Florida Art Education Association

Senate bill 820 was heard in the PreK-12 Education Committee last week and was amended with language developed by committee staff in conjunction with the DOE. The intent of our bill was changed from bonus points for arts participation to be focused on end-of-course testing and for the results of those tests to become part of the non-FCAT 50% portion of the school grade. We accepted that amendment only to allow the bill to move on to the next committee, rather than killing the bill.

 

A similar effort took place in the House on Thursday – and with language similar to that of the Senate amendment – the bill moved forward there. The sponsor of HB 461, Rep. Kurt Kelly, understands our original intent – to support arts participation. He supports us, and will assist us in getting the bill amended at the next committee stop to move back in our intended direction. 

 

If we are not successful in amending the current language on these bills – we will ask they be allowed to die without additional hearings. 

 

We’ll keep you posted on the next steps for these bills with upcoming alerts. No action is needed on these at this time. 

 

 

The big education bills related to tenure/merit pay and “raising of standards/end-of-course testing” appear to be on the fast track legislatively.  One of the elements of term limits is that if a party holds an insurmountable majority in both chambers, when the leadership introduces a bill, few members of that party will oppose it.  It does appear that both of these bills will pass along party lines, despite considerable opposition from across the state by teachers.  (Find your legislator here should you wish to communicate with them about those efforts.)

 

Related to our own efforts (SB 820 and HB 461), our good attempt to provide an incentive via bonus points was translated by staff (who hold incredible power - another result of term-limits) into an end-of-course testing element for the arts.  This was not our intent and we are working the process to see if we can get their language amended and add the participation element back in.  If not, we’ve been clear with both sponsors that we want the bill to die. 

 

FAEA has been participating in an “assessment project” with Florida Music Educators’ Association to create student assessments in visual art and music. Elementary, middle and high school tests are in progress and we’ve gotten some indications that funding may become available if the Race to the Top funds are awarded to Florida’s DOE. While the initial efforts on the visual arts assessments have been to create “general” tests for each grade level, there has been sufficient work done they could be adapted and expanded to create end-of-course tests for the courses with the largest enrollments. 

 

My concern is that if pay for performance becomes a reality, and it looks like it will – that 1) we want arts educators to have an opportunity to obtain such pay enhancement, 2) we want any test(s) to be written by arts educators for that purpose, so that we can make certain the most important elements of our classes are not overlooked and 3) any testing formula is as fair as possible across the state. 

 

This is an election year!  If you have strong feelings about the performance of a legislator, community members should take an active part in the campaigns.  For most of us, contributions of money are difficult, but it is possible to be active in walking districts on behalf of a candidate and participating as a volunteer within a campaign in other ways.  If we want the legislative stance to change – we’re going to have to become active participants in voting against the legislators who do not represent our values – and supporting those who do.  As the public education system comes under increasing attack, I hope that our members will be more and more motivated to register to vote and actively support candidates with contributions and/or volunteer work.

Should a group of FAEA members wish it, I would be happy to come and have a conversation about the political scene, your local legislative candidates, and ways to consider working for a campaign.

 

Thanks for all that you do to keep opportunities in the arts strong for your students!

 

James Perry

 

FAEA