Governor Scott Signs Budget that Shortchanges Florida Students, Teachers and Public Schools It is hard to believe that at a time when Governor Rick Scott and legislative leaders are talking about the importance of quality learning and ensuring our students receive a superior K-20 education, they are playing a monetary shell game with public school funding and our students’ future. Where is the true investment and financial commitment by our state leadership to Florida’s students and public education? The state budget, passed by the Florida legislature and signed today by Governor Scott, is an insult to every student who attends a public school in this state, their parents, teachers and support professionals who work in our schools.  The proof is in following the money and how state leaders prefer to misuse your hard earned tax dollars. The governor and his legislative followers are touting a $1 billion increase in education funding, but the added dollars won’t go far enough to address the real damage done to our schools. It isn’t enough to replace the thousands of lost teacher and ESP jobs. It won’t restore slashed programs and services, sacrificed to dwindling finances in recent years. It won’t even slow the loss of arts, music and athletic programs and growing class sizes. This budget fails to cover the full cost of transportation, school maintenance, repairs or renovations, increases in insurance and health care costs. There likely won’t be any left over to pay raises for teachers and ESPs who have seen little or no raise over the past few years. Rick Scott and legislative leaders will bombard the media with happy talk about their commitment to public education. But they haven’t even begun to start cleaning up the mess they made following last year’s funding cuts. At a time when the governor and lawmakers doled out more tax giveaways for corporations, more money for unaccountable voucher schools and more support and freedom for for-profit charter schools, Florida’s public schools are given a budget far from adequate and far from a true investment and commitment to public education and our children’s future. Scott and legislative leaders haven’t spent one extra dime to pay for higher academic standards or all the new tests mandated by the legislature last year. Even worse, since the Legislature passed this budget, school administrators throughout the state have warned they’re considering additional layoffs. Many have gone as far to say we will experience deeper cuts next year. And what happened to our commitment to higher education. Our universities are taking a $300 million budget hit. This only translates into higher tuition which families already struggle to pay. Florida legislators say they want a premier higher-education system whose graduates command high-paying jobs that will boost the state’s economy, but their actions are hypocritical. What they really want is education on the cheap. This budget helps cover the loss of emergency federal funding, the loss of property taxes because of lower property values and the expected increase of students during the next school year. The state claims money is scare, but legislative leaders were able to find the money to fund all sorts of tax breaks for their business pals and expand charter schools and voucher programs. Let Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature know how you feel about our state budget and how it shortchanges our students, teachers and their schools.

Florida Education Association 213 South Adams Street Tallahassee, FL 32301 www.FEAweb.org Stay United With the FEA: http://fightforflorida.com

Tags: Governor Rick Scott

Rick Scott’s Cousins in Arizona

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/02/13/arizona-republican-introduces-bill-that-would-make-the-lives-of-teachers-a-living-hell/

Tags: Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, Senator Al Melvin, Senator Andy Biggs, Senator Don Shooter, Senator Lori Klein, Senator Steve Smith

The Rick Scott/Jebby Bush Monster to Strike Again!!!!

FEA “TAKE ACTION” ALERT

The extremists running the Florida Legislature have teamed up with their corporate donors to try to undermine public schools again. They’re trying to take money from traditional public schools to build new charter schools. We need the legislature to take care of our students in existing public schools before handing over our tax dollars to for-profit charter school operators.

Call your Senator today <www.flsenate.gov/senators/find. Tell them about your students who are still in portables. Tell them about your classrooms with no air conditioning, with mold growing on the walls and with leaking roofs. Tell them to oppose SB 1852.

This bill is nothing more than a money grab by for-profit charter school operators and their team of lobbyists swarming at the Capitol. The charter school operators have hired a team of lobbyists with close ties to Jeb Bush and Rick Scott to undermine our local public schools once again.

Under SB 1852, our tax dollars will be given to for-profit charter school operators to build schools that won’t even be owned by the public. This is not about what’s best for students. It is about charter school operators wanting us to pay for their buildings. Tallahassee politicians want to take millions of dollars from local school districts to put it into the pockets of for-profit charter school operators. That’s just not fair.

 Tell your Senator www.flsenate.gov/senators/find, our existing public schools buildings are in need of repair. Public money should only be used to buy and repair buildings owned by the public. Tell them to oppose SB 1852.

 This bill poses a threat to the safety of students at public schools and to the ability of teachers to provide the effective learning environment every student deserves. Meanwhile, none of these for-profit charter schools are required to maintain even the most basic hiring and educational standards. And charter schools can discriminate against any student who applies for acceptance or any teacher who applies for a job.

 Call your Senator today www.flsenate.gov/senators/find. Tell them we don’t want larger class sizes. We don’t want teachers to be fired. We don’t want more PE, band and art classes to be cut. And we don’t want SB 1852.

Tags: for-profit charter school operators, Rick Scott/Jebby Bush, SB 1852

HELP! THE SCOTT’S BORED OF ED AT IT AGAIN!

