One more awful bill in Florida is being used to push public schools towards privatization and poor schooling for students. Said to be 55 bills in one, HB 7069 use words like “starvation” to reference funding for public schools. Charters are called “Schools of Hope” even though Florida’s charter school record is dismal.
Many Floridians are begging the Governor to veto HB 7069.
How does Florida come up with all these privatization goals? Don’t politicians and business leaders look at the bad ideas they’ve had in the past? It looks like many are beginning to understand this is about money and not the students.
Consider the McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities (scholarship sounds more elegant than vouchers), and how it got a foothold in the State of Florida.
Students with disabilities are vulnerable when it comes to vouchers and privatization. Desperate for public schools that fund beneficial programs, parents grow weary. They can’t afford to waste time on classes that don’t accommodate their students, or overtaxed teachers.
Politicians know this. Instead of funding good public school programs (special ed. has never been funded appropriately), they want parents to go to private schools even though few of those schools provide adequate special education.
Florida’s McKay voucher program was launched in 1999. McKay is a good example of a failed program. Many students wind up in virtual or religious schools where special education is an afterthought at best.
Still, many states have followed, or have tried to follow, Florida’s lead. So where did McKay’s voucher program come from? How was it hatched?
In the late 70s, before school reform got on the Daytona 500 speed track, as a special ed. teacher and PhD student at FSU, I visited the Woodland Hall Academy, a sweet looking private school under the shade of some of Tallahassee’s lovely pines and live oaks.
A well-dressed, confident woman Patricia Hardman, gave a lecture on the school’s program to teach students with dyslexia. I wanted to learn more about dyslexia. I believed at the time she was a psychologist. I think that’s how she intended.
I remember nothing of her lecture, other than how she promoted her understanding of dyslexia. I was struck by her airs. She projected self-confidence and superiority.
By 2004, Hardman had aligned herself with those in power, including Gov. Jeb Bush, Patricia Levesque, and John M. McKay, whose name adorns the bill. It is understandable how Hardman would be convincing. One can safely assume neither Bush nor Levesque knew much about dyslexia.
According to a 2004 Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau report National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer, who sat on the 14 member voucher panel, had a grandson who attended Woodland Hall. Robyn Rennick, a principal at the school, was a frequent witness to the group.
At the time, State Senator Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston expressed concern that the panel was “skewed” not just to private schools but towards Woodland Hall.
Hardman would go on to become one of the chief architects of the McKay voucher program. According to the same Post article, she believed children should be judged individually. She thought only parents, and not the state, should receive information about the child’s progress. She didn’t think private voucher schools should have to be accredited, either.
Compare this to the kind of scrutiny public schools have been under with high-stakes testing for years. For example, how many parents and teachers worry about data collection that goes above and beyond what’s necessary in public schools? But especially, how are students treated? How many children are retained in third grade due to reading difficulties?
It also became clear that Hardman had no credentials. She was not a psychologist. She was not a teacher either. The same Palm Beach Post article describes Judge P. Michael Ruff’s comments during a trial where Hardman represented a student with learning disabilities.
Dr. Hardman does not have a degree in psychology, is not certified or licensed in Florida or any other state as a psychologist, is not currently certified as a teacher in Florida or any other state, and holds no certificate in the area of special education in Florida or any other state,” Ruff wrote.
Hardman’s school benefited from vouchers. She now has a PhD from Walden. It’s difficult to tell what kind of job the school does. Hardman has a long list of awards and still touts herself as an expert. My guess is she is self-taught. But I could find no scholarly studies about her school.
The McKay voucher program is not only about Woodland Hall or Patricia Hardman. The program raises serious questions about schooling for students with disabilities, and all students. What kind of schooling do tax-paying Americans expect with vouchers, charters, and private schools?
- Should those who run schools and work with students have educational credentials validated by state and local school boards? Or, should anyone be able to run a school and teach?
- Is it necessary to evaluate a school to see whether or not it is working? Or should private schools and for-profit schools get to bypass the rules enforced for traditional public schools?
This is also about eliminating real options parents have with students who have disabilities. Starving public schools where teachers must abide by IDEA mandates, but are incapable of enforcing them due to inadequate funding, is unethical and cruel.
With McKay vouchers, parents flee to schools with no proof of success. They lose IDEA protections. How many parents are conned into believing such schools will provide the positive changes their child deserves and that they so desperately seek? Without oversight and rules no one knows—until it’s too late.
Reference
S.V. “Private-School Director Influences Education Policy.” Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau. April 12, 2004.
If public/government schools did their jobs properly, for both special-needs and other students, then giving parents the option to exit the public/government schools, would be moot.
