Next Time Might Be Different

Well, Charlie Crist came through for us. After protests by parents and teachers all over the state and an overwhelming volume of phone calls and emails, he vetoed SB 6.

John Thrasher is already saying he expects to see the changes become law one day. Last I looked he didn't have an opponent in his campaign to be reelected this year (Aaron Bean has filed but says he isn't actually going to run), so he'll more than likely be able to introduce the same legislation again next year if he wants.

Things might be different next time.

We will have a different Governor. That person might automatically veto the bill (Alex Sink has come out against it) or not (Bill McCollum supports it).

We will have some different people in both the House and the Senate. Some people, like Audrey Gibson, are term limited. A few incumbents face opposition and will lose the race.

We've made our voices heard once, so we might have more influence going forward.

We can increase our influence during the next legislative session by continuing to make our voices heard.

You can vote against the people who voted for SB 6, of course, assuming that you are in their district, but you can do much more than that.

Find a candidate who supports properly funding education, someone who would not have voted for SB 6. Support that candidate. Money talks, of course, so make a campaign contribution if you can. (Even a small contribution can go a long way.) Better yet, volunteer for the campaign. There is nothing more effective in politics than someone knocking on a voter's door and saying "Hi, I'm here to ask you to vote for my candidate." Okay, the candidate might be more effective, but candidates can only knock on so many doors personally.

A friend who has been involved in politics here since the 1970s tells a story about going door-to-door for a City Council candidate. He was in high school at the time, so he couldn't vote himself, but he knocked on every door in his precinct. His candidate won by about the number of votes that he got in that precinct. If you want to influence an election, there is no better way.

We might not be so lucky next time, but we can greatly improve the odds, just by remembering from now until November!

I sent the following to state Representative Charles McBurney this morning:

Dear Representative McBurney,

Thank you for meeting with the group from the Duval County PTA on Thursday. You asked that we provide you with questions regarding SB 6 (now HB 7189). Instead, I would like to share an anecdote from my own high school career which I believe illustrates much that is wrong with the bill.

I attended a series of private elementary schools and Jacksonville Episcopal High School, which at the time accepted students beginning in seventh grade. I had some difficulty in French and stumbled a bit at the beginning of Algebra 1, but otherwise made acceptable grades through my junior year, including Honors and Advanced Placement classes. In my senior year, I was enrolled in Advanced Placement classes exclusively.

At the beginning of my senior year, it became obvious that, while I had made acceptable grades in Algebra 1 and 2 and Pre-Calculus, I had not mastered the skills necessary to succeed in Advanced Placement Calculus. After struggling for several weeks, with extra assistance provided by my teacher, Mister Hazen, I chose to drop the class in order to protect my grade point average. (The class was not required for graduation.)

Keep in mind, the class was small, perhaps 20 students. Mister Hazen was the head of the mathematics department, and had been teaching for many years. I came from a stable home. I planned to attend college the following Fall and very much wanted to succeed. In short, I had every advantage, and yet I failed.

In other words, sometimes it is not the teacher's fault.

I was one student out of 20. At Ribault, Jackson, or Forrest High School, three quarters of the students in a teacher's class may be struggling, either in school or outside of school. If I couldn't succeed in Mister Hazen's class, is it reasonable to judge teachers at those schools on the basis of their students' performance?

If HB 7189 becomes law, I suspect teachers will simply "cherry pick" students, either discouraging students from enrolling in difficult classes or arranging for them to be assigned to teachers with less seniority (and political clout). That would allow some teachers to reap the rewards of merit pay, but would truly be a disservice to tudents who are either discouraged from trying or denied the opportunity to learn from the best teachers.

Feel free to share this with whomever you wish.

Sincerely,
Dave Baldwin

Thoughts on the Superintendent's Budget Woes

Tonight was the first of four public presentations Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals is giving on the District's budget woes. I'd heard most of what he had to say before, of course, especially about how little of the money we send to Tallahassee comes back to our schools. A few things, though, were painfully obvious, both from the questions that were asked and from the audience's reactions to some of what the Superintendent said.

At one point, in response to a question on the funding for the magnet programs, Pratt-Dannals said something like "if we just shut down all of the magnet schools...". Mind you, I couldn't tell from the way he said it if he would be in favor of such a move or not, but the audience burst into applause at the very suggestion. There were organized groups there from various small neighborhood schools (like Mayport Elementary), and I suppose I can see where they might think the magnet programs are partly to blame for the falling enrollment at their school and the subsequent calls for some schools to be closed. Still, I find it sad that our community should be so deeply divided over our children's education.

Another "question" addressed by Pratt-Dannals was the statement that "not everyone goes to college." Again, this was met with applause. I know some students won't go to college, either because they choose not to or because they are unable to do so, but I find the animosity towards higher education disturbing. As Pratt-Dannals said in response, the vast majority of jobs available to our children will require some kind of post-secondary education. More importantly, however, education is necessary for one to understand our world. Why should we care whether or not someone who is going to become a carpenter, plumber or electrician understands our world? If for no other reason, then because carpenters, plumbers and electricians vote.

It was clear from the large turnout (the Sandalwood auditorium was full) that, despite being deeply divided over what they want our schools to look like, parents and other community members are also deeply concerned about the lack of funding. If they (we) act on that concern, that will prove to be a good thing.

A Quick Math Lesson

As I've mentioned previously, the Duval County School Board has, historically, been somewhat diverse. Many of its members have never held elective office prior to running for their seat. A few, like Tommy Hazouri, are politically well-connected, but the nonpartisan nature of the campaign combined with the relatively low profile of the Board seems to keep the influence of the movers and shakers in town to a minimum.

All of that would change if School Board members were elected "at large," by all registered voters in Duval County.

