Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Shannon NickinsonMay 11, 2015

Cassandra Smith measures progress one after-school function at a time. One family literacy night, one book club meeting, one school program after the next. Smith is in her second year as principal at Lincoln Park Primary School in Pensacola, which serves just under 200 students from preschool through third grade. The school was on the […]

Guest AuthorApril 30, 2015

Remember when you blew off high school in April of your senior year because you thought it’d be more fun to travel with the Grateful Dead and sell grilled cheese sandwiches? Or how about that time you skipped finals to spend a week harvesting marijuana seeds because hydroponic pot was the wave of the future? […]

Guest AuthorApril 21, 2015

I know I’m totally putting myself at risk by writing this column, and openly admitting to something the authorities consider irrefutable evidence of irresponsible parenting. There have been many articles recently published about parents doing something similar to what I’ve done, and those parents were subsequently questioned by police officers. A few have been arrested. […]

Guest AuthorMarch 26, 2015

While attending a college information program with my high school son recently, I heard an admissions officer say something that every Florida legislator ought to hear. “The three most important letters in the college selection process aren’t S-A-T or A-C-T,” the admissions officer observed. “The three most important letters are F-I-T.” The admission officer’s point […]

Guest AuthorMarch 24, 2015

The other day I was winding down, lying half comatose on the couch watching cable network news, when a PetSmart commercial tossed me out of my stupor. It featured a couple of “new parents’’ who adopt not one but two puppies from its store. “What’s it like to be new parents?” the PetSmart employee asks […]

Mark FerruloFebruary 19, 2015

Do you think Florida’s school accountability system, with punitive high-stakes testing and unreasonable mandates, is out of control? To teachers and other folks on the front lines in the fight to improve our public schools, it most definitely is. Last week, more than 6,000 teachers, parents, education advocates and other concerned Floridians participated in the […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 15, 2015

The ironically named Student Success Act of 2011 mandated something called the Valued Added Model, which attempts to quantify each teacher’s influence on each student. The complicated formula purports to predict what a student’s normal gain scores on a standardized test will be from one year to another. If a student gains more or loses […]

Shannon NickinsonAugust 21, 2014

Most people do resolutions in January. I think Pensacola — and all of Florida — should dare to be different. I think August is a great time for a resolution. A resolution to take the mantra of “each one, teach one” seriously and to heart. The school year is beginning. The sales tax holiday is […]

Guest AuthorAugust 7, 2014

In the nearly two decades that I’ve coached women’s volleyball, I’ve recruited and coached hundreds of players and met hundreds of their parents, all of whom have one thing in common: When it comes to their kids, they are the loudest cheerleaders in the gym. As a parent myself, I get it. You should be […]

Guest AuthorOctober 31, 2013

The U.S. Constitution includes very specific protection for the right of citizens to bear arms. It does not, however, mention any similar right to bear children. With that in mind, I have an idea that will reduce all types of crime and violence without explicitly infringing on the Constitution in the process. What I propose […]

Tag: parents
Image via AP.

Shannon Nickinson: How opening the door to parents revived one primary school

Catherine Durkin Robinson: How a mentor can help a teenager who is about to make bad choices

Catherine Durkin Robinson: I let my boys walk home alone; go ahead, cuff me

William Mattox: Legislature should empower parents to enroll child in school that best fits

Steven Kurlander: A pet peeve against 'pet parenting'

Mark Ferrulo: Education community overwhelmingly opposes punitive testing

Catherine Martinez: 'Value Added Model' of no value to teaching

Shannon Nickinson: Take time to improve a child’s future, our future prosperity

Todd Dagenais: Parents of young athletes need to keep everything in perspective

Jim McClellan: A modest proposal to make our streets safer