Thursday, August 29, 2013

Was the Jacksonville Public Education Fund watching the same education summit as the rest of us?

Oy Vey. The JPEF does some nice statistical work. If you go to their web site they have some easy to navigate tools that take you to some good information about schools. But come on now, can they please get on the right side of one education issue?

They touted this dog and pony show as a success. Sure it was if you are Pearson or stand to make money off Common Core, then it was a rousing success.  However if you are a parent, teachers, or student things did not get better.

Common Core is a roll of the dice. Sorry make that an expensive roll of the dice.

Merit pay is still unfunded and still doesn’t have any evidence it works.

The teacher evaluation system is still a disaster only slightly trumped by the A-F grading system double disaster.

Charters and Vouchers are still siphoning money away from public schools and providing substandard options.

Where is the success here again?

Then they quoted Rick Scott. "All of the participants and attendees share a common goal: Making sure that each child in Florida is prepared to succeed," said Governor Scott. "The discussion and ideas generated this week will guide our future decisions and steps we will take through either legislative proposals, action by the State Board of Education or executive action."

That’s not even close to true, voucher and charter concerns were there to make money, more money that is. And please don’t color me optimistic that this pro-privatization commissioner and legislature are going to do anything to make things better because first they would have to admit they made things worse and that’s never going to happen. 

JPEF how about standing up for students and teachers for a change.