WHO REALLY WON AND WHO LOST

The Republicans won the election but in actuality students from pre-school to college age lost.

Since Jeb Bush, likely the next Republican candidate for president decided he was Florida’s education Governor, every student in this state has lost a chance to excel.

From the second grade on, our state school system has failed to allow creativity or arts in our schools because teachers are expected to teach to the test. Students memorize answers and promptly forget what they supposedly learned.

Governor Scott actually bragged about giving the teachers raises. What he didn’t say, was he required teachers to contribute a like amount into their state retirement accounts, which they hadn’t been required to do in previous years, and this meant their take home income became even less after so many years of no raises. So his answer to the educators who spoke out was to give them a raise. Guess how much! It’s the same amount that they’re required to pay into their retirement fund, so their income is virtually the same as it was before. He calls it a raise, brags about it and receives applause from those parents, who are still being shortchanged in the education of their children.

What’s amazing to me is that educators in Pasco County are now trying to do away with much of this standardizing testing because so many students are failing in our local schools.

We residents do have lots of bragging rights about our colleges though, don’t we? We love to see a winning team on national television. Unfortunately many of our football and basketball players can barely read or write, but somehow make passing grades in college. (That’s the norm for colleges all over the USA, not just in Florida)

Speaking of colleges, we now have a new president of Florida State University that has no background in education, but a great resume in politics. He now has an even bigger bank account.