jax.com)
Rick Scott, Florida Governor, Cuts College Funding, Vetoes Unlimited Tuition Hike Bill (timesofflorida.com)
FAU Votes To Raise Tuition 15 Percent (miami.cbslocal.com)

Romney Campaign Names Julio Fuentes to Ed Advisors

Staff — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:08:02 +0000

Presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign has released a list of people who are advising the campaign on education issues, including a former U.S. Secretary of Education and a current state schools chief.

Serving as Rommey’s K-12 committee co-chairs will be Nina S. Rees, a former assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education and currently the senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Knowledge Universe; and Martin R. West, an assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and executive editor of Education Next.

Other committee members include Rod Paige, former secretary of education under President George W. Bush; Robert M. Costrell, a former education advisor to Romney when the candidate was governor of Massachusetts; Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, the former head of the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences and the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution; and Tom Luna, the Idaho superintendent of public instruction and president of Council of Chief State School Officers.

In addition, the following parties were named:

Phil Handy, Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Industries, and a former member of the National Board of Education Sciences
Bill Hansen, Chairman and chief executive officer of Madison Education Group, and a former deputy secretary of education
Carol D’Amico Vice President of Project Lead the Way, and a former assistant secretary of education
Emily Stover DeRocco, President of the Washington, D.C.-based Manufacturing Institute
John Bailey, a former Education Department director of educational technology
Christina Culver, President of CH Global Strategies, a former acting assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary of education
Dr. John E. Chubb, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Education Sector
Dr. Bill Evers, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, and a former assistant secretary of education
Scott Fleming, President and Vice Chairman of Madison Education Group
Julio A. Fuentes, President and chief executive officer of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options
Paul E. Peterson, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government, Harvard University
Jim Peyser, Managing Partner with New Schools Venture Fund and Chairman of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers
Dr. Herbert Walberg, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution

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Secretary of Education Offers Student Loan Encouragement (loans.org)
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Advocates, National Leaders Gather for Presentation of Recommendations to Secretary Sebelius and Secretary Duncan (healthyschoolscampaign.typepad.com)

Rick Scott, Florida Governor, Cuts College Funding, Vetoes Unlimited Tuition Hike Bill

Staff — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:14:13 +0000

The Huffington Post | By Tyler Kingkade

After approving a $300 million cut to Florida‘s public universities in earlier April, thus cutting public higher education state funding for the fifth year in a row, Governor Rick Scott vetoed legislation late last week that would allow the University of Florida and Florida State University to raise tuition.

Despite an annual limit cap of 15 percent, tuition in Florida’s public univerisites increased 60 percent during academic years 2009 to 2012. The bill Scott vetoed Friday would have removed the preexisting limit on tuition hikes, allowing both the University of Florida and Florida State University to raise costs at a higher rate.

While moving forward on budget cuts to the state’s universities, Scott has insisted he “does not believe in tuition hikes.”

“It is also clear how difficult it is for our students, and in many cases, their families, to afford the costs of higher education,” Scott said in a statement accompanying his veto Friday. “I have strong concerns for the debt burden on our students and the number of graduates struggling to find jobs within their fields of study.”

Each public institution’s board of trustees decides how much to increase tuition each year, with the state’s Board of Governors having the final say. Florida’s universities lobbied to remove that 15 percent cap. Upon Scott’s veto, representatives for UF and FSU said they were “saddened.”

Florida ranks low nationally for the average cost of attending college. The state also ranks 37th for student debt, with the average Florida student graduating with $21,184 in student loans.

Florida is not alone in limiting how state universities may increase tuition while cutting funding at the same time.

Some states limit tuition increases to inflation, while others set a capped rate that public universities must abide by.

