Governor Bryant has announced his budget recommendation for Fiscal Year 2014, the budget that will be decided in the coming legislative session. The governor’s Executive Budget Recommendation is not binding and is seen more as an indication of the governor’s policy priorities than as a true budget guide. The Legislative Budget Committee will issue its […]
Governor Bryant Announces FY2014 Executive Budget Recommendation Read More »
A charter school is a school that is funded with public tax dollars and run by a private entity. Charter schools are usually freed from many of the regulations governing traditional public schools. The original intent of charter schools was to provide them freedom to operate, in order to encourage innovation, while holding the charters to
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As states have opened the door for investors to gain access to tax dollars through for-profit charter schools, an entire industry has developed. It is now booming, with private equity groups holding conferences to recruit hedge fund managers and others to invest in for-profit education opportunities, teaching them how to profit from state education dollars. (Click here to read
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In November 2012, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) launched a campaign to improve the overall quality of charter schools and increase the frequency of closing failing charter schools. NACSA is challenging states to tighten charter school laws to increase the likelihood of success and to do a better job of holding charters and
For-profit companies have discovered that there is a lot of money to be made from public education dollars, and they are taking advantage of that fact. In many states, for-profit ventures with no experience running successful schools are being granted charters. Often these schools are run on the cheap in order for the companies to pay
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In 2001, Florida launched an Intensive Reading Initiative designed to improve dramatically the literacy of the state’s elementary students. With a $1-billion initial investment ($750-million in the first year), they implemented sweeping changes that touched every K-3 student and teacher: $300-million six-year Reading First grant to retrain all K-3 teachers on appropriate reading techniques. $700-million of repurposed state funding to
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Since 1999, Florida has invested billions of dollars in real education reform that has catapulted the state’s student achievement into the realm of some of the highest performing countries. How Did They Do It? State-funded pre-K – $398Million/year Intensive reading initiative – $1Billion initial investment and $130Million/year ongoing Click here to read more Lowered class size – Lower elementary
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The Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) is a non-profit with a lobbying arm and Super PAC, The Foundation for Florida’s Future, that advocates for charter schools, vouchers for private school tuition, and tax credit scholarships for private schools, as well as education reform initiatives. Their funders include many for-profit corporations that have a financial interest in
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“Level funding” means that the same dollar amount in state funding will be appropriated for the next fiscal year as was appropriated for the current fiscal year. The term “level funding” is typically used when the Legislature fails to provide all of the funding that state law requires in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). In recent
Politicians often use the percent of the state budget that is dedicated to public schools as evidence of their support of K-12 education. You have probably heard them claim that education makes up over 60% of the total state budget. That is simply not true. While it is true that all of education – including
