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Coal in Superintendent Greene’s stocking? The Manatee County graduation scandal heats up

December 11th should have been a great day for Cynthia Saunders, interim superintendent since July 1st of Manatee County (Sarasota). The board there was poised to take away the word interim and give her a nice raise too. The Florida Department of Education however stepped in and blew it all up.
They accused Cynthia Saunders of many troubling offences as they launched an investigation into her and Manatee County’s policies.
The Bradenton Herald reported,
Cynthia Saunders, interim superintendent for the School District of Manatee County, is accused of abusing her power and inflating graduation rates, according to a notice from the Florida Department of Education.
In a letter dated Dec. 6, Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart said she found probable cause to justify sanctions against Saunders’ educator certificate, citing alleged misconduct between 2014 and 2016.


The state accused Saunders of:


Personal conduct which seriously reduces effectiveness as an employee of the school board, in violation of Florida Statutes.


An offense against the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession, in violation of Florida Statutes.


Intentionally distorting or misrepresenting facts concerning an educational matter in direct or indirect public expression, in violation of Florida Administrative Code.


Using institutional privileges for personal gain or advantage, in violation of Florida Administrative Code.


Failing to maintain honesty in all professional dealings, in violation of Florida Administrative Code.


Using coercive means or promised special treatment to influence professional judgments of colleagues, in violation of Florida Administrative Code.


Submitting fraudulent information on a document in connection with professional activities, in violation of Florida Administrative Code.  


But perhaps however the most damning accusation was that she manipulated the district’s graduation rate.


Right about now you might be asking why should we care about this way up here in Jacksonville, though I think a better question would be why are you just hearing about it. You see Cynthia Saunders was the number two under our current superintendent and all the offenses supposedly happened between 2014 and 2016 when Greene was the superintendent there.

Furthermore, at least on Manatee County school board member thinks if anyone is responsible for what happened, it was Greene. Also from the Bradenton Herald,
Saunders was named interim superintendent after Diana Greene left to become superintendent of Duval County Public Schools in late June…


Earlier in the day, Scott Hopes (Manatee County school board member) said any allegations should be directed at the former superintendent.


“Diana Greene was in charge, not Cynthia Saunders,” Hopes said. “I have every expectation that she’s going to challenge it, and she’ll have her day in court.”

At a recent school board meeting Hopes went even farther saying if Saunders did do anything wrong it was because of misplaced loyalty.


The issue seems to boil down to students at an alternate school who were unlikely to graduate being coded as having dropped out to attend home school where they would not affect the district’s graduation rate. The district has recently blamed a retired assistant principal saying it was shoddy paper work on their behalf that has led to the district’s woes. The employee however has a different take.  


From the Herald-Tribune, “The only word that comes to mind is scapegoat,” said Marshall, 60. “And if you think about it, I am a logical choice. I am retired, so I am no longer associated with the district.”

Greene also believes Mrs. Saunders wasn’t involved in any wrong doing saying, “Ms. Saunders is well known as a person of the highest ethics and character. The episode you reference occurred just as I became Superintendent of Manatee. The School Board was fully informed of the miscoding and corrective actions. The internal investigation concluded that Ms. Saunders directed staff to follow an approved process for coding students. I have full confidence in Ms. Saunders and the district’s actions at the time.”


Sometimes when I write about district people I throw in an obligatory, I have been generally pleased with, partly because I don’t want them to write me. It was no fun being called into professionally practices or worse threatened to be sued every few weeks for exercising my first amendment rights, something that happened at a “you just don’t know” pace under superintendent Vitti. The thing is I have genuinely been pretty pleased with Superintendent Green. Now I think she has spent too much time hobnobbing with her new friends at The Jacksonville Public Education Fund rather than rebuilding relationships with staff and communication between the district and teachers continues to be an issue but overall she’s off to a good start, but since I have been pleased I find these accusations all the more troubling.
You see I was pleased when Vitti first got to town too. Though soon after his arrival he would often engage in a lot of the troubling behavior Saunders was accused of. During his tenure fear and intimidation were two of the tools he used most. He didn’t respect teachers and even admitted he had often thought of them as easily replaceable widgets. Then there were accusations of him using questionable means to raise the grades of the schools he was in charge of in Miami that the local media never followed up on. Is any of that starting to sound familiar? Arguably getting those school grades up helped Vitti get his job here, just like arguably Greene being in charge in Manatee as its graduation rate went up did as well.
Right now these are just very troubling and very serious accusations as the state starts its investigation, but at least one Manatee County school board members have already pointed the finger at Green as the person who is really responsible and if the buck doesn’t stop at the top where does it?   

