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

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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

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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

The State of Florida will be voting on January 29th on a Tax reform amendment that is actually a tax increase. It is being sold by the Governor as an increase in the Homestead tax exemption. What it actually does is increase other taxes, cuts fire and police support, while leaving a hole in government funds that will have to be made up in other taxes.

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Ed Darrell writes about Class sizes swell, teacher incentives shrink in his blog Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.

We have mandated class sizes in Florida, but unfortunately the districts use loopholes in the way you average or count classes to say they meet the class size when they really don’t. What does this say about our efforts for “No Child Left Behind?”

Technorati tags: Class Size, Education, FCAT

I’m running a poll on the usage of ActivBoards versus SMART Boards in the the school systems around the world. Vote below and please feel free to comment and discuss this in the comment section below.

Personally I’ve used both in our district, but we have went strictly ActivBoards in the whole district this past year. They have been a big hit, I would hope so when they cost $14 million, with the staff and the students. I look forward to seeing us increase our grades on the FCAT this year.

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Technorati tags: Educational Technology, Education, Promethean, ActivBoard, SMART Boards