Rick Scott on Education

$80M for state colleges; hold the line on tuition at $10K

We are changing how we fund higher education but if we want to make higher education more accessible to low and middle-income families, we have to make it more affordable.

Last year, I vetoed a tuition increase that would have taken a total of more than $42 million from Florida families. And, this year, we want to get rid of the 15% annual increase and inflationary increase on tuition.

My commitment to every family dreaming to send their children to college is simple: We will hold the line on tuition.

Parents saving for their children to get a four-year degree from a public university today need to save over $53,000. We shouldn't celebrate how accessible higher education is until we can make it more affordable. That's why I am proud that all of Florida's 4-year state colleges now offer bachelor's degrees for only $10,000.

Eliminated tenure; with performance pay, give $2,500 raise

Florida's education system is making tremendous progress, due in large part to our great teachers and the work begun by Gov. Bush. Our students and teachers were recently ranked 6th for educational quality; and our 4th-graders scored among the highest in the world on a recent reading evaluation. Accountability is working.

The best way we can build on this progress is to reward our hard-working teachers with a $2,500 pay raise. Some say they are afraid that giving raises to all teachers may mean that a teacher doing a bad job gets rewarded. But, thanks to our work, we are now in a better position than ever before to reward good teachers and move bad teachers out of the classroom. We don't want a war on teachers; we want a war on failure.

$10M for vouchers for private schools for poor kids

• A program allowing corporations to receive tax credits for funding vouchers for private schools will receive an extra $10.25 million under a bill passed by the House.
• The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program is capped at $175 million for the current fiscal year, and is scheduled to increase to $219 million. HB 859 would increase the cap to $229 million, and do away with random inspections for participating schools.
• The vouchers amount to about $4,000 per student, and only low-income students are eligible. Proponents of the bill note that the vouchers cost less than the per-student funding for public schools, which is $6,224 for the current year.
• Several Democrats decried the bill, though, as siphoning off money that would otherwise go to public schools.

Status:Bill passed House, 92-24; passed Senate, 32-8; approved by Governor, March 23,2012.

Allow students to deliver inspirational messages

Analysis by ACLU Florida: This is the school prayer, which was termed "inspirational message" bill when Senate legal staff expressed doubts it could pass constitutional muster. The measure authorizes school districts to adopt a policy to allow students of all ages to deliver inspirational messages at compulsory and non-compulsory school events and prohibits school personnel from being involved in overseeing the message contents, sectarian or otherwise.

Legislative Outcome: Passed House 88-27-4 on Mar/1/12; Passed Senate 31-8-1 on Feb/1/12; Signed by Governor Rick Scott on Mar/23/12

Increase the number of charter schools

I am calling for an increase in the number of charter schools--which are public schools that are allowed to work independently of their school board and can innovate in ways that encourage all schools to improve.