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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
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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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 Thursday, November 17, 2005

Graduation Rates

    At least the media, for the most part, isn't completely sycophantic in reporting the State's inflated "graduation" rates:
    - SPT: "Gov. Jeb Bush hailed an increase in Florida's high school graduation rate as evidence of progress Wednesday, but a Democratic lawmaker called it 'spin' to hide a last-place ranking among the 50 states." "Florida high school graduation statistics hailed and deplored".

    - SS: "State: County's high school graduate rate inching up".

    - NDN: No mention of GOoPer "spin" or Florida's last place ranking, but the piece does refer to a "U.S. government-run National Center for Education Statistics" (NCES) report, noting that "the NCES report hardly vindicated Florida's education leaders. The results put Florida's graduation rate in 2003-04 — the most recent data available — among the lowest nationwide, 41st among 50 states and Washington, D.C." "Collier's graduation rate continues upward climb".

    - DBNJ: "Gov. Jeb Bush touted the new state statistics Wednesday in Tallahassee as evidence Florida students are performing better than ever, but that claim drew immediate criticism from a leading Democratic lawmaker who denounced it as 'spin.'" "State claims graduation rates on the rise".

    - NP: "Lee County graduation rates drop to '99 levels".

    - MH: "Those numbers, released Wednesday by the Florida Department of Education, include students who receive general equivalency diplomas and special-education diplomas, which some critics say inflate Florida's numbers unfairly. 'In a level playing field, Florida has the worst graduation rate,' said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. 'It was horrible when last year and this year we were ranked dead last for the first time in history.'" "Graduation rate up in Broward, down in Dade".

    - TD: "Legislative Democrats immediately accused Gov. Jeb Bush and Education Commissioner John Winn of trying to 'spin' the data, which sharply contradicted a study two weeks ago that ranked Florida last in the nation in graduation rates." "Bush, DOE assert high-school grad rates on the rise".

1:05 AM

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