If these allegations prove to be true it’s not really credible to think they happened without Greene knowing about them, unless she was willfully ignorant after imposing her will on her subordinates to “get it done” at any cost. Though even if that wasn’t the case, and there was just a rogue employee it’s still bad management. The thought her number two could carry on in such a way for so long without Greene’s knowledge or approval is troubling to say the least.

Either way it’s the responsibility of the local media to let the people of Jacksonville to know, that Greene’s former number two has been accused of some heinous violations and several of her old bosses think it was Greene who was really responsible? These story about the graduation scandal did not break on some underground blog. No, it’s front page of the local papers of a large city. The local media is supposed to inform of things like this something, sadly they all to often have failed to do.
Saunders good day may ultimately happen but it doesn’t seem as if it will anytime soon as the investigation is expected to drag on for months and in the meantime we are left with more questions, like what did Green know and when, than answers.
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DeSantis appoints public education hating politician to lead its public schools

Richard Corcoran appointed to day to be the commissioner of education is a lot of things, but educator is not one of them. That however did not stop Ron DeSantis, who received 33,000 more votes than his opponent from appointing a man who while speaker of the house tried to dismantle a public education system that educates 84 percent of the state’s children (the rest being home schooled or who attend private schools.  In addition, while he was speaker he was also a foe of transparency and process ramming through train bills crated in the middle of the night in secrecy that often benefited his wife’s charter school. DeSantis looked at all this and said, yeah that’s the guy for me.

From Orlando Rising,

Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani declared that Richard Corcoran has “no professional background in education” in a letter to the Florida Board of Education urging it to conduct a national search before picking Florida’s next education commissioner…

… “With all due respect, Mr. Corcoran has no professional background in education beyond his intentional efforts to privatize our state’s public education system,” Eskamani stated in a letter sent to board members Monday.
She and other Democrats also set out a social media appeal to constituents to convince Board Chair MarvaJohnson and other board members to at least delay any decision until a national search could be conducted.
“He has spent his career demonizing teachers, building the state’s Republican party, and privatizing schools to send funds to private charters like the one run by his spouse,” Eskamani charged in her letter. “He also supports the arming of our teachers, a risky policy option that has been rejected by local school boards across the state.”
From WJCT,
A former House speaker who contemplated running for governor, then supported one of Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis’ opponents in the Republican primary, is the incoming governor’s pick to be education commissioner.
Prominent charter school advocates, including former Gov. Jeb Bush, are supporting Corcoran for the job. Some Democrats and the state’s teacher’s union have urged the board to conduct a search for an experienced educator rather than quickly hire an “out of work politician” for the job.
From the TCPalm
If you wanted to undermine public education in the state of Florida, here’s what you’d do:
First, curtail funding as much as possible. The cost of public education goes inexorably up, and if revenues don’t rise in tandem, you cripple the beast. You keep a lid on teacher pay; buildings deteriorate before they can be replaced; and parents and teachers dig ever-deeper into their own pockets to pay for basic supplies.
Next, require ever-more standardized testing and assessments — all in the name of “accountability,” of course. This forces public schools to “teach to the test” and robs educators of their ability to be innovative.
Society itself lends you a hand. With entrenched poverty and family dissolution at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder creating ever-more need, schools become overburdened. Parents who want more for their kids want out.
And there you are, with an escape plan.
He biggest rap on Corcoran, however, is that the man about to be crowned Florida’s education commissioner isn’t an actual educator.
“I understand the viewpoint that you don’t need to be a doctor to run a hospital,” said Martin County School Board chair Christia Li Roberts. “But you do need training as a hospital administrator to do the job effectively. I’m not sure what skills you have when being trained as a politician.”
Ah, but that training imparts key ideological skills — perhaps the most important of all.
For while DeSantis lauds Corcoran as a “reformer,” that’s not what this is about.
Corcoran isn’t here to reform.
He’s here to replace.
From the Florida Phoenix,
Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’s controversial pick for Florida Education Commissioner has sparked angry tweets, petitions and protests as critics call for a national search and a candidate with a background in education.
When the State Board of Education meets Monday to consider who should be appointed as Commissioner of Education, protesters may be there.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it is very unusual for a state not to go though some sort of national search,” said Kristen Amundson, president of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
But states have leeway to select an Education Commissioner, using assorted requirements, Amundson says. And not all commissioners or state school superintendents have education credentials, such as a backgrounds in classroom teaching or school administration.
Current Education Commissioner Pam Stewart has spent nearly 40 years in education, starting out as a classroom teacher. Likewise, former Commissioners Frank Brogan and John Winn, among others, had lengthy education backgrounds…
…DeSantis has recommended former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, 53, as Education Commissioner, to lead the nation’s third-largest K-12 school system. He’s an astute politician and attorney — he graduated from a small law school at Regent University, a private Christian university.
Corcoran has no formal education credentials, but in the Legislature, he championed nontraditional public charters operated by private groups and scholarship programs that allow public dollars for students to attend private schools…
…But groups including the Florida Education Association and League of Women Voters of Florida oppose putting Corcoran in the position without a national search for the best candidate with education credentials.
Overall, the Florida Education Association has been highly critical of Corcoran.
In an email to the Florida Phoenix, FEA President Fedrick Ingram said: “Richard Corcoran is not the right candidate for the job. Time and again as House speaker, he demonstrated open hostility for public education —  starving public schools of funds, pushing for charter schools and privatization at the expense of our traditional neighborhood schools. Corcoran lacks experience in education. He’s a political insider.”
From the St. Augustine Record,
Let’s not beat around the political bush: Putting former House Speaker Richard Corcoran in charge of Florida education is like hiring Genghis Kahn to head the state Department of Corrections.
The charter school fox is heading for the Department of Education hen house and, for public schooling, that’s finger-lickin’ bad.

