He's Baaack!

Truthfully, he was never gone.

Read the entire story online, weep, and post a comment on herald tribune.com.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll...mplate=printart

-----

Sweeping overhaul sought for Florida schools

By GARY FINEOUT H-T Capital Bureau Correspondent

Published: Friday, January 15, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

Click to view attachment

Contending that Florida's economic future is imperiled by a deficiently educated work force, political and business leaders on Thursday called for a sweeping overhaul of the state's education system that would touch everything from preschool classrooms to college campuses.

Flanked by former Gov. Jeb Bush, state education officials and the CEOs of several companies, Gov. Charlie Crist said changes were needed to improve the "talent pool" that future employers will want.

"We must be productive and we must be competitive for schools at every level," Crist said.

But some of the reforms announced Thursday are sure to create a political uproar. Even Crist was vague about whether he supported all of them. The list includes ending or changing tenure for public school teachers, linking teacher pay to student performance, making it harder for college students to earn Bright Futures scholarships and bringing back private school vouchers ruled unconstitutional by the state courts.

Legislative leaders say they are ready during the upcoming legislative session to embrace some of the reforms outlined in the report titled "Closing the Talent Gap," which was put together by the Florida Council of 100, a private group of state business leaders, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Bush -- who has rarely been seen with Crist since Bush left office -- said all the recommendations were urgently needed and should be done immediately.

"For Florida to be successful through good times and bad, we need to have a work force that is competitive internationally," said Bush, who was the architect of the changes in 1999 that put in the use of high-stakes tests in public schools. "We're in an international arms race based on student learning."

The report said that within 10 years, 90 percent of new jobs will require education beyond a high school degree. But currently only 76 percent of Florida students even graduate from high school. Furthermore, only 16 percent earn college degrees in fields such as science, engineering and computers, where workers will be most needed.

"Florida faces an emerging talent gap -- an urgent shortage of a resource as basic as food, more valuable than gold and in higher global demand than oil," the report said.

The group's recommendations include:

• Put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to reverse a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down one of Bush's voucher programs that would allow parents to send their child to a school of their choice instead of a failing public school.

• Raise the scores on the 10th grade version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

• Move the FCAT to an online, end-of-the-year assessment.

• Eliminate or change job protections, including tenure, now enjoyed by public school teachers.

• Double funding for state universities over the next five years by raising tuition and giving colleges an additional $1.75 billion in state money.

• Increase eligibility standards for Bright Futures college scholarships.

• Require pre-K classes to have at least one teacher with a bachelor's degree.

Business leaders who helped craft the report say that sweeping changes are needed because Florida is not graduating enough students from high school and college or in science and math fields. They said that the future of Florida's economy "hangs in the balance" if more is not done to change the education system.

Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the teacher union, blasted the recommendations as the same ones that Bush tried to pursue when he was governor.

He said none of them appears to come from suggestions made by classroom teachers.

"It's a regurgitation of Jeb Bush's education wish list," Pudlow said. "It is based on faulty assumptions and politically driven research." ...