2002 Annual Public Charter Schools Statewide Conference

2002 Annual Public Charter Schools Statewide Conference

The terms "liberal" and "conservative" are practically

useless unless defined and used with precision.

Absent such diligence, they are typically employed as

ideological tools, to smear or applaud, to create an

a priori

impression that the thing to be described as

liberal or conservative is thereby suspect or heaven-

sent. Thus, for example, many critics of school choice

routinely refer to it as a pet "conservative" project.

That is to mislabel and mislead, very badly. While

school choice can be warmly endorsed by those

called "conservative" and even "libertarian," it can be,

and is, just as easily championed by those called

"liberal" or "progressive."

"I felt like I was failing as a parent because I

couldn’t get him into the proper school that he

needed…. And with the McKay Program, they

untied my hands, they allowed me to choose the

school that I wanted my son to go to…."

-Debra Anderson, Orlando, Florida

When we recognize that school choice naturally

attracts many constituent groups from anywhere on

the ideological spectrum, then we will recognize, too,

that it is purely a smoke screen for choice opponents

and various journalists to call choice a "movement of

the right." It is a movement of the left, right, and

center — wherever people have freed themselves to

look clearly at today's hurtful educational symptoms

and causes.

--Blum Center for Parental Freedom in Education

The fourth update of the Non-public Schools

Directory Online has been completed. This online

resource not only aligns itself with the trend

toward a paperless communications system but,

even more importantly, it benefits non-public

schools and parents. The online system provides

a marketing tool for non-public schools, making

information regarding size, accreditation and

affiliation easily accessible to the public. The

system also allows parents to search a current

directory of all private schools in Florida,

customize their selection by county, grade level,

religious denomination and school type and

receive a printable list describing every school

with all the school’s contact information. This

information may be accessed at

www.firn.edu/doe/choice/ndirect.htm

Thanks to the hard work of

Yarima Ramirez

student assistant to

Dr. Brenda Parks

, the

Choice Office now has the capability to e-mail

directories, reports and label files in various text

and excel format conversions.

As school choice grows in popularity, the volume of

research on the effects of school choice grows. The

following links provide valuable information on the

ongoing school choice debate:

Center for Educational Reform

www.edreform.com

Institute for the Transformation of Learning

www.floridaschoolchoice.org

Harvard University Program on Education

Policy and Governance

www.ksg.harvard.edu/pepg

Heritage Foundation School Choice 2001

Report

www.heritage.org/schools/background.html

CATO Institute

www.cato.org

Black Alliance for Educational Options

www.baeo.org

Florida LEADS

Florida LEADS (Florida Leadership for Electronic

Access to Data for Schools), a developing project,

will soon offer information regarding charter

schools to the public online. The Florida LEADS

project will contain contact information for each of

Florida’s charter schools, as well as a brief

description of each school. Parents will be able to

peruse the charter schools in their district,

enabling them to make a more informed choice

regarding their child’s education.

The fourth year of the McKay Scholarships for

Students with Disabilities Program promises to be

the smoothest yet for parents, private schools and

Department staff.

Ed Bennett

Dr. Robert Metty

and staff from the

Department Finance Office have been working

closely with a web development company to

create a fully online system used to administer the

McKay & Opportunity Scholarship Programs.

This new online system will simplify the payment

process for the two programs. State warrants are

issued quarterly: September 1, November 1,

February 1, and April 15.

The warrants are issued to

the parent or guardian of a

student participating in

either of the programs. The

parent must then

restrictively endorse the

payment to the participating

private school. The new

payment processing system

will automatically verify

enrollment and attendance

in the participating private

school, so that Department

staff may then issue the

payment warrant.

Florida LEADS will also serve as a tool enabling

Department staff to quickly access data and

create reports that

compare variables among

Florida’s charter schools.

2002 Annual Public

Charter Schools

Statewide Conference

Planning for the

2002

Annual Public Charter

Schools Conference:

Building Bridges to Ensure

NO CHILD is LEFT

BEHIND

continues to

progress. Funding

sources for the conference

are currently being

identified and discussion

and workshop topics are

being finalized.

A joint memo from the Department Finance Office

and the Choice Office will soon be disseminated

to participating private schools, explaining the

new payment system and the process for entering

student attendance and enrollment.

Ruben Vazquez

a member of the Sponsor and

Exhibitor Team for the conference, is currently

preparing and reviewing a sponsor and exhibitor

Information Sheet, which lists sponsorship levels,

sponsorship benefits, exhibitor/vendor Fees and

donations

Dr. Metty and Mr. Bennett conducted a meeting

with McKay Scholarships liaisons from the

Exceptional Student Education (ESE) office,

demonstrating various functions of the new online

system as used by parents, private schools and

districts. The following functions are available on

the McKay & OSP website:

Lynn Turner

has been working closely with

Maria

Rushing

, of the DOE Graphics Department, to

create printed material for the Conference. Ms.

Turner is heading the effort to organize the

conference, planning the budget with

Dr. Rufus

Ellis

, orchestrating the logistics of co-hosting the

conference and revising conference material to be

posted at www.floridaschoolchoice.org.

filing a parental intent to participate in the

program(s)

filing of a matrix number by a district staff

member

registering and enrolling a student in a private

school

arents of children in school choice

programs (1) are more involved with their

children’s academic programs; (2)

participate more in school activities; (3)

believe that their chosen school offers a

greater measure of safety, discipline, and

instructional quality than did their

previous school; (4) are more satisfied

with their children’s education in a

choice program; and (5) are likely to

reenroll their children in the ch

program.

--CATO Institute, Study on School Choice

US Department of Education Voluntary Public School Choice Grant

The Choice Office Grant Application Team,

Dr. Rufus Ellis, Lynn Turner, Karen Bennett, Karen

Hines-Henry and Kendra Lee

, has made great strides toward developing a first draft of the grant

application. This week, the team:

▪

Developed draft of goals and objectives

▪

Talked with district reps about choice grant

▪

Completed first draft of outlined responses

▪

Prepared material to send to grant writing

▪

Completed Survey Response tally

team and districts partnering with DOE

oice