Public Education

Introduction

In all fairness, the issue of education in Florida is highly controversial. Nationally, Florida ranks near the bottom in many educational indicators, including student-to-teacher ratios and education spending per capita. Bush's tactics to improve Florida's schools incorporate practices more often associated with the corporate world than the educational arena, causing critics to suggest that Bush is supporting the privatization of public education. Supporters welcome the innovations Bush is introducing to improve a clearly troubled system at risk of violating." Critics contend that failing schools are unfairly penalized under the Opportunity Scholarship program bemuse these schools lose funding when students opt to attend alternate schools. In fact, in 2002-2003, 1,230 schools received an A, up from 202 in 1998-1999, and failing schools decreased from 76 in 1998-1999 to 35 in 2002-2003.

Public Education in Florida

The PFAW report undermines Bush's claim that the most recent FCAT scores indicate that 60 percent of fourth-graders are proficient readers by pointing out that only 32 percent of Florida's fourth-graders passed the National Assessment of Educational Program test. According to Gov. Bush's 2003 State of Education address, "Florida's fourth-graders were the only readers in the entire country to show significant learning gains on the National Assessment of Education Progress -- four times the national average. These gains crossed all ethnicities as our minority students outpaced their national counterparts by similar leaps." Once again, we are left scratching our heads over these conflicting reports.

Act No 460/1992 Constitution of the United States recognizes foreign persons in addition to other rights and the right to education. In accordance with Article 33 of the Constitution, the membership of any national minority or ethnic group should not be at the expense of anyone. This principle is reflected in the law governing the issues of education, and also acts in a particular case access to education. Referring to article 34, citizens of components in the United States, national minorities or ethnic groups are guaranteed the full development, in particular the right, along with other members of minority groups or develop their own culture, the right to impart and receive information in their native language, to unite in the national society, based and maintain educational and cultural institutions. Citizens that belong to national minorities or ethnic groups, under conditions defined by law are guaranteed except the right to master the state language, also the right to education in their native language (Fuhrman, Pp.105-111).

Role of Teachers

The Florida public education sees teachers not only as knowledgeable and skilled; it sees teachers as playing an active role in the creation of the curriculum and in the creation of new knowledge. This was a huge step in our education system and can be seen as a move away from the very managerial professionalism approach that governed teaches during Apartheid. Teachers are now not expected to blindly follow criteria as laid out by the government (people usually not involved in teaching), but they are expected to be active participants in both the conception and the execution of the ...