News

ALERT! Please Call to Oppose Competency Based Education Bill!

February, 2016

The Competency Based Education (CBE) programs we warned of in our most recentblog post are nearly cone moving through the legislature. HB 1365 has passed the House.A slightly different Senate bill 1714 is getting it's final committee hearing on Thursday, February 25th from 10 AM to 5 PM. This is the last best chance to stop this bill! The main concerns about this bill are as follows:
 
  1. SB 1714 presumes district-wide implementation of the CBE program well before the results of the pilot program are in (see lines 39-41).
  2. According to the Gates Foundation website, there is Gates grant money for this type of program in Lake ($7 million) and Pinellas Counties ($3.3 million), but not for Palm Beach and Seminole.  Will state or country taxpayers or both have to pick up the slack to fund these expensive, technology-driven programs?
  3. The Gates Foundation and technology based education programs in general have a long track record of failure as happened in Hillsborough Countycosting the taxpayers $24 million.
  4. There is no language protecting student data privacy from sharing with third party corporate vendors, no protection for student psychological data privacy and no language specifically allowing students, parents, schools or districts to opt out of this program if it fails like other Gates programs have, if academic learning and progress is harmed, and if privacy is violated. 
  5. Educational and emotional profiling and data mining is the cornerstone of these types of programs.  The data is shared with third party vendors and the federal government without consent. 
There are detailed references for these assertions and more at: 

Here are the email addresses that may be copied and put in a single email to the
Appropriations Committee followed by phone numbers.  Please contact these senators and ask them to vote this bill down or protect privacy and choice in a much stronger way.
 
Florida Senate -Committee on Appropriations - Members
Copy and paste these emails addresses to send a bulk email:
benacquisto.lizbeth@flsenate.gov, lee.tom.web@flsenate.gov , 
flores.anitere.web@flsenate.gov, altman.thad.web@flsenate.gov, 
gaetz.don.web@flsenate.gov,  galvano.bill.web@flsenate.gov, 
garcia.rene.web@flsenate.gov,   grimsley.denise.web@flsenate.gov, 
hays.alan.web@flsenate.gov, hukill.dorothy.web@flsenate.gov,  
joyner.arthenia.web@flsenate.gov, latvala.jack.web@flsenate.gov,  
margolis.gwen.web@flsenate.gov, montford.bill.web@flsenate.gov, 
negron.joe.web@flsenate.gov, richter.garrett.web@flsenate.gov,   
ring.jeremy.web@flsenate.gov,  smith.chris.web@flsenate.gov

Chair: Senator Tom Lee (R)
E-mail - lee.tom.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (813) 653-7061
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5024

Vice Chair: Senator Lizbeth Benacquisto (R)
E-mail - benacquisto.lizbeth@flsenate.gov
District Office - (239) 338-2570
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5030 

Senator Thad Altman (R)
Twitter: @SenatorAltman
E-mail - altman.thad.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (321) 868-2132
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5016

Senator Anitere Flores (R)
Twitter: @Senator_Flores
E-mail - flores.anitere.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (305) 270-6550
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5037

Senator Don Gaetz (R)
E-mail - gaetz.don.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (850) 897-5747
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5001

Senator Bill Galvano (R)
E-mail - galvano.bill.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (941) 741-3401
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5026

Senator Rene Garcia (R)
E-mail - garcia.rene.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (305) 364-3100
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5038

Senator Denise Grimsley (R)
E-mail - grimsley.denise.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (863) 386-6016
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5021

Senator Alan Hays (R)
E-mail - hays.alan.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (352) 742-6441
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5011

Senator Dorothy L.  Hukill (R)
E-mail - hukill.dorothy.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (386) 304-7630
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5008

Senator Arthenia L.  Joyner (D)
E-mail - joyner.arthenia.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (813) 233-4277
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5019

Senator Jack Latvala (R)
E-mail - latvala.jack.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (727) 793-2797
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5020

Senator Gwen Margolis (D)
E-mail - margolis.gwen.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (305) 571-5777
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5035

Senator Bill Montford (D)
E-mail - montford.bill.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (850) 487-5003
Tallahassee Office - Same as District office

Senator Joe Negron (R)
E-mail - negron.joe.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (772) 219-1665
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5032

Senator Garrett Richter (R)
E-mail - richter.garrett.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (239) 417-6205
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5023

Senator Jeremy Ring (D)
E-mail - ring.jeremy.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (954) 917-1392
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5029

Senator David Simmons (R)
E-mail - simmons.david.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (407) 262-7578
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5010

Senator Christopher L.  Smith (D)
E-mail - smith.chris.web@flsenate.gov
District Office - (954) 321-2705
Tallahassee Office - (850) 487-5031

The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition was pleased to co-sponsor this Call to Action
hosted at coalition partner, UnitEd for Florida Children's website and joined by the following additional organizations:
 

Website Powered by Morphogine