Corcoran is a coercer, a brawler and politician who rewards fealty while marking opponents for payback. Those who know him would say he’d be flattered by the description.

He came into politics through the back door. He ran for the House in 1998 in a district outside his own. He was dubbed a “carpetbagger” by the hometown newspaper. He lost.

But he became a rising star in the party machinery, and eventually became what many describe as a political “hitman” for Marco Rubio’s bid to gain House leadership in 2006. He was rewarded by being hired as Rubio’s chief of staff at $175,000 yearly salary — considerably more than his boss, who made $29,697 a year. The governor that year was paid around $130,000.

If this gives you pause in terms of state political priorities, go to the head of the class.

In 2007, Corcoran again ran for special election, this time in the Senate. He was again portrayed as a carpetbagger — and lost.

The third time was a charm, when Corcoran won a House seat in 2010.

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis has made his pick known. But, on paper, the decision is up to the board of education — all GOP appointees, who probably like their current status.

DeSantis has made no bones about wanting to see public education dismantled, though you heard little of that during the governor campaign.
The bottom line, is this irresponsible pick is bad for Florida’s teachers, schools and students and only good for the bottom line of charter school operators which includes his wife.
Is this what my republican friends wanted? Because it’s what they got.
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Teacher concerned about the future of education

By John Meeks

As we prepare for a new governor, I want to express my fears and my concerns for the 90 percent of young Floridians who attend public schools.

Firstly, I fear that our elected and appointed leaders will misinterpret this year’s terribly close election results as a mandate to continue carrying out policies that are hostile to public schools.  I do not believe that it is asking too much for our public school funding to keep pace with inflation.  I do not believe that educators should have to go on food stamps or get a second job to get by.

Secondly, I am concerned that our state’s public school children will continue to be collateral damage in our leaders’ ongoing war with educators.  Instead of working to settle scores or engage in union busting, Tallahassee could take a moment to see educators, parents, and all education stakeholders as partners in moving all of our students forward.  Instead, I my largest concern is that we are seeing a successful effort at starving our public schools and steering favor to schools that are created to benefit those who happen to be in charge of education policy.

I urge all public education advocates to speak up and to remind Florida and the nation that we will not be passive anymore and that we will never surrender in defense of our students and our profession.  We need to speak up so our students have adequate resources.  We need to speak up so we can end the teacher shortage.  We need to speak up so we are not saddled with categoricals and unfunded mandates that cripple our budgets.  Although the elections may not have gone our way, we have not lost until we give up.  
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Tallahassee has a unicorn, a republican that cares about public education

People say I am hard on republicans, and I am because they deserve it.