See five other examples of states trying to limit tuition increases:

Rick Scott to decide whether to keep tuition pledge (clickorlando.com)
Bill to increase tuition at UF, FSU vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott (miamiherald.com)
Scott vetoes university tuition bill (myfoxorlando.com)
Scott Vetoes Florida University Tuition Bill (tampa.cbslocal.com)
Scott vetoes Florida university tuition bill (clickorlando.com)
Scott vetoes bill to let UF and FSU raise tuition rates (miamiherald.typepad.com)
Scott vetoes tuition ‘preeminence’ bill (tampabay.com)
Gov. Scott Vetoes Bill To Hike College Tuition (miami.cbslocal.com)
Scott to sign or veto bill allowing FSU, UF to raise tuition (tbo.com)

La Raza Launches Campaign to Register Hispanic Voters

Staff — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:44:49 +0000

Miami – The National Council of La Raza on Tuesday launched the Florida operation of its national Mobilize to Vote, or M2V, campaign to promote voter registration among about 800,000 Hispanics in a state that is considered to be key for the November elections.

The campaign, which kicked off in Orlando, consists of advising Hispanics about the registration process and making them aware of the importance of their participation in the elections through chats or in door-to-door visits.

“The Latino community has grown in many parts of the country and the I-4 corridor is one of them. We’re interested in having the electoral and civic participation numbers get on a par with those we have in the general population so that that voice is heard more,” Clarisa Martínez, the coordinator of M2V on the national level, told Efe.

The corridor, a stretch of Interstate 4 that links Orlando and Tampa, is home to some 900,000 Hispanics, according to the figures of the NCLR.

“Increasing the participation will in turn increase the influence of that Latino voice in what is a very important area of the state of Florida,” Martinez emphasized.

Hispanics comprise 23 percent of Florida’s population and represent 13.1 percent of the state’s 11.2 million registered voters.

Yanidsi Velez, the regional coordinator of M2V, said that her objective is to get to the 800,000 Florida Hispanics who are eligible to vote but who still have not registered.

“They are the people we’re interested in getting to. Our goal is to create a culture of civic participation in the Hispanic community. For our community to take account that if we don’t participate in the process, if we don’t vote, we don’t have a voice in the decisions that affect our families and our communities,” she said.

The M2V campaign will also be carried out in Las Vegas; Denver and Pueblo, Colorado; and Philadelphia, as well as in other cities around the country where a large number of Hispanics live who qualify to register to vote.

Latino evangelicals rally to register young voters (timesofflorida.com)
Obama campaign releases first Spanish TV ads (kansascity.com)
In Swing States, Obama Campaign Begins Push For Another Latino-Vote Landslide (wnyc.org)
Obama releases first Spanish TV ads (myfoxdc.com)
Hispanic Votes Won’t Be a Gamechanger in the 2012 Election (theatlantic.com)
Latino evangelicals rally to register young voters (timesofflorida.wordpress.com)
Obama Por América (thepage.time.com)
Obama Campaign Releases First Spanish TV Ads In Battleground States (washington.cbslocal.com)
Strong Support for LGBT Issues Among Hispanics – Especially Catholics (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
Is The GOP Doomed? (blogs.the-american-interest.com)

In our schools: Keys to helping non-native speakers learn

Staff — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:16:03 +0000

Neftali Martinez, 10, walks into the classroom and gets right to work.

He looks up the words “universe” and “biology” in the dictionary. He reads part of a story about outer space. He participates in a review session for the vocabulary test he will take in two days.

Sounds like a fairly typical third-grade reading class. But Neftali’s class at Navy Point Elementary School has only three students, and those children aren’t just learning about science and vocabulary words. They are still learning English.

Neftali, who was born in Mexico, is one of 451 English language learners in the Escambia County School District.

An English language learner is a student who was not born in the United States and whose native language is not English, or a student who was born in the United States but comes from a home in which another language is primarily used.

Like all Florida third-graders, Neftali and his peers will take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for the first time in April.

And while they will have special accommodations during the test — extended time and a Spanish-to-English dictionary — they take the same test as their English-speaking classmates.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of children who spoke a language other than English at home rose from 4.7 million to 11.2 million between 1980 and 2009. That is from 10 percent to 21 percent of the population in that age range.

