Education and Technology

Gene Witt, a respected retired School Superintendent writes a very moving piece on Amendment One.

As a career educator and former Superintendent of Manatee County Schools, I am adamantly opposed to the Jan. 29 constitutional amendment for property tax reform because I firmly believe that if passed, it would pull the rug out from under schoolchildren in Florida.

Source: For schools’ sake, vote no on property tax amendment

Read the Rest Here

Here is what the local newspaper recommends on Amendment 1:

The proposed amendment that voters are considering between now and Jan. 29 has serious flaws:
It doesn’t provide tax reform.
It doesn’t eliminate inequities; in fact, it exacerbates them.
And it would further restrict the ability of local governments — the governments closest to the people — to respond to community needs.
We recommend voting NO, against proposed Revision No. 1.

Source: Sarasota Herald Tribune Editorial Staff - Vote “No” on Amendment 1

Read the Rest Here

Are you willing to pay for schools in other counties?

When the Florida legislature looked at doubling the Homestead Exemption several years ago they found that some of the poorer counties would pay little or NO property taxes due to their low property values? That meant that the property taxes collected in richer counties like Sarasota would be used to pay for schools in counties not paying property taxes. Are you willing to subsidize the schools in other counties?

Vote No on Amendment One on January 29.

Technorati tags: Florida, Vote, Amendment One, Politics

This post is completely off topic for educational technology, but this news item completely hit me in my soft spot.

When I was in my 20’s I was reading the print copy of SI, it was the only copy back then, when I read about a female high school track runner who broke her leg 100 yards from the finish of her race. She was the anchor for the 4×400 relay in a state meet and was leading by a lot when she broke her leg. Not wanting to let her teammates down she crawled to the finish line.

That high school girl inspired me to do a lot of things. She showed me what loyalty, courage and guts were all about. I never thought I would see anything like it again in my lifetime, but I see it everyday in the news.

• a 6 year old calling 911 to save her mothers life
• the firefighters and police at the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the friend I lost in the Pentagon plane crash on that same day
• a husband giving his life by setting out in snow and freezing weather to save his wife and daughters lives

Today I add another one to my list. This one is also a female high school cross country runner in her last high school race. She also breaks her leg and crawls to the finish line. The difference here is that we are in the Internet age where we have video and access to this personally. Watch the video, (11/23 - 2am - the video feed at FOX News is currently not working. Continue to check the URL to watch it when it comes back up.) listen to the young lady. If only our whole country had the courage and guts she shows on this video, what we could accomplish!

Technorati tags: Education, Sports, Cross Country

The 2007 FCAT scores and School Grades are out. Both show a decrease from last year, but the county I work in did quite well. In fact all but one of 25 elementary schools got an A, while the other got a B. The high schools need work as 3 out of the six high schools dropped one letter grade, with one dropping to a D.

The FCAT has been around since 1999, and the kids from the elementary grades 3, 4, 5 should be 10th, 11th and 12th grade high school students. Why, if the elementary schools have been doing so well are the high schools lagging behind?

Here are a few of my thoughts:

1. Lack of standardization in teaching from elementary to high school.
2. Kids get older, are given more choices both in school and at home. They are not mature enough yet to know how to process those choices.
3. Outside of school the kids are more and more on their own with both parents working or a single parent household.

Here are some thoughts on how to correct them:

1. Standardize classes with reading, writing and science blocks.
2. Limit choices at school to 4 major topics of study and fewer elective classes in those major topics of study.
3. Segregate the freshmen classes in high schools to a certain building for most of the day. Allowing only grade intermingling during lunch, study hall and at school events.
4. Require more parent involvement.

One other thing that I don’t think some of the community understands or gets to see is that the high schools need to be the most up to date facilities that we have. Students cannot learn as well in a run down 40 year old school with exposed pipes as they can in a modern, clean, well maintained school.

Want FCAT results? We need to change, we need to follow new directions in our teaching.

Technorati tags: FCAT, Education, K12 Education, Standardized Testing, Florida, No Child Left Behind

Here’s a quote about the newly passed tax reform in Florida:

The cuts would also require up to $1.5 billion in cuts for 2008-09 education funding, though GOP lawmakers promised that they would use state revenue from the sales tax and other sources to make it up.

Source Sarasota HeraldTribune: Legislature OK’s tax-cut plan with choices

Do you really think that the Florida Legislators are going to make up the funds with promises? Lets get real, if it’s not written down, it’s not going to happen. Extrapolation give us, with the current property tax reform proposal, a reduction in public education’s tax base by more than $7.5 billion over 5 years.

So, the kids still need to pass the FCAT with $7.5 billion less in funds to help them learn with? Doesn’t sound like Florida cares about it’s youth.

Technorati tags: Education, Tax Reform, Florida