In City Council District 2, there were just under 37,000 registered voters in the spring of 2007. Each City Council district is supposed to have roughly the same number of registered voters, and there are two City Council districts in each School Board district, so School Board members are elected by about 74,000 voters. (This number is slowly increasing as the county's population increases.)

To win an election, you need just over half of the votes actually cast in the election. In a "good" year, voter turnout might be 45%, so the winner in the election would need the votes of about 23% of the registered voters, or for a School Board race, about 17,000 votes. That might sound like a lot, and it is, but a determined candidate can reach out to that many voters without a lot of resources, mostly time. Basically, you could win the election by knocking on doors, shaking hands, and talking to anyone who would listen.

An election for an At Large seat is an entirely different affair. Consider: There are over half a million voters in Jacksonville, so if only 25% of them vote, more than 125,000 votes will be cast, and the winner would receive over 60,000 votes, or nearly four times the number of votes needed to win a School Board election under the current system. Just as importantly, the voters are spread out over the entire county, from Baldwin in the west to Jacksonville Beach in the east. It is simply not practical for a candidate to win an election on that scale without significant resources of some kind, either money (for direct mail or television advertising) or a veritable army of volunteers (for a "grass roots" campaign).

Do you know anyone with the resources to win an election for School Board under the current district system? Probably. Could you win? Maybe, with a little preparation and a lot of hard work.

Excluding public figures like current and past elected officials, do you know anyone with the resources to win an At Large election? I don't.

We've seen what happens when an institution is taken over by the political elite and their wealthy benefactors - Would you trust Congress with our children's education?

Government Of, By and For the Mayor?

One of the proposals from the Jacksonville Charter Review Commission is to allow the Mayor to appoint our School Board. I can think of a whole lot of reasons we shouldn't:

1) The Florida Constitution says "In each school district there shall be a school board composed of five or more members chosen by vote of the electors."

2) An appointed School Board would be insulated from the influence of the voters, giving it less legitimacy in the eyes of parents.

3) Currently, the nonpartisan nature of School Board elections keeps partisan bickering from interfering with the education of our children. Each School Board member brings their personal philosophy to every vote, to be sure, but every vote isn't seen as a test of Party loyalty. If the School Board comes to be seen as an extension of the Mayor's administration, would the power brokers in the Mayor's party expect the School Board to abide by the Party line?

4) School Board appointments could devolve into a form of political patronage, a reward for campaign donors, staff people who for some reason need to be removed from the Mayor's Office, and other assorted cronies. Are those the people we want running our schools? (Don't count on the City Council to demand that appointees are qualified - the Mayor usually gets what (and who) he or she asks for.)

5) Do we really want the Mayor to have even more power? He or she is merely the candidate who received slightly more than half the votes, after all. To a great extent, elections are determined by luck, especially when there is no clear front runner early in the race. (At last count, I think there were seven declared candidates, more than a year before the election.) We could end up with a Mayor whose appointees are consistently incompetent, or worse.

6) Running for public office is not easy. That someone is willing to do so proves a certain amount of dedication. I've met many elected officials with whom I have disagreed vehemently; I've met very few who weren't doing the best they could.

7) In the past the School Board has been an exceptionally diverse body. Diversity is a strength, especially when there is no clear-cut correct answer to a question, when the choices are all bad or, worse yet, when they each impact a different group. Appointed bodies tend to be much less diverse.

8) Lastly but certainly not least important, why should we, as voters, give up power to anyone? I for one cherish our democratic form of government, as imperfect as it is. Both of our major political parties espouse our right to vote, to directly influence our government. Would you vote away your right to vote for Congress? Of course not! We shouldn't give up our right to vote for our School Board members, either.

What do you think?

Proposed Schools Changes Go To City Council (Yes, City Council)

The Jacksonville Charter Review Commission recently sent recommendations to the City Council, including 5 that directly impact our schools. I'm not sure the City Council has the power to make all (any?) of the changes under the Florida Constitution, but that doesn't always mean anything to our City Council.

I'll discuss each of the proposals in more detail later, but here's the summary from the Times-Union website (linked to above):

The recommendations in order of priority:
1. Allow the mayor to appoint School Board members, who are then confirmed by the City Council. Those members would not be paid. Board members are now elected by voters and are paid $37,300 annually.
2. Keep elected board members, but allows the mayor to appoint a majority of board members. All board members, both elected and appointed, would not be paid.
3. Require School Board candidates to run countywide for at-large seats, but create residency restrictions on who can run for each seat. Under the current system, each board member represents a district and only voters living in the district can vote for those candidates.
4. Urge the city to establish new charter schools or a charter school district, where the city would operate several schools outside of much of the oversight and regulations imposed on other public schools
5. Give school principals greater autonomy to select staff and improve instruction.
The City Council and School Board should work to change state law to create
policies that give principals more control.

Check out the article - I think it's going to be an interesting summer.

Why Don't They Listen?

First, they sold us the Lottery as the answer to our education budget woes.

Then, they started reducing the amount of general revenue funds devoted to education, replacing them with money from the Lottery (which, remember, was supposed to be in addition to what came out of the general fund).

For the last few years, they've cut education funding even further each year, and threaten to cut it more this year.

Meanwhile, our schools cut expenses everywhere they can. At first, it was administrative overhead - Who could argue with that? Now, school days are shorter, fewer classes are offered, teachers are being laid off and parents are being told they have to figure out transportation themselves.

Our elected officials in Tallahassee don't seem to be listening to the voters I've talked to. Perhaps they haven't heard from enough of us. Perhaps they don't take us seriously, since most of us won't bother to vote in the next election, anyway. Perhaps they have fallen under the influence of people who, for some reason, want our public schools to fail.

If you want our children to get a quality education, tell your state Representative or Senator! Remind them that they represent you.