In Escambia, there currently are nearly 60 more English language learners than last year’s 394, said Sandra Edwards, director of the district’s English for Speakers of Other Languages program.

In Santa Rosa County, there currently are about 180 English as a Second Language students.

Facing the challenge

Tamara Mitchell, a teacher in Navy Point’s ESOL program, said it is up to her and her colleagues to get young English language learners ready for the FCAT.

“We need to face the challenge to make these standards comprehensible,” she said.

Navy Point is one of nine ESOL “centers” in district schools where English language learners from multiple schools are grouped so they can be served better.

Mitchell teaches three third-graders from 8:15 to 10:15 a.m. every day. She also teaches a class made up of fourth- and fifth-graders. For the rest of the day, the students are in regular classrooms.

“I like that very much because that gives them the opportunity to interact with English-speaking kids,” she said. “They’re not sheltered by any means.”

Mitchell said knowing basic vocabulary is vital for English language learners to do well on the FCAT.

“The biggest challenge is to provide good content and at the same time provide English-language instruction,” she said. “The content gets pretty rigorous.”

This year, Mitchell has spent a lot of class time teaching her students about Greek and Latin root words, which helps the students understand meanings because the words are similar to many in their native languages.

She also uses a lot of visuals and technology when teaching — the students are frequently recorded on video going over what they’ve learned.

Neftali, who moved to Florida from Mexico when he was 3 years old, is in his third year in Navy Point’s ESOL program. He repeated second grade last year, but Mitchell said he is improving.

He said he has fun in ESOL class and that he is progressing, especially in reading.

“Homework gets easier and easier to do by myself,” he said.

ESOL sees an uptick

In order to exit the ESOL program, students must pass the FCAT, as well as a second test called CELLA — Comprehensive English Language Learning Assessment.

Edwards said the goal is for students to finish the program in five or six years, but that it depends on how old they are when they begin.

“If we get them in kindergarten, we usually have them exited by second grade, on grade level, speaking the language with comprehension,” Edwards said. “If they come to us in middle school, it’s more difficult because they’re learning the language as well as academic concepts.”

She said passing the FCAT is a high expectation for ESOL students.

“I think it’s difficult, especially if they’ve not been here very long,” Edwards said. “But it is a Florida expectation, so we do everything we can.”

She said it is remarkable to see how eager ESOL students are to succeed.

“They want to get an education,” Edwards said. “We had a child last year in elementary school who took the FCAT, translated everything into Chinese, got the answer, translated everything back to English and got a 4.”

The highest a student can score on the FCAT is a 5. A 3 is considered passing.

Salem Alshamrani has three children in Navy Point’s ESOL program. His family moved to Pensacola from Saudi Arabia in 2009.

He said the program has helped his children catch up with their American peers.

Alshamrani’s 10-year-old son, Salman, is in Mitchell’s fifth-grade ESOL class.

“I am so proud of my son,” he said. “Sometimes I say words and he corrects me. I’ve (studied) English since I was 11.”

English to Speakers of Second Languages program at USF needs changes (digitalbullpen.com)
Transatlantic Tie Up to Boost Opportunities for English Language Learners Worldwide (prweb.com)
We saved ESOL (lambethsaveourservices.org)
Cambridge Ranked World’s No.1 University (prweb.com)
Grade Change Proposal For Schools Considered By Education Board (miami.cbslocal.com)
How to Help Students Survive Culture Shock (languagelizard.com)
English Language Learners (stevensm1.wordpress.com)
School Specialty’s Reading, Math Intervention Solutions Adopted by Georgia Department of Education for Teaching K-12 English for Speakers of Other Languages (prweb.com)

Jeb Bush foundation helps shape Florida education policy

Staff — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:57:42 +0000

This session, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his nonprofit organization, the Foundation for Florida’s Future, have helped to fast-track a stream of legislation that could reset the education equation in Florida.

