Town Hall: education chat
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Education and other state policies will be the subject of next week's Town Hall with state legislative leaders. Mon., Feb. 25 at 6:30pm Reserve your free seat now! -
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Going along with Sarah's question (and Sam's), Senator, what is your position on the level of funding for charter schools? Should there be more, less, the same?
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Our Florida Constitution gaurantees that a fundamental value of the people of Florida is for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools. The main pathway to prepare our children to be fully engaged in Florida's economy and government is through Florida's public schools. -
And to be clear, charter schools are publicly-funded schools
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Yes, I agree. We must be careful. I see first hand in my district the strain these directives have on our public schools. I might also note, the only failing schools in my district, in recent years, were charter schools. I commend my district for taking the steps to close these schools. I suggest our leaders look closely at charter schools and make choices that are best for all children. -
Ok lets move on to higher education costs.
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In PBC, we have an area that is over-enrolled. PBC SD asked the state of FL if we can build a new school but have been repeatedly denied.
Yet several charters were approved to build there but the public school district is denied. That is not a level playing field.
Florida likes to divvy up a fixed amount of education dollars just to say that we have many, many choices.
Meanwhile we still have 92% of FL's children attending public schools. -
A federal judge has ruled it was unconstitutional for the state to charge Florida born US citizens higher out of state tuition rates if their parents are undocumented. But the Senate has introduced a bill that would require those students to spend all of their high school years in a Florida school -- if they want to be charged cheaper tuition. And they would also have to apply to college within a year after they graduate from a Florida high school in order to qualify.
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Live behind the scenes at my office today during the education town hall with NPR! http://ow.ly/i/1ybaMby Maria Sachs via twitter 2/19/2013 9:55:19 PM -
Are there any concerns about whether this policy might be unconstitutional, as well?
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The Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution is a guarantee that we have that there are no second class citizens in this country.
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This country’s principles are based on the fact that all citizens, regardless of the origin or legal status of their parents, must be treated equally before the law.
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Here's some background on the issue of in state and out of state tuition for citizen children of undocumented immigrants.
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But, Senator, there is a proposed bill that would require US citizens with undocumented parents to apply to a florida college within a year of graduating from high school in order to qualify.
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I am aware of some marvelous charter schools in our area.
Here's my bottom line concern with funding though.
The state of FL has had 218 (actually today 225) charters schools open and close in the past eight years.
That figure represents about 46% of those that opened.
The money that went to those schools vanishes. The students return to the public schools but the money doesn't follow them.
I also worry about the impact of that instability of opening and closing schools has on the children.
Have we opened up floodgates unwisely and are not carefully vetting new applications for financial solvency and for educational goals? -
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Pursuint to a U.S. District Court case, any Florida law that treats similiarly situated individuals differently, without any relationship to a sufficient state interest, is in violation of the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constituttion. We cannot create a second tier U.S. citizenship.
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The new Senate bill would be treating U.S. citizens differently, by requiring more from them simply because their parents are undocumented immmigrants.
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Thanks Senator. And thanks to everyone else who participated. You can keep the education conversation going @StateImpactFL. And don't miss our live town hall on Feb. 25th wlrn.org
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Thank you Sarah. Great questions. Great moderator. I learned a lot here today as well. Thanks so much!
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Lots of great comments and questions that we didn't have time to get to. As a companion to our live Feb. 25 Town Hall, there will be an online discussion at wlrn.org, where we'll be streaming live.
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Thank you for all of your time. My door is always open whether through online townhall meetings or by contacting me through my website, www.mariasachs.com. I stand committed to education as a priority in funding and to protection for those most clearly involved with our students, Florida's teachers.
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Yes and how could I forget thank you Senator Sachs. We're very fortunate to have you supporting and watching out for Florida's school children.