Recent email

Subject: As Promised : Youtube and SchoolTube links for Proposed Changes to School Grades that may hurt SWD
Importance: High

First of all thank you for the support.  Some of you have had difficulty opening the links.  Here are Youtube links that work outside OCPS as well as the promised SchoolTube links. Our parents are producing two more videos. These will be released on Friday. I will forward the links when they have completed them.

Prior message:

This is time sensitive.  On February 28, 2012, the State Board of Education is voting on proposed changes to the ways schools are graded. Some of these changes may have a negative impact on school grades.  The two links below are to view Youtube videos where parents are expressing their concerns about the proposed changes.  We need our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and our community at large to see these short videos and hopefully contact the State Board of Education, Senators and Legislators. Contact information is at the end of each video.

YouTube Links

Possible Harm to Students with Disabilities and School Changes to School Grades

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV39W5te6q4

Proposals May Harm Students with Disabilities on School Grades in Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf_PhoZTGDI

SchoolTube Links

Schools can see these videos on SchoolTube.

Possible Harm to Students with Disabilities and School Changes to School Grades

http://www.schooltube.com/video/48b175bd051942af9e90

Proposals May Harm Students with Disabilities on School Grades in Florida

http://www.schooltube.com/video/88f08e858203414f9b41

Students with Disabilities need our support!  Please circulate this information.

Thank you

Tags: Rick Scott, State Board of Education, Students with Disabilities

Wise, he never was.

Brought to you by the FEA–

CALL AND EMAIL SENATOR STEPHEN WISE TODAY AND TELL HIM TO ALLOW SB 1380 TO BE HEARD IN HIS EDUCATION COMMITTEE

District Office: 904-381-6000

Tallahassee Office: 850-487-5027

Email Address: wise.stephen.web@flsenate.gov

More than half of Florida’s teachers do not have students who take the FCAT. This includes kindergarten, art, music, physical education, social studies, science, computer technology and ESE teachers.

According to SB 736, if you are a non-FCAT teacher, you would receive a performance evaluation based on test scores of students you never taught. You would be assessed in areas that have nothing to do with what you teach. Most districts do not have end of course exams or appropriate measures to determine student learning growth in these areas.

Senate Bill 1380 and House Bill 1067 would ensure that non-FCAT teachers are fairly evaluated and remove one of the punitive one-size fits all impacts of SB-736.

[What does it mean? Well, you know that bonus, that was based upon performance? Don't bet on the family farm!]

http://www.flsenate.gov/legislators/s05

What exactly are his ed credentials?

Residence: Jacksonville

Marital Status: Married (Kathryn)

Prev. Occupation: Educator, Consultant

Prev. Political Exp.: FL House, 1988-2000

Education: BS Florida Southern College, 1963; MEd Middle Tennessee State University, 1968; EdD University of Alabama, 1970

Birthdate: 12/11/1941

Birthplace: Canton, OH

Religion: Baptist

Holy cow! This guy is Dr. Stephen Wise, exactly when was the last time he was in a classroom maybe. Oh yeah, just about the time Open Classroom was being adopted—-yikes!

Listen to the invigorating defense of renaming a “Christmas” break bill?–How many people are out of work in this state?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=230356

Tags: Florida House Bill 1067, Florida Senate Bill 1380, Florida Senate Bill 736, SENATOR STEPHEN WISE

This is not your father’s school

Good afternoon,

Today each of you need to leave immediately following your dismissal duty.

There was an incident that occurred on campus today related to two students and we would like to minimize the number of people on campus this evening. There is no threat to the safety of our staff or students.   Remember, as  employees you are not to speak to any member of the media without prior approval.*  If you are approached by a member of the media you should say, “I have no comment.  Please contact Media Relations at the Leadership Center. Thank you.”

We will follow up with more information at a later date.

Thank you,

Assistant Principal

*What happened to freedom of expression, is that left for corporations only?

[A kid was taken away in handcuffs, who or what happened we do not know. This following a meeting I missed saying parents would no longer be welcome on campus without passes. Stay tuned.]

What the News people never tell you.

Safety, Security & Environmental Services Department has received 5 reports of individuals entering work locations, going to unoccupied and unsecured campus areas and taking employee property (money, credit cards, and other valuables.)

As a reminder, employees should never leave an unoccupied area unlocked—especially classrooms. In a least one case several employees noticed a stranger in the learning environment but did not provide direction or assistance to the individual. As we move into the holiday season, we fully expect even more attempts from individuals who look to commit crimes in our work locations. Basic security points follow:

Employees should wear and display their ID badge and assist or direct visitors to the campus office reception point.  Also, employees should lock up personal items if they bring them into the work location.  Unoccupied areas in your work location should always be locked.The Security Department has good suspect information as it works with local law enforcement agencies. Even so, everyone can assist in the effort to protect employee personal property and district owned resources.

Please report any suspicious activity to law enforcement and to XXX Security Control Center.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call Security Services.

[TRANSLATION:You better run them off campus yourself, because it is your own fault if you get robbed. At my school, 5 teachers were robbed within a week. We figured the "strangers" were students. When we asked about the fancy security cameras we have, we got no answer. We realized they were probably never turned on.]