©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — State education officials could soon launch rules that would allow for a “classical education teaching certificate,” under a bill passed by the Florida House Thursday.
The wide-ranging measure, passed by the Republican-dominated chamber in an 84-35 vote, would make numerous changes to public schools.
The bill (HB 1285) also addresses one of the hottest issues in education — the scrutiny of school library books and other instructional materials.
Under a provision added to the bill Thursday, people could be assessed $100 “processing” fees for unsuccessful book objections if they do not “have a student enrolled in the school where the material is located” and have “unsuccessfully objected to five materials during the calendar year.”
The proposed book-objection fee also is included in a separate House bill (HB 7025) aimed at taking regulations off the books for public schools.
During the floor debate Thursday, House Democrats questioned the need for creating the proposed teaching certificate for classical schools.
Rep. Robin Bartleman, a Weston Democrat who is a former educator, asked if the proposed certificate would omit requirements that prospective educators must meet when they seek certifications to teach in public schools.
“It looks like, when I read the language of this bill, that certification would be granted solely at the request of the school and does not require any particular demonstration of subject area expertise, professional knowledge or even general knowledge,” Bartleman said. “Is that true?”
The bill “gives the Board of Education the opportunity to create a pathway that provides the right kind of certification requirements for classical school teachers, which are going to be a little different because of the unique nature of the curriculum,” Rep. Jennifer Canady, a Lakeland Republican who sponsored the bill, replied.
The measure would require the state Board of Education “to allow for the issuance of a classical education teaching certificate, upon the request of a classical school, to any applicant who fulfills the requirements” of a part of state law dealing with eligibility criteria for certificates.
The bill, however, would exempt applicants for a classical education certificate from meeting requirements that they “demonstrate mastery of general knowledge,” “demonstrate mastery of subject area knowledge,” or demonstrate “mastery of professional preparation and education competence.”
The proposed teaching certificates would only be valid at a classical school, which the measure approved Thursday also defined.
The bill says that a classical school “implements a classical education school model that emphasizes the development of students in the principles of moral character and civic virtue through a well-rounded education in the liberal arts and sciences that is based on the classical trivium stages of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.”
A House analysis of the bill that described a classical education curriculum cited part of an article from The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think-tank.
“In Florida, some charter schools are implementing a curriculum known as classical education which is centered on ‘the pursuit of wisdom and virtue by means of a rich and ordered course of study grounded in the liberal arts tradition,’” the analysis said.
Florida currently has 18 classical charter schools operating in nine school districts, according to the analysis.
Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Miami Democrat who also is a former public school teacher, criticized the proposed classical education teaching certificates before voting against the bill.
“We are basically giving them a pathway to professional certificate status without having to take any course,” she said.
Gantt argued that, if such certificates are allowed, “kids will be taught by people who have not even demonstrated the very basic knowledge or skills that our teachers have to demonstrate when they are teaching … in our public schools.”
But Rep. Chase Tramont, R- Port Orange, said the proposal would “widen the field of possibilities and bring in all sorts of new talent” to classical schools.
“I think the falsity in our certification process is that we assume that because somebody has checked off the right boxes and has the right piece of paper printed on their wall, that all of the sudden it makes them qualified to teach literally the most difficult age population there is,” Tramont said.
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