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- Wilfredo Lee / AP file photo -

BY Kathleen McGrory – Herald/Times Tallahasse Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — When Sen. David Simmons needed his colleagues’ support on the education budget last week, he dropped a powerful name on the Senate floor.

“I had a conversation last week with former Gov. Jeb Bush in which we discussed this and his support of it,” Simmons said of the provision to spend $119 million on reading programs at low-income schools.

The name comes up more than you might think. The former governor, who served from 1999 to 2007, still plays a significant role in shaping state education policy.

This session, Bush and his nonprofit organization, the Foundation for Florida’s Future, have helped to fast-track a stream of legislation that could reset the education equation in Florida. The bills, moving steadily through both the House and Senate, could gradually shift the financial and competitive advantage away from traditional public schools to private schools and charter schools, which are often managed by for-profit companies. Other proposals push virtual-learning initiatives.

The foundation says it supports high standards and accountability for all schools: public, charter, private and virtual included. Its supporters say the efforts will lead to dramatic improvements in student achievement – and make the Sunshine State a national leader in education reform.

“It is about equalization,” said Sen. Stephen Wise, the Senate Education Committee chairman and a supporter of the foundation’s agenda. “We need to challenge the status quo so that parents and children have choices.”

Critics, on the other hand, see targeted strikes meant to chip away at Florida’s traditional public schools by diverting more tax dollars to private corporations through voucher programs and charter schools.

“There is an attack on public education as we know it,” said Rep. Dwight Bullard, of Miami, the ranking House Democrat on education issues. “Corporations are looking at it as an opportunity to siphon off dollars.”

There is little debate over the influence Bush and the foundation have had in driving the agenda.

“They have huge sway in the Legislature, in part because of Jeb Bush and in part because they are almost the only game in town,” said former state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.

Foundation spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof said it is no secret that Bush stays involved in public policy. The foundation releases a legislative agenda annually – and follows it through the state Legislature and Board of Education.

“He believes success is never final, so reform is never finished,” she said.

Bush declined requests to be interviewed for this report.

Since its creation in 1994, the foundation has amassed money and influence, developing close ties to conservative think tanks, including the James Madison Institute, the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation. At the end of 2010, the organization had nearly $1 million in assets, the most recent records show. Emhof said the money is used “to support the work of the foundation, which is to keep education in a Florida a model for the nation.”

Among its legislative priorities this year:

• A bill that would expand the statewide tax credit cap, enabling more children from low-income families to earn vouchers to attend private schools.

• A controversial bill known as the “parent trigger” that would allow parents to demand sweeping changes at low-performing schools. In some cases, parents could petition to have the school converted into a charter.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/27/2664738/jeb-bush-foundation-helps-shape.html#storylink=cpy

Latino swing voters and higher ed

Staff — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:44:22 +0000

By ELIZABETH ARANDA | Special to The Tampa Tribune

In the last month, much attention in politics focused on the Latino electorate and their role in shaping the Republican primary results in Florida. Along the Interstate 4 corridor this group has been singled out as a possible swing vote that could determine whether the state goes Democratic or Republican in this fall’s presidential election. The presence of Latinos in the state, at 22.5 percent, has grown dramatically, particularly in Central Florida, where in Orange County alone the proportion of Hispanics quadrupled in the last 20 years.

Latino children now are about 27 percent of K-12 students in the state, and they make up nearly one-fifth of college students at public universities in Florida. Recent statistics indicate that the state university system awarded almost 17 percent of its degrees to Latinos, a 33 percent increase since the early 2000s. Florida ranks among the states with the highest proportion of Latino college graduates.

In short, Florida is well positioned to develop a highly educated multicultural workforce with the potential of attracting global firms to the state and transforming the Central Florida region in particular into a high-tech business corridor.

Like most Americans, Latinos believe education is vital to the success of their children. From my research on Latino communities in Florida, I have found that the opportunity to receive a college degree and the quality of life that comes with it are among the reasons why Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Colombians, Mexicans and many other Latinos move to Florida.

