A.G. Gancarski
“Citizens for Strong Schools Inc. v. Florida State Board of Education,” filed in 2009, finally is getting a hearing more than six years later. And Duval County School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who wasn’t around when it was filed, took the stand Wednesday in a Tallahassee courtroom.
The plaintiffs contend that Florida fell short of school funding targets, and that school reform has caused problems for some students.
Vitti gave informational answers in his opening remarks, such as defining a “low-performing school” and a “Title I school.”
“We were trying to merge the two accountability systems to give clarity” and to forge “intervention strategies.”
Asked about the demographic of low-performing schools, Vitti said they were “Title I schools” with a “high concentration of students receiving free or reduced lunch,” predominately African-American or Hispanic.
About 55 percent of students in Duval County fall under those categories; 36 percent as white, Vitti said, with 9 percent other.
Half of Duval students qualify for free or reduced lunch, Vitti said.
The funding formula is standardized across the board, with no additional money for poor students, he said.
“Students growing up in poverty enter school with greater needs,” Vitti said, with “additional resources needed for intervention … to bring those students up to grade level.”
“Often, extra resources are required … and that funding is not provided by the funding formula of the State of Florida.”
Smaller class sizes and enrichment, as well as recruiting high-performing teachers, and providing mental health services, including dealing with the “trauma of poverty,” are all remedies for the problem, Vitti said.
In 2014, Vitti said, more than 60 percent of students in that category were below grade level in reading, based on the state standards.
Vitti’s testimony continued Wednesday morning. The trial is expected to last five weeks.