Government-run schools are failing children, all across the spectrum. This is part of the reason that public school teachers (who know the government schools best) are enrolling their children at a rate higher than the general public. This is the dirty little secret”, that public school teachers and administrators never talk about.
Thank you for commenting, Charles. I always appreciate opposing viewpoints.
With due respect, public schools belong to all of us including you! There’s been a drive for years to undermine them and the teachers who work there.
I think Rush Limbaugh coined the term “government” schools. Calling them govt. schools makes people forget that “public” means we ALL own them.
Including children with special needs, who used to be housed in institutions, started in traditional public schools! What a tremendous thing to say that ALL children deserve a good education. But serving all children costs money, and many don’t want to invest in good schools and teachers who study children and their development.
As a long time special education teacher, I can assure you that I knew many teachers who loved working in the same public school their student attended. In fact, a lot of parents worked to get jobs in the same school.
So you are happy with unregulated schools that never show accountability? Really?
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/mckay-scholarship-program-sparks-a-cottage-industry-of-fraud-and-chaos-6381391
If you don’t like something about schools, I’d like to suggest you try attending a school board meeting and voice your concerns.
Or try visiting your local school and offer to tutor.
Why, I wonder, do you dislike public schools so much?
I do NOT dislike public/government schools. I live in Fairfax County VA (Metro WashDC), and the public schools here in Fairfax are excellent. One of the top ten public/government high schools in the nation, is near my home. I am approved to be a substitute teacher in the Fairfax county schools.
Of course, I know that public schools are public property, and since I am one of the public, I own a “share” of the schools.
Am I happy with unregulated schools? The answer is an unqualified NO. All schools, public and private, should be “transparent”, and reveal their results to the parents of the children. And results should be publicly available (consistent with confidentiality for parents and children).
I am certain that there are public/government school teachers, who want to have their children enrolled in public school. And I am equally certain that there are teachers who would transfer to a school their child attended.
The inescapable fact, is that public school teachers send their children to non-public schools, at a rate higher than the general population.
see
http://educationnext.org/teachers-more-likely-to-use-private-schools-for-their-own-kids/
or a do a google search yourself.
Good for you, substituting, and also for recognizing good public schools!
About teachers and their children and where they send them to school.
First. Education Next is very pro vouchers and choice and this study is not easy to find, though if I took more time maybe I could dig it up.
I think the truth today is that so much is being done to public schools to destroy them for choice and charters (privatization) that some teachers do look at a variety of schooling options. Who wants Common Core? Who wants high-stakes testing?
That doesn’t mean teachers don’t stand for public schooling. A lot has been done to public schools to make them fail. Wealthier public schools can do a lot of fund raisers to keep programs afloat. Poor schools–that’s more difficult.
If school choice and vouchers are so bad for minorities, then why do so many minority people want them? see
http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/30/poll-school-choice-super-popular-with-minorities-and-millennials/
Gracious! Charles look who did the study. The American Federation for Children (AFC)! This is a Betsy DeVos group! A bit bias perhaps?
Check out this non-partisan study by the Public Policy Institute of California:
https://edsource.org/2017/majority-of-californians-polled-favor-school-vouchers/580456
The study was commissioned by the AFC. But the polling organization is independent and non-partisan. Check out the other poll from PPIC.
Public/government schools are failing children at the other end of the intelligence spectrum as well. All across this nation, the gifted/talented are not getting the funding and resources that these children deserve. Gifted/talented children need additional help, counseling, direction, and assistance. Funding is poor to non-existent, everywhere. When government tries to get extra funding for these special-needs children, the supporters are often called “elitists”.
School choice/vouchers would give the parents of gifted/talented children, the option to exit public schools, and seek the education experience, more suited to their needs.
Type in “gifted” on my blog and you will find that we are mostly on the same page. But I don’t blame public schools for this. Nor should you!
Blame your local politicians, state, and national legislators who fail to give this group the attention they deserve!
Have you heard Betsy DeVos say the word “gifted” since she has had this position?
I do NOT blame the public schools for the appalling treatment that our brightest youth are receiving. The entire panoply of government and education and schools are not capable of providing the special treatment and counseling that the “best and brightest” should be receiving. Gifted/talented children are horribly discriminated against.
And I agree that the SecEd has been thunderously silent on the subject. Sad.
Charles, I get it. You like vouchers and choice. Edsource is pro-privatization. I have written several posts and a book that includes a chapter about the failure of vouchers. I refer you to those. I don’t have time to go back and forth on this. I’m sorry. We disagree. But feel free to comment all you want.
I support quality public schools. It is NOT an either/or situation. There are many excellent public schools in this nation. see
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-04-05/education-secretary-betsy-devos-shouldnt-fuel-school-choice-polarization
There is a great deal of common ground, where pro-choice people and public school supporters can work together for the betterment of our nation’s educational system.