Please, Gov. DeSantis, you are not helping the state of Florida.
You have had six years to improve our high school education, and you continue to fall short. Don’t feel bad since the problems have crossed party lines. I have taught English for 30 years under two Democratic governors and four Republican governors and their respective Departments of Education (DOE). I assisted DOE in creating the ninth grade FCAT test in 2001 and met with Jim Horne, then Florida education commissioner, in 2004 to propose ways to upgrade our state assessments. I understand the challenge you face.
However, the same problems continue that then-Rep. John Tobia described to teachers in a personal meeting around 2010: 60% of students applying to Florida colleges and universities require remediation in math, reading, writing, or a mix. The figure still exceeds 55% according to The Chronicle of Higher Education (Nov. 1, 2022).
The Florida Department of Education website says that high school graduation rates have gone from 59.2% in 2003-2004 to 89.7% in 2023-2024. This seems great, but from a classroom teacher’s perspective, it’s a shell game, because the gains are hollow: Again, 60% of students entering college as freshmen still require remediation. Further, according to the Office of Program Policy Analysis in 2007, half of those getting remediation dropped out of college. Some students are pushed through without gaining full comprehension; for example, a student can get a high grade on a test, but if the test does not cover material well, the score is pointless. The high school testing bubble can cover this up; when students leave the bubble to enter college, all the flaws are revealed.
We can discuss whether remedial students should have gone to college or trade school, but they sought college and believed they could succeed in college based on what counselors told them in both high school and college. We are approaching an even more difficult era with artificial intelligence shifting employment needs; any news source reveals the difficulty of recent grads (high school or college) getting an entry level job. Continuing poor high school assessment and expanding this policy to college/university education will not help.
Our high schools are failing (imagine a car or shoe failure rate of 50%), and you are leading our state and appointing our current secondary education leadership. Now you have created an accreditation program called the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) to “upend” the current program and “offer a new model” to “emphasize student achievement, pursue truth, and prepare students for citizenship.” Quotes are from your statements last month. One board member approved the CPHE despite “… a huge number of risks …”
Governor, your record in Florida education indicates that you are not qualified to create this commission, but you have created a board that has. As you and the board continue this policy, you will further degrade Florida education and our college graduates (who have escaped our poor high school curriculum) will suffer. Florida will not be the university leader that it is now.
Please, find better advisers to help you prepare our students for “achievement, truth, and citizenship.”
Christopher “Kit” Adams is a certified English teacher who has taught 30 years in Florida in middle school, high school (both in-person and at Florida Virtual School), adult education (remedial reading, GED, and ESOL levels 3, 4, and 7, and career planning at the Brevard County Jail).