If charter schools were nonprofit sites of innovation that as a group did a good job educating children, I imagine I would be for them but they aren’t. instead most are for profit monstrosities that offer zero in the way of innovation.

Then if voucher schools had over site on the money and standards with what they taught and didn’t fund religious schools, and as a group did a good job I educating our children I imagine I would be for them as well, but they aren’t. many teach junk science and history and have no requirements for their teachers.

The problem is all too often the republicans in Tallahassee have been interested in punishing teachers and thus public schools, who haven’t supported them. The ignore the hypocrisy that public schools are tested to death, while voucher schools have no accountability at all, even though they are both financed with the public dime. They also aren’t data driven, programs like the best and brightest that rewards teachers with high SAT scores, give me a %$#^ing break, aren’t rooted in evidence, but that doesn’t stop them from carrying on.

Worse than all that however is too many republicans push laws and legislation that personally benefits them, their family members or their big donors. Fischer, Corcoran, Diaz, the list goes on and on and they show time and time again that not the state’s children and teachers who they care about.

Public education does have many issues but most for them were caused by the people who seek to dismantle public education, but despite the brutal assault on one of our nation’s greatest institutions they are by far the best education option going.

Those are my issues. The thing is I would support anybody from any political party if they were interested in doing things the right way, if they were interested in putting the public’s needs above their own, unfortunately republicans in Tallahassee like that are far and few between, like unicorns, though we recently did have a sighting.

From the Tampa Times:

A Republican lawmaker who’s also a teacher wants to end state restrictions on how public school teachers are paid. 

Rep. Rene Plasencia, R-Orlando, aims to roll back the 2011 prohibition on using advanced degrees as a criteria when setting salary schedules, and cancel the requirement that districts adopt performance pay plans, as well. 

Merit pay, Plasencia explained, has no positive impact on student performance, but it does have a negative effect on teacher morale. If districts want to maintain the current system, he suggested, that’s fine. 

But the state shouldn’t mandate it. 

“The way you pay teachers should be done at the local level,” Plasencia said, calling the current model “flawed” and “rigid.” 

He predicted his bill (HB 77) could gain traction, despite a seemingly strong sentiment favoring the accountability rules first adopted nearly eight years ago in SB 736. It would just follow in the steps of other mandates from the same bill being turned back after lawmakers saw how they worked in practice. 

SB 736 also required that student academic results, which became the “value-added model,” account for half of teacher performance evaluations. The Legislature stopped forcing districts to do that anymore in 2017. 

 It called for end-of-course exams in every class at every grade level, too. The state scaled back that mandate in 2015. 

“Little by little, the Legislature has admittedly said [SB 736] was probably an overreach, and let’s start peeling it back,” Plasencia said. “I think this is the next step in the same direction.”


Merit pay, Plasencia explained, has no positive impact on student performance, but it does have a negative effect on teacher morale.

Not based on evidence, sigh just like most of the things Tallahassee has done to education and the teaching profession over the last few years.  A negative effect on teacher morals, sigh just like most of the things they do.

Even if you hate public schools and teachers is it too much to ask we at least be evidenced based? Don’t our children deserve it? 

Friends the bow is about to break, what we need our a few more unicorns willing to do the right thing.
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Jacksonville Public Education Fund tells teachers just find a way.

JPEF had Aaron Bean one of the worst enemies’ public schools and school teachers have ever had, tell a favorite memory of a teacher.
With soulful music playing in the background, he told the story of his dad who worked as a shop teacher for a school that had no supplies. His father first had the kids bring in broken things to fix and then went and begged the community to help with supplies.
This is the story, about teacher out begging for what should be staples that JPEF thought would celebrate teachers. Spoiler alert not much has changed since when Bean’s dad taught.

He should have said,  Hi, my names Aaron bean my fondest memory of a teacher is when one had to beg the community for supplies because legislators like me refused to adequately fund his classroom, that would have been honest.  Geeze JPEF so much for thank a teacher. 

