Posted on October - 15 - 2011
Cerabino: Scott’s major gripe has minor ring of truth
I was ready to skewer our beloved governor over his most recent attack on education.
It seemed like a slam dunk. Gov. Rick Scott got the idea that students who receive state money to attend Florida colleges and universities ought to be studying science, technology, engineering and math.
“If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education, then I’m going to take that money to create jobs,” Scott told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial board last week. “So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state.”
The idea that the overriding aim of education is to be employed and that employment is dependent on technical fields of study is a double-scoop of nonsense.
After all, one of the biggest job creators in Florida has been former Walt Disney Co. chief executive officer Michael Eisner, who majored in English and wrote plays for his college’s drama club.
#nclbwaiver One of the things that hasnt been discussed much about the NCLB waiver scheme is just how much districts are chomping at the bit to find ways to spend some of that SES money that theyve long complained about having to give away to tutoring companies and other outside providers oh these long years under NCLB. Thats because, under NCLB, schools and districts that dont make AYP for consecutive years have to offer outside tutoring to kids at those schools — and “give away” up to 20 percent of their NCLB funding in order to pay for the extra services. But of course even the worst schools and districts in America think that they can do better than anyone else — even when theyve tried and failed to do so in the past. And now when their states get a waiver — up to 25 of them in the next year or so, according to one CCSSO estimate in the NYT — the districts get a raise. Its brilliant politics, I have to say.