Ecology of Education

Today, a guest repost from Trudy Norton, from her site Mrs. Norton’s Blog. She wrote this insightful piece about a day/life of a public school teacher in response to FL Senator John Thrasher’s comments following Crist’s veto of his bill, SB6.  However, this piece speaks to all teachers, be they Floridians, Texans, Iowans, or humans. Response to [...]

My heart has been racing for educators over the last month. Even though I no longer take up residence in Florida, I literally experienced palpitations watching debate over Senate Bill 6 take place on the House floor. When considering the potential impact of what could result from passage of said legislation, my thoughts went immediately [...]

Critics of Gov. Charlie Crist’s veto of Sentate Bill 6 sensationalize it as “a real setback”, “putting the brakes on progress” & squandering of “an opportunity to improve teacher effectiveness.” Across the nation editorial boards have sounded in on the debate raging down here in Florida, including the Chicago Tribune, which headlined their ed as, “Status [...]

Gov. Crist Vetoes SB6 Press Conference Video This is the video from Governor Crist’s press conference in which he announced he was vetoing Senate Bill 6. This video is from Association Internet Video.

Below is a letter that 6 Florida Republican Legislators sent to Governor Crist today, urging him to veto SB 6. You can click on the link below the images to download a copy of the pdf yourself. Crist Veto SB 6 Letter Image: Veto2009

The numerous connections between businesses, political players, and the current brand of education reform makes for a conspiracy theorist’s candy shop. Unfortunately, its hard to chalk the such theories up to an overactive imagination once the relationships are exposed. I received the below response and link resources from a Florida parent/teacher/SB6 opponent concerning the myriad [...]

Everyone admits that we must do more for our children because in some respects we are failing them. In some respects they are not achieving the way they should so we must take the shoe off and challenge ourselves to walk differently…..

but I submit that we must listen and include experts, the professional educators and teachers as we walk.

Legislative proponents of SB6 and HB7189 are listening to one main demographic: The Chamber of Commerce. The voices of teachers, parents, and administrators are falling on deaf ears. Why?

It came as quite a surprise for some when Florida was not listed among the winners of Race to the Top. What went wrong? A look at Senate Bill 6 & House Bill 7189, reveals Florida’s failure to collaborate.

Dear legislators, since you’re now running the education show, and the consequences of coming in second in the education-vs.-catastrophe race are pretty grim, perhaps you’d be open to a few observations from someone who’s spent a half-century in Florida’s schools actually doing the work.