The entire system survives because teachers work millions of unpaid hours of overtime and then use their money to shore up the sieve like holes in the budget, because politicians, like Bean won’t properly fund it and JPEF just celebrated that on FACEBOOK. The irony is not lost on me.

Hey JPEF was Johnathan Hague charter schools USA CEO or Gary Chartrand not available? No wonder Bean hates public schools so much, he saw his father have to go door to door begging for supplies.   

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Scandal follows Greene from Manatee county

I have to say I have generally been pleased with Greene. Now I think she has spent too much time hobnobbing with her new friends at JPEF rather than rebuilding relationships with the staff and communication continues to be an issue but she’s off to a good start.

That however doesn’t make the news form Manatee county less troubling especially after we went 
through years of parlor tricks with Vitti.

From the Bradenton Herald: 


Cynthia Saunders, interim superintendent for the School District of Manatee County, is accused of abusing her power and inflating graduation rates, according to a notice from the Florida Department of Education.

In a letter dated Dec. 6, Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart said she found probable cause to justify sanctions against Saunders’ educator certificate, citing alleged misconduct between 2014 and 2016.
Saunders was named interim superintendent after Diana Greene left to become superintendent of Duval County Public Schools in late June…
Earlier in the day, Hopes said any allegations should be directed at the former superintendent.
“Diana Greene was in charge, not Cynthia Saunders,” Hopes said. “I have every expectation that she’s going to challenge it, and she’ll have her day in court.”
The state accused Saunders of: 
Personal conduct which seriously reduces effectiveness as an employee of the school board, in violation of Florida Statutes. 
An offense against the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession, in violation of Florida Statutes. 
Intentionally distorting or misrepresenting facts concerning an educational matter in direct or indirect public expression, in violation of Florida Administrative Code. 
Using institutional privileges for personal gain or advantage, in violation of Florida Administrative Code. 
Failing to maintain honesty in all professional dealings, in violation of Florida Administrative Code. 
Using coercive means or promised special treatment to influence professional judgments of colleagues, in violation of Florida Administrative Code. 
Submitting fraudulent information on a document in connection with professional activities, in violation of Florida Administrative Code.  
https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/education/article222942785.html?fbclid=IwAR2qMmlbZbdJo3z7kKv1GINWNXO-M-rndfCodzNHWW-Tu6jVNSaOWQAWv48 
Those are some pretty troubling accusations, which sadly have been all to typical from a lot of administrators over the years.
I guess the bottom line is if these allegations prove to be true it’s not really credible to think they happened without Greene knowing about them, unless she was willfully ignorant after imposing her will on her subordinates to “get it done” at any cost. Though even if that wasn’t the case, and there was just a rogue employee it’s still bad management. The thought her number two could carry on in such a way for so long without Greene’s knowledge. 
There were whispers that Vitti greatly inflated his performance before he came up here that weren’t taken seriously by the board. I hope we are not having a repeat with Greene.
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Darryl Willie should resign from Teach for America, he is rife with conflicts of interests

One of the first things Darryl Willie did after being elected to the school board was to go on WJCT and and shill for Teach for America which currently pays him six figures. He said, I am a little biased because I came through the program, but I think at this point in time, especially within our district, we have to utilize all the resources we can to put quality people in front our kids. And I think Teach for America can do that.  


I think many people would disagree with Mr. Willie there but the bigger question is shouldn’t Daryl Willie have to resign from Teach for America? The city charter has a provision that says public workers can’t hold elected offices. Now you might be asking isn’t Teach for America a non profit and the answer is sort of. Tim Groulx a professor at the University of North Florida filed to run against Scott Shine but was later told he would have to resign from UNF if he was elected.  


Now this is a city provision and its a little vague so Groulx went to his city councilman Bill Guildford who agreed to introduce legislation defining what a public employee is, in 2022, after Scott Shine, who he said was doing a fine job, was term limited.


A UNF professor, who doesn’t work for the city, who works for the state university system had to choose between his job and being on the school board, ultimately he choose the latter and that brings us to Teach for America.


TFA gets most of its money through Americorps which means most of the money he gets is public money, and gets it to provide teachers to public schools, not private schools, why we don’t give this money directly to school districts is beyond me. So since Willie runs the local office, is paid for with public money and whose entire gig is to provide services to local public schools wouldn’t this make him a public employee? 


