[Mb-civic] Gov. Bush wants to stress career-oriented education over arts, PE

[Rhaerther at aol.com]

Gov. Bush wants to stress career-oriented education over arts,  PE
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By Chris Kahn
South Florida Sun-Sentinel  Education Writer

March 13, 2006

Tallahassee * Gov. Jeb Bush's  proposal to dramatically overhaul
Florida's education system would give him a  much stronger hand in
turning around struggling schools, force educators to  rethink their
priorities for fine arts and physical education and  require
middle-schoolers to pick college-like majors.

The sweeping  changes are starting to make their way through the
Legislature, generating  controversy, but already gaining a key
endorsement from the House Pre-K-12  Committee.

"We're taking it up a notch," said Rep. Ralph Arza, the  Hialeah
Republican who is shepherding the legislation through the  House.

In their 107-page bill, the governor and his supporters say they  want to
mold Florida schools into a tougher, more career-oriented system  that
gives children "relevant learning opportunities."

Opponents have  drawn their own battle lines, focusing on the bill's
intent to eliminate  physical education and fine arts courses from high
school graduation  requirements, and its plan to let the governor usurp
school districts and  reform chronically failing schools on his own.

Bush's plan would tweak  middle and high schools in numerous other ways.
For example, it  would:

Establish a uniform school start date, prohibiting districts  from
opening more than a week earlier than Labor Day.

Keep districts  from assigning a disproportionately high number of
first-time teachers to  schools with a "D" or "F" rating and schools with
an above average population  of minorities or low-income students.

Force principals to recommend  corrective actions for low performing
staff members.

Force high  schools with an F grade to post their graduation rate by
ethnicity on the  school's Web site.

Create a uniform state "individual education plan" for  every student
with a disability, to avoid confusion if the students move to  other
counties. Districts must allow parents access to those plans on  the
Internet.

Perhaps the most controversial part of Arza's bill is  the authority it
gives the governor to take over struggling  schools.

The plan calls for a state "community assessment team" to check  on
schools that receive a D or F and make suggestions for doing better.  If
the school continues to fail, the bill would allow the governor to  take
over.

The state might focus on only the failing schools, but it  could also
suggest policy changes for an entire county, Arza  said.

"The problems with one school might be district-wide," he  said.

Palm Beach County Superintendent Art Johnson criticized the idea.  He
said it would be foolish to think the state could do a better  job
running a struggling school from afar.

"They don't want this  problem," Johnson said. "The simplest thing would
be to direct the school  district to put higher performing principals and
teachers in the schools and  pay them more."

Janet Hodgman, a mother of three in Plantation, said she  liked the idea
of crafting a student's curriculum based on the student's  interests,
"but that's what magnet schools already do."

Asking kids to  choose an additional college-like major would be
stressful, Hodgman said, and  it might keep kids from getting a
well-rounded education.

"We pressure  kids too young and too soon to figure out what they want to
do, when in fact  they don't have a clue," she said.

Chris Coombs, 44, a parent and math  teacher at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos
Jr. School of the Arts in West Palm  Beach, said he thought it would be a
good idea to ask high school students to  pick a major, but middle school
was too soon.

"I see my eighth-grader  right now, she doesn't know what she wants to
do," Coombs said. "Most of them  don't know what they want to do."

The Senate hasn't finished its  education reform plan yet, but Education
Committee Chairwoman Evelyn Lynn,  R-Ormond Beach, said it would be
different in at least a few key  areas.

For example, Lynn promised to fight for an arts graduation  requirement.

"Art opens the door to history of not only our nation, but  nations
throughout the world," said Lynn, a former teacher. "It's an avenue  for
learning every single subject matter."

She also wondered why the  House bill would cut physical education as a
graduation requirement "at a  time when we're concerned with obesity and
poor health among our  youngsters."

Arza agreed that the plan does cut the arts requirement in  favor of
boosting the math requirement from three to four credits, but he  said
students who are interested in the performing arts can still take  those
courses as electives.

"To say we're eliminating the arts, that's  a lie," Arza said.

But without arts as a general requirement for  graduation, a lot of
students could go through school without the experience  of a theater,
band or dance class, said Lori Sessions, a drama teacher at  J.P.
Taravella High in Coral Springs, who is Broward County's Arts Teacher  of
the Year.

Sessions said many of her students don't discover their  passion for the
arts until they've spent time in her classroom.

"A lot  of these kids never had any prior exposure to the arts," she
said. "They  don't even know whether they have a talent for it."

Chris Kahn can be  reached at 954-356-4550 or cmkahn at sun-sentinel.com

INSIDE

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Copyright (c) 2006, South  Florida Sun-Sentinel 

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