Doctor's In: Are Florida public schools an endangered species?

When being interviewed by the press, it’s preferable to stick to a limited number of talking points so the conversation stays on a sensible track. When it comes to Florida education, it is impossible to stay on message. There are simply too many issues.

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning asked, “How do I love you, let me count the ways!” She went on to give many ways, perhaps too many, and that is the problem that one faces when sorting through the challenges of assessing public schools.

Of course, the most important question to be answered is, “How do we best educate our children?” It is clear that most people, including educators, have lost sight of that important question.

The result is an infatuation with the latest hot idea, testing, forcing the growth of charter schools, pushing children out of public school, and doing more with less.

In other words, throwing our children and their teachers under the school bus.

My first concern is the desire by the governor and legislators to privatize education. Once you understand that agenda, many things fall into place. First, there is the effort to set public schools and teachers up for failure. The evaluation criteria for teachers, schools, and principals are not about success.

My second concern is the diminished resources for public schools. Florida is tagged by the National Education Association as 43rd in the nation for what it spends K-12 for students. Florida’s gross domestic product is No. 4 in the nation and such a low student allocation cannot be justified.

The growth of charter schools and voucher credits further drain resources from public schools and blatantly mix church and state with taxpayer dollars. This is a deliberate scheme to undermine public school success. Charter schools are not held to such high standards in either curriculum or student progress, and schools accepting voucher credits are not public schools and have no effective accountability.

Also some charter schools have financial links to legislators, which presents potential conflicts of interest costing Florida taxpayers millions of dollars. Who is investigating these relationships? Who are the defenders of public schools? School boards and school superintendents don’t appear to be fighting for public schools.

It is easier to focus on disciplining teachers and fretting over school budgets.

When addressing why students fail in public schools, the discussion must turn to poverty, children’s health, home life, school resources, bullying and other tough social problems. Rules dealing with problem students thwart resolution.

So, why are parents opting out of public school? Ask them!

Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you are liable not to get there.” I would suggest that key Florida educators have no idea where they are going and they are certainly not going to get there. Politicians and the business community know exactly where they are going – into taxpayers’ pockets for money to operate private schools.

Inadequate resources, wrongheaded accountability, testing to the test, teacher dissatisfaction, and the push to privatize public education, create a perfect storm to destroy Florida’s system of public education.

The train is on that track. Voters, teacher unions and other defenders of public education must work more effectively to stop that train.

Dr. Marc Yacht is a semi-retired physician. Column courtesy of Context Florida.