Now I don’t expect him to resign, like Guildford wanted to protect Shine, the local power structure likes to protects its own, but please explain to my how he should be allowed to serve both on the school board and with TFA? There are numerous potential conflicts of interests with Willie and the district and its not just with TFA, as he has taken tons of money and has numerous close contacts with charter schools as well. 


You might be saying, well he should certainly recuse himself if he shouldn’t resign but the truth is he really cared about children and the district then he should let TFA which already on life support in Jacksonville anyway, die, and let me explain why.

First you have to separate yourself from the program and the teacher. Anybody whether they are a college of ed grad, a business person starting a second career or a TFA teacher deserves respect and support for showing up. It’s the program not the individual teachers that is dreadful.

What would you tell me if I came to you with the following plan.

Okay here is the plan, let’s take recent college grads, most won’t be education majors but that’s okay, because we will put them through a five-week teacher boot camp. Then we will put them in our neediest schools where they are supposed to serve two years though they can serve for more if they want to. It’s true about one in six won’t make it to two years and most won’t stay beyond their initial commitment but that’s okay these things happen. And all it is going to cost you is 2500 bucks a year so about 5k per teacher for a finder’s fee, then we will give them an extra 11 grand for grad school or to pay off student loans after their two years is up. , regular teachers leave too. Now it’s true evidence says our neediest students really need experience teachers, we will spend a bit more on training because new teachers receive more and the program creates kind of a revolving door of new teacher and this will exacerbate teacher turnover but no plan is perfect. Oh and I need a staff of about a dozen and I want to get paid 120 k a year. Plus do you think we can get the local philanthropic community to give me 5 million, and the state legislature to throw me a million every so often too. What do you think? Should we do it?
I think you would tell me I was out of my $#% $#%& mind. The thing is that is exactly what Teach for America does.   
But it gets even worse.
TFA was brought to town by a man named Gary Chartrand. Despite the fact he is a grocer, all be it though, a very rich grocer, he routinely inserts himself in local education.  He also brought KIPP to town, has given Dave Chauncey 4,000 dollars a violation of the spirit of campaign donation laws, and has backed a candidate in every school board race since 2012 despite the fact he lives in Ponte Vedra including people like Scott Shine and Jason Fischer. 
He is on record saying it is a good thing that teachers no longer have work protections, used his position on the state board of education to ratchet up testing requirements for both students and teachers while supporting vouchers where teachers and students take no tests and is a notorious detractor of organized labor once funding the faux teacher group PEN and he undoubtedly supports amendment 8 which would end home rule and takes representation away from the people. 
He envisions a district full of KIPP charters staffed by TFA teachers and when the candidates of district 6 lavished praise on TFA, that is who they sided with while siding against professional teachers.
TFA says anybody can be a teachers and experience does not matter and we all know or should know that is far from the truth.  It’s also insulting to people who have made teaching a career.
TFA also allows those who would seek to dismantle public ed to seem like they care. It allows them to say, well were not going to invest in doing things the right way, but hey have you checked out this program that puts teachers in inner city schools?
I would ask you all the following questions.
Shouldn’t’ we strive to put professional teachers in all our classrooms?
Why won’t the legislature fund money for loan forgiveness or grad school for traditional teachers after two years?
Can we afford all the extra costs of this very expensive program?
Does experience matter?
Don’t our neediest children, heck all our children deserve better than an ever revolving door of novice teachers?
Darryl Willie would have you believe he cares about our children but the truth is if he continues to push TFA then the only thing he really cares about is his six figure salary. I hope he proves me wrong but if his interview on WJCT is any indication he has no plans to do so.    


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Ron DeSantis appoints Swamp Dweller and Political insider to be commissioner of education

Before you think I am being disrespectful I just want to point out that those are DeSantis’s words

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Sigh, well it’s not like we didn’t know elections had consequences, but I wonder if my republican friends thought one would be the appointment of a man whose wife runs a charter school, a man who is rife with conflicts of interests, who thumbed his nose at the legislative process and who has done everything in his power to dismantle public education and teaching as a profession, and lets not forget how utterly unqualified for the position he is. 

At some point people have to pick a side, the children and teachers and their own self interests or a few rich republicans looking to get richer.

I don’t know what else to say.  