Similar to other U.S. groups, Latinos vote in line with their values. They are more inclined to support political candidates for office who have records of advocating for greater investment in education.

The proposed $400 million cut in the state-university system is an affront to the efforts of hardworking Florida families, including Latinos whose kids are among the students enrolled at schools such as the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida.

USF stands to lose $52 million under the Senate plan, which is lower than the originally proposed $79 million. And UCF would see its share of public funding decline by 35 percent.

Among other universities facing this level of cuts are Florida International and Florida Atlantic in South Florida. FIU, in particular, graduates the highest proportion of Latinos in the state. Other state universities would face smaller, but still disastrous, cuts under this plan, but none as dramatic as USF.

If implemented, the proposed cuts — even the “compromises” that have been reached — would do the following: diminish educational quality by increasing class size, lay off faculty and staff, and cancel classes; lower morale among faculty and staff, who may seek employment opportunities elsewhere; decrease the likelihood that in-state and out-of-state students will want to commit to a public university system that has seen its state support erode over time; and dissuade firms from relocating to Florida if they perceive a mismatch between their workforce needs and the available pool of highly educated workers.

In Central Florida in particular, chipping away at the I-4 region’s educational institutions will seriously compromise any efforts to make this into a high-tech business corridor. At the state level, the trend of graduating the highest proportions of Latinos in the country may stall or perhaps decline altogether.

How will Floridians, and Latinos in particular, respond? Although Cubans are often singled out as the most politically powerful ethnic group in the state, there are really multiple Latino electorates in Florida. There is a critical mass of Puerto Rican and other Latinos along the I-4 corridor who are U.S. citizens by birth or through naturalization and can vote in local, state and national elections.

These groups want the opportunities that all Americans deserve — high-quality, affordable education at all levels. These swing voters will not support candidates for office who contribute to the dismantling of the state’s public university system.

Perhaps public officials should consider this when making future budgetary decisions.

Elizabeth Aranda is an associate professor of sociology at the University of South Florida.

Florida Set for New Cut in Spending on Colleges – Tuition Increase

Staff — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:32:09 +0000

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ – New York Times

Florida lawmakers contend that education is essential to high-wage jobs in the state, but the Legislature is again expected to slash millions of dollars from the budget for higher education and may usher in another round of tuition increases.

Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times, via Associated Press

Gov. Rick Scott has called for an increase in education spending this year, but not for colleges and universities.

A proposal in the House would reduce state financing by nearly $250 million next year and would allow universities to increase tuition by as little as 8 percent and as much as 15 percent. A measure in the Senate would cut more than $500 million and would allow smaller institutions that are defined as colleges to raise tuition by 3 percent (the full-scale universities would not be permitted to raise tuition).

The cuts in Florida began four years ago and have continued unabated. Since 2008, state spending on education has dropped by 24 percent and is now at 2003 levels. Meanwhile, universities have raised tuition every year, putting many students in a financial bind. Florida’s 11 public universities have been raising tuition 15 percent a year for the past four years, and some of them for five years, although they still rank among the least expensive in the nation.

Forty-one states cut higher education spending last year, from 1 percent in Indiana and North Carolina to 41 percent in New Hampshire, according to a recent study conducted by the Illinois State University Center for the Study of Higher Education and the State Higher Education Executive Officers group.

Eduardo J. Padrón, the president of Miami Dade College, said the cuts in higher education spending in Florida were short-sighted.

“At a time when institutions are growing and trying to serve a lot of students who realized that the only way to become a part of the middle class is by getting a college education, the state continues to disinvest in education,” said Dr. Padrón, whose college has country’s largest enrollment (not including online schools) and graduates the most blacks and Hispanics. “There should be no question that at this point in America today, investment in higher education is paramount.”

Gov. Rick Scott, who in 2011 sought steep spending cuts to public schools, changed course this year. Calling a good education the “bedrock of any sound, sustainable economy,” Mr. Scott pushed to increase spending on public elementary, junior high and high schools next year by $1 billion, a move that would come close to making up the $1.3 billion cut last year.

