Jacob Ogles
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said last year’s expansion of school vouchers has given parents access to more options. Now, it’s time to unleash the power of public schools to compete.
“With universal school choice now a reality for Florida families, reducing bureaucratic red tape will give neighborhood public schools that have served our communities and families for generations a meaningful chance to compete right alongside other school choice options,” Passidomo said.
The Naples Republican made the comments as part of an Opening Day speech at the start of the 2024 Legislative Session.
She spotlighted legislation filed by Sens. Travis Hutson, a Palm Coast Republican, and Corey Simon, a Tallahassee Republican, that will be heard in committee this week. She wants the Legislature this year to loosen a tight grip of mandates on public schools.
“For decades now we have rejected the idea that neighborhoods and ZIP codes should alone govern how and where a child is educated,” she said. “We have recreated and implemented rigorous standards across every aspect of the public school system as a way to make sure every child has access to a great education regardless of where they live.”
But she said over time, mandates have burdened school teachers and administrators, potentially stifling innovation to ensure a quality education. Now, it’s time for the Legislature to correct course, the Senate President said.
“As part of that effort, every year, more and more regulations are placed on our school districts, which leads to more paperwork — more paperwork, more tasks — in an already packed school day, telling districts what to do and how to do it,” she said.
She called her education agenda this year a first-in-the-nation effort to deregulate public education.
Passidomo said she doesn’t want to end performance standards. But she said now that all parents have greater financial ability to choose what schools, public or private, a free market approach will create its own accountability.
“With ‘Learn Local,’ we do not lose 1 inch of accountability measures that we’ve instituted over the last 30 years,” she said.
“These metrics and measurements provide information to help parents make the best decisions for their children. Parents are more involved than ever before. Parents are the ultimate arbiter of performance. Parents will hold neighborhood schools, charter schools and private schools accountable with their voices and their feet.”
5 comments
Dont Say FLA
January 9, 2024 at 10:49 am
Kathleen Passidomo is for allowing school librarians to curate the book selection at their school library?
If true, good for her… but I ain’t buying it.
Michael K
January 9, 2024 at 11:08 am
Translation: We will destroy public education.
Michael K
January 9, 2024 at 11:53 am
The marketplace has plenty of failures. By her logic, we should defund local police, fire, water, sewer, and roads – to name a few – and turn it all over to the almighty private sector. Guess what will happen?
The idea that public education has to “compete” is a lie. This is all about shoveling tons of taxpayer funds into unaccountable religious schools.
Wesley Glassgow
January 9, 2024 at 1:49 pm
The agenda since the first HSCT in 1986 has been the resegregation of the public schools and the marginalization of minority students and their communities. This is a stark reminder that factions in Florida are still reeling from the fact that there was almost a minorty governor in the state after there was a minority president. I can only be ashamed of the state in which I lived for 50 years — more than half of that as public educator.
School Bus Pros
January 11, 2024 at 10:56 am
What about school bus transportation under this new model? Will the State lift the 2-mile walk zone restrictions and fund increased transportation costs for school districts to be able to compete with voucher schools? Voucher schools have parents pay or subsidize transportation to and from their campuses. How is that being on a level playing field to compete?
Currently the State forces school districts to adhere to over a 2-mile walk (GEO) zone to and from schools in order to get reimbursed for transportation costs. The formula for this calculation is preposterous. Each school district local area effort (RLE) multiplier is different based on social economic data for that county.
Hazardous Walk Zone (HWZ) funding is also something to be considered. If a student is in Kindergarten (KG) to 5th grade, and has to use a road designated as hazardous deemed by the guidelines within F.S. 1006.23, the district gets reimbursed for transporting students until that roadway condition (if it ever gets done) is remedied. When the student gets into 6th grade through 12th and the HWZ road conditions are not remedied, districts lose the HWZ funding. If HWZ funding is to be realistic the state should fund it for all grade levels (PreK thru 12th) until the HWZ conditions are remedied by the local municipalities, or FDOT.
There are Safe-Routes-To-School (SRTS) grants available, but those applications are so cumbersome, take enormous amounts of time, and are limited in how they fund remedying HWZ roadways for students. SRTS grants are usually for sidewalks, walking school bus programs, and bicycle awareness, bicycle safety helmets, and safety programs.
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