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The beginning of the end of public education in Florida

On December 5th long time Florida education commissioner Pam Stewart resigned, this was somewhat surprising as not two weeks ago she agreed to postpone her retirement and serve for another year. The motivation behind her sudden re-retirement is the inevitable appointment of outgoing speaker of the house Richard Corcoran to the Commissioner of Education position.  

What are his credentials to undertake such a huge and important position? … Oh did you think I was going to talk about his extensive back ground in education? I was actually asking you because Corcoran is an attorney by trade and doesn’t have any relevant education experience.

Now as speaker he did oversee some of the most controversial and draconian public education bills in Florida history. Under his watch Florida per pupil spending fell to 45th and its teachers continued to be some of the worst paid in the nation.  He expanded the best and brightest teacher bonus program that rewarded teachers that had high S.A.T. scores and yes that is as stupid as it sounds and he did so despite the fact the program isn’t evidenced base and disproportionately disadvantaged minority and veteran teachers.

Evidence based however has never been a requirement for Corcoran as he also expanded numerous school choice, privatization programs that would further drain public schools of resources without demonstrating a need. Private schools that take vouchers have been in the news a lot recently after the Orlando Sentinel did an expose which showed many of the schools hired teachers without degrees, the occasional felon and used curriculums that would be laughably bad, man existed with dinosaurs, slaves were free if they had Jesus in their heart, if they wouldn’t have been being taught to children.

He also did most of these as part of train bills, or large bills with nominally related topics passed at the end of sessions. Process, schmossess.

Corcoran’s house also attacked teachers’ unions making it easier to decertify them, made it harder for local districts to raise property taxes and thus fund their schools, and forced districts to share their already meager resources with for profit charter schools.

I am not sure if any of that is relevant education experience or not though his wife Anne Corcoran might have some as she founded the Classical Preparatory School a charter school, a school that benefited from legislation pushed by her husband.

You might think it was unethical to push legislation that benefited you or your family members but since this is Florida you would be wrong. This man who has done all he can to injure the public school system and the teaching profession, as well as champion legislation that personally benefited him and his family is now on the cusp of running the entire Florida Department of Education, and sadly this is just where we are getting started.

Newly elected senator Manny Diaz was appointed chair of the senate education committee. He  is also paid six figures to be the chief operator officer of Doral College which runs a charter school that funnels its students to the college and yes that sounds convoluted but this is Florida where we bend over backwards to charters or the legislators and their family members that run them anyways.

Diaz, Corcoran and another legislator, Micheal Bileca whose day job is executive director of the foundation that funds True North Classical Academy which he also founded, helped pass massive and financially beneficial to their charter schools, legislation during the last session.