But he did not include additional money for universities and colleges, although he did not advocate any reductions, either. The governor also strongly opposes letting universities raise tuition again.

“I don’t believe in tuition hikes,” said Mr. Scott, a Republican, who added that he wanted the state’s universities to focus more on science, technology, engineering and math.

Colleges and universities are in a quandary: Spending cuts, combined with a freeze on tuition, mean fewer teachers and the closing of certain programs.

Under the Senate budget proposal, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton stands to lose $47 million, one-third of the financing it receives from the state.

“The passage of the proposed budget cuts to Florida Atlantic University would have a devastating effect on the future of F.A.U.,” said Mary Jane Saunders, the university’s president. “F.A.U. provides a $4 billion economic impact to its six-county service region, and these cuts would be shattering to all we serve.”

Dr. Padrón, whose college serves some of the state’s poorest students and who says he raises tuition as a last resort, agreed. “If we have budget cuts and we don’t have the opportunity to raise tuition, we are going to be in crisis mode,” he said.

For some universities, the situation is dire. The University of South Florida in Tampa stands to lose a crippling 58 percent of its financing under the Senate bill. It was singled out as the result of a fight with Senator JD Alexander, chairman of the Budget Committee, over the university’s unwillingness to sever its ties with its Lakeland branch.

Mr. Alexander, who is serving out his final year in the Senate because of term limits, has pushed for independence for the Lakeland campus, the University of South Florida Polytechnic, which has 4,400 students. He wants to make it the state’s 12th university, but the University of South Florida opposes the idea.

A flood of e-mails, calls and appearances at the Capitol last week by University of South Florida students and faculty members led to some relief: Senate budget writers freed up $25 million for the university.

Mr. Alexander said the cuts were calculated according to each school’s reserve fund. The University of South Florida said it did not have the most reserve funds, yet it drew the largest cut. The university will also lose out because it must absorb $25 million in costs associated with the effort to close the Lakeland campus.

The budget bill still includes language for turning the Lakeland campus into the state’s 12th university.

“I think for any university to fly in the face of an entire Legislature would be a foolhardy decision,” Mr. Alexander said last week.

Mr. Alexander’s treatment of the university has led to a barrage of criticism in Tampa, and he has been accused of being vengeful.

“The whole notion that we would set up a 12th university when we are cutting the budget for the other 11 is ridiculous,” said Pam Iorio, who served two terms as Tampa’s mayor and left the job last year. “This is just something that he wants. He wants it as a legacy project, to be able to leave office and to say in his hometown that this university was created by him.”

Senator Introduces Bill to Cap Tuition Hikes (thenerve.org)
Some Students With Incarcerated, Absent Parents Pay Higher Tuition (timesofflorida.com)
A La Carte College Tuition: Florida’s Science- Tech Majors Could End Up Paying More (timesoftexas.com)
Obama takes tougher stance on higher education (sfgate.com)
Fla. House Plans 8-Percent Tuition Hike (miami.cbslocal.com)
Prepaid College Prices Mount (timesoftexas.com)
Hey Florida Leaders: You Have a Rare Opportunity to Support the Right to Education (timesofflorida.com)
UT-Austin Unveils Plan to Boost Graduation Rates – by Reeve Hamilton (timesoftexas.com)
UT panel recommends steps to boost graduation rate (timesoftexas.com)

Furor erupts over bills to let parents decide poorly performing schools’ fate

Staff — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:19:56 +0000

By Leslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel

Florida lawmakers want to give parents the power to dictate the future of poorly performing public schools, sparking criticism from parent advocates and others that the effort is part of a continuing campaign to privatize education.

Florida’sversion of a “parent trigger” law won favorable committee votes Tuesday in the Florida House and Senate.

The bills would allow parents — if more than 50 percent agree — to determine a “turnaround plan” for a struggling school. That could include turning it into a charter school or allowing a private-management firm to run it.

