Under the competing mandates of the president and governor, schools earning bonus checks from the state are threatened with closure by the federal government.
Published June 17, 2004
When a president and a governor both set about the business of controlling public schools, unusual things are bound to happen. But as Florida releases its sixth round of state-issued report cards and second round of federal assessments, the competing mandates are beginning to have the feel of a demolition derby.
The big numbers collide head-on: Under the state A plus Plan, 68 percent of the schools were awarded A's or B's this year; under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, 77 percent were deemed to be making unacceptable progress. But those conflicting assessments only begin to describe the dangers on this track. Behind the numbers are state and federal regulatory edicts that are without much historical parallel, sanctions that are becoming as contradictory as they are ham-handed.
How can you tell when state and federal education "reform" has taken on a bureaucratic life of its own? Here are some certain signs:
A kiss and a slap: Some 1,200 schools were awarded A's by Florida this year, which means they will receive state bonus checks of roughly $150,000. But more than half of those same schools failed the federal standard, which means that, in many cases, parents will get letters telling them they can transfer their students to a better school. Continued failure of federal standards could even force the schools to close.
Martial law: The state's appointed Board of Education declared "an emergency" on Tuesday and thus empowered itself to order the transfer of teachers, nullify established union contracts and hire private companies to manage schools judged as repeatedly failing. Those schools are required to "restaff . . . with high-quality instructors . . . in place by the first day of school." The same agency that has blamed lax oversight of private voucher schools on a lack of statutory authority is citing three words, "other appropriate action," as the legal framework for this regulatory plunge. Aside from the many obvious political, legal and constitutional questions are two more practical ones: Who will determine which teachers are high quality and order them to move? Will Education Commissioner Jim Horne ask to interview them?
Back flips with a twist: The federal law that requires poorer and low-performing schools to offer transfers for students to attend a higher-performing school is hitting one obvious roadblock. With three-fourths of the schools declared to be unacceptable, where can a student transfer? Some rural counties have only one school anyway. So Horne offered districts a ready solution: Offer the students a "school" within the same school. Interestingly, Horne, who vehemently opposed the voter mandate to reduce class sizes, instructs districts to consider sweetening the deal for such students by the "use of smaller class sizes."
Tutors Inc.: Poor students at schools on the federal failing list are entitled to tutoring if they want it, which is a wonderful idea. Leave it to Washington and Tallahassee to turn it into a multimillion-dollar government program. Rather than turn to local schools and the kind-hearted souls in their communities, the state went out to bid. Among those that may be authorized to provide tutoring under the federal law, then, are national corporations such as Sylvan Educational Services, Kaplan K12 Learning and EdSolutions Inc.
Drop the dropouts: The state board on Tuesday also ordered the immediate closure of every charter school that has received more than one F. Failure in an experimental school certainly warrants tough and immediate action, but among the schools apparently dissolved by the board's statewide directive is Academic Research Charter School in Lakeland, which was created to deal with struggling high school students in danger of dropping out. Is it a surprise that its students score poorly on standardized tests? Is closing the school the best way to serve them?
The reformers overreaching into classrooms don't necessarily have ill motives. The goals of the federal act, championed by President Bush, and the state law, championed by Gov. Jeb Bush, are noble. But a structure fashioned from one material, standardized tests, is being battered by the potent winds of political ideology. And each gust of reform tends to come from a different direction on the compass.
Gov. Bush, ever careful not to join other governors who have criticized his brother's No Child Left Behind Act, insists the state and federal laws fit like hand in glove. He also told reporters Tuesday that: "We're not going to lower our standards so that we can look good. That's not going to be who I am."
In this rapidly colliding world of education reform, self-righteousness is also another sign of trouble.