The Orlando Sentinel reported, these three legislators were chief architects in the passage of a $419 million education bill that takes away millions of dollars from public schools to expand the charter-school industry in Florida at taxpayer expense.
They crafted the most important parts of education bill HB 7069 in secret, acting in possible violation of the open government laws the Legislature is perennially seeking to weaken. There was no debate allowed and educators all across the state were left without a voice in the process.
Though since this is Florida, the hits, they keep coming as Tea Party darling Jennifer Sullivan was appointed chair of the powerful house education committee. It’s not her being part of the Tea Party that has me down, it’s the fact she is completely unqualified for the position.
Sullivan is a 27-year-old home schooled high school graduate who worked in a Tea room before being elected, while taking classes here and there from a Christian college. In effect she will be in charge of making policy for schools she would not be qualified to work in. Though since private schools that take vouchers don’t require degrees let alone certification, she could probably find employment at one of them.
She has even said her lack of knowledge is a strength, “There is something to be said, in my opinion, for someone who has not been subjected to good teachers or bad teachers, good schools and bad schools, or unions vs charters. My perspective is a unique one and one that lends itself to being more concerned with what works than with who benefits.”
Sigh, deep sigh, so arguably the three most powerful people in Florida’s education landscape, are the husband of a charter school operator who has shown a disdain for public schools, and teachers and who has shown an even greater disdain for transparency and process, the chief financial operator of a private college that runs a charter school that funnels the students to that private college, both of whom aren’t against pushing legislation that openly benefits them and a millennial who thinks ignorance is bliss. Where after Andrew Gillum wasn’t elected I was depressed I am now downright suicidal about the future of education.   
Public education and the teaching profession have weathered blow after blow, attack after attack, but can it survive these three?
Now you might be saying well elections have consequences and if the people of Florida did not want to dismantle public education and tear down the teaching profession they would have voted differently.
Except you would be wrong.
Every time education itself has been on the ballot it has won. In 2002 the voters said having a high quality education system was the paramount duty of the state and twice the voters have backed the class size amendment, though sadly both ideas have been gutted by the legislature.
Then this year ultra conservative Clay County and Dade County passes resolutions for higher taxes to benefit education joining a half dozen other counties that have done so because they know Tallahassee has abdicated their responsibility to adequately fund education. Education wins over and over when it’s alone on the ballot.  
Though it’s not like the game isn’t rigged. The recent state wide elections were decided by razor thin margins, tenths on one percentage point. Since that is the case why is it 47-73 in the house 17-23 in the senate, with the republicans holding near super majorities? The answer is gerrymandering which is bad for democracy no matter which side of the aisle you sit on.
Then there was some fanfare that Jacksonville finally turned blue with fifty-two percent of the city voting democrat. However, that didn’t change the 4 republicans, 2 democrats’ makeup of the Duval delegation to the house and it turns out only one of those races was competitive.  Also if we are being honest Kimberly Daniels is really a republican in democrats clothing.
Finally, I would like to point out two things, for a state with a teacher shortage crisis, Tallahassee sure seems like it is doing everything they can to further injure the profession. Then ninety percent of Florida’s students attend public schools, and just ten percent attend charters or receive vouchers, yet charters and vouchers are like the obese owners of the orphanage feasting while public schools are the orphans barely subsisting on gruel.    
None of this is right, this is not how it is supposed to be.   
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Shine just can’t quit Vitti, complains about Becki Couch and Paula Wright

The Times Union did a piece today which I think started out a bit misleading.


 Two of the people who hired Duval Schools Superintendent Diana Greene last summer are set to be hired by her and the rest of the School Board.


Reading that I was a bit taken back, thinking here we go, more high priced special assistants but the thing is if you read the article you find they took positions that they were more than qualified for. What just because someone leaves the board they can’t work in education any more?


I think it was a sad day when Couch and Wright turned off the lights. They had really come to be great advocates and fierce defenders or our schools. I would say they are going to be missed but it turns out we are lucky to still have them.


Scott Shine though had a different take.


From the Times Union:  


Former board member Scott Shine, who sometimes clashed with Wright and Couch on board matters over the past four years, said he recently emailed Greene warning that hiring former board members would be “frowned upon by some in the community.”

“This is a colossal conflict of interest,” he said.
“I know of board members in the past who had sought out positions with the district and the superintendent said no. I’m shocked that the superintendent would do this. We haven’t even gone four weeks since (our) last board meeting.”
Shine said the timing of these hires is important.
He, along with some business leaders and members of the Jacksonville Civic Council, urged the School Board not to hire a new superintendent last spring, but to wait until November, when new board members would fill some of the seven seats.
But a majority of the board disagreed, including Wright and Couch, and voted unanimously to hire Green to replace former Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who now heads Detroit schools, and outgoing interim superintendent Patricia Willis. Greene’s first day on the job was July 1.
“These two individuals were largely responsible for the departure of Dr. Vitti and now we’re going to reward them with a job,” Shine asked.
Hoo boy, Shine never got over Vitti leaving did he, this shook him. I wonder what is he going to do with all those notebooks that he wrote “I heart Vitti” on.  
The thing is where Shine may not have known how bad Vitti was for the teaching staff, I doubt he ever talked to a teacher, he had to know the shambles and mismanagement that Vitt left in his wake.  Vitti spent like the proverbial drunken sailor and was interested in parlor tricks, moving kids around and changing schools, rather than real solutions. Shine had to know that but there he is still bemoaning him leaving.
Also I think there is some jealousy there, the realization those two women were respected and appreciated while nobody misses him. I wrote it was a sad day when the ladies left but it was a good day for the district when he did.
Also don’t forget he conspired with the business community to hijack the superintendent process. The white, male, and uber rich business community that is. If it was up to Shine we would just now be looking for a super,  and who wants to bet an independent minded African-American women wouldn’t have fit their bill.
Scott, it’s time to move on, the rest of the city has and we are the better off for it.