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Between the two committee votes, the bills were praised at a Capitol news conference attended by Senate President Mike Haridopolos, as well as representatives of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s education foundation and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, among others. Joining them were organizers from the California group known as Parent Revolution, which successfully pushed for that state’s first-in-the-nation parent trigger bill in 2010.

“It gives parents a stronger voice in the direction of the schools that are chronically failing — the direction of the schools that need intervention,” said Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, who is sponsoring the bill in the House.

But many local school advocates are opposed, saying such “parent empowerment” bills, as they are called, would undermine local school-board authority and turn public campuses over to privatebusinesses.

Seven parent groups, including the Florida PTA and the Orlando-based Fund Education Now, recently issued a joint statement against the bills, calling them misleading and misnamed.

If the bills become law, schools “built and wholly owned by the taxpayers of Orange County” could be lost to a “for-profit entity,” said Kathleen Oropeza, an Orlando mother and one of the founders of Fund Education Now.

It is a “rather cynical way to get the parent pull the trigger to basically open the way for a for-profit relationship that didn’t exist before,” she said.

A key provision in the bills (HB 1191 and SB 1718) would allow parents to determine an improvement plan for a school if it has performed poorly for three years. Parents would be allowed to take that action as long as 51 percent signed a petition. Their actions could even override the local school board.

“It does what we hear so often is needed in our schools: to engage and empower parents,” said Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, the Senate sponsor.

State and federal law requires school boards to select from four improvement options for chronically struggling schools. This year, 27 schools statewide fit that category. None is in Central Florida, though some local schools fell into that group in the past few years.

The improvement options are: adopting a district-determined turnaround plan — historically the most popular; sending students to another school; turning the school into a charter; or letting an outside group manage it.

Rhee and Bloomberg vs. Education (stephrrivera.wordpress.com)
Valerie Strauss Takes Michelle Rhee to Task Over Commentary (educationclearinghouse.wordpress.com)
Michelle Rhee: Busy Helping Republican Politicians’ Causes (educationclearinghouse.wordpress.com)

HCreo and thousands of Americans participate in School Choice Week

Staff — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:08:38 +0000

Join HCreo and thousands of Americans from all backgrounds on January 22-28, 2012 for National School Choice Week. Go to http://www.schoolchoiceweek.com to find out how you can participate.

Why Hispanics are at Risk

Even as Hispanics emerge as an increasingly dominant force our country’s current system of education too often segregates us, denigrates our well-being, destroys our youth, deprives us of opportunity, denudes our community of political power, and steals from too many children the dream of opportunity.

This failure of our system threatens to widen the disparities within our American society, deprive our fastest growing population segment of a bright future, and promises destructive and costly social turmoil for our entire nation. Let there be no doubt that our basic constitutional framework of fundamental rights and freedoms is, today, at great risk.

What does it mean when our country’s largest minority population (and fastest growing) — a hard-working and talented group — is 44% functionally illiterate? What does it mean when our system of education produces a Hispanic high school dropout rate of nearly 50% (a dropout rate more than double that of white students)? How does this reality comport with our founding vision of the land of the free and home of the brave? What does our country guarantee if not the fundamental rights of all citizens? The truth is this: if the right to an adequate education for America’s most vulnerable and largest minority population is denied, everyone’s rights are imperiled.

Wells Fargo recognized HCREO for outstanding leadership in education reform (timesofflorida.com)
Who Really Owns the 2012 Hispanic Vote? (battlegroundstates2012.com)
Latinos 2012: It’s Not Just about Immigration. (timesoftexas.com)
NAACP warns black and Hispanic Americans could lose right to vote (guardian.co.uk)
Are Hispanics America’s Next Great STEM Innovators? (forbes.com)
Chicago News Cooperative: Chicago Program Aims to Create More Black and Hispanic Teachers (nytimes.com)
LeBron James Shoots PSA To Address High School Dropout Crisis [Video] (hiphopwired.com)
NAACP Warns Black and Hispanic Americans Could Lose Right to Vote | Common Dreams (2012indyinfo.com)

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