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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Saturday, September 24, 2005

"Governor tossing bones "

    On the FCAT, Florida
    is not coming clean. It's throwing a few rather shaggy bones at "families and students," hoping that'll quell their demands for accountability for a while. Here's how it works. Every once in a while -- that is, "as funds are available to develop enough new questions," in the Department of Education's wording -- a small set of tests administered only to certain grades and only from one particular year will be made available on the department's Web site. This month, for example, only the reading and math tests taken by 10th graders, and only those taken in March 2004, were released. If your son or daughter was in that batch that year, you're in luck. If not -- well, tough.

    You're only somewhat in luck, anyway. Just like some government document out of another Bush administration big on secrecy, even those released tests are redacted and altered. "The tests actually taken by students were formatted differently and contained additional questions," the department explains, "called field-test questions ('trial' questions) and anchor questions (questions that will be reused). The field-test questions and anchor questions are not included in the released test because they will be used again in future FCAT tests." In other words: same old story of keeping secret any FCAT test in its actual integrity. Later this fall, the department's benevolence will make available reading and math tests for grades 4 and 8.

    At no point will students' answer sheets be released. Why? Because, the department says, they contain questions the state wants to use in future tests. A year's fresh testing costs $10 million. The state says it doesn't have the money to pay for a new set of tests every year. Lie. In any given year, the state distributes around $100 million in "bonus" money to individual schools that perform well on the FCAT (last year Volusia schools netted $4.9 million, Flagler schools $530,000). The state couldn't take 10 percent of that money to ensure a fresh test every year -- and be accountable?

    The state could. It chooses not to. The governor isn't de-mystifying the FCAT. He's yanking parents' chains.
    "Florida without measure".

3:29 AM

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