Powerful words

Last weekend, we had an amazing state conference in Orlando. I wish you could have been there. Since I know many of you could not make it, I did want to share a highlight of CFO Alex Sink's powerful words that captured the energy of the conference so well.

Watch the video and share it with your friends and neighbors.

http://www.fladems.com/alexatconference

I know that Alex Sink in the Governor's office will restore the dream that led so many to move to this state.

Listening to her speak, talking to our grassroots leaders, and seeing the enthusiasm and desire they have to change Florida in 2010 made me more confident in what I already know:

We stand ready to take back our state.

For the first time in almost 140 years, every single statewide office is on the ballot and not a single one is an incumbent running for re-election. Both as Democrats and as Floridians, we are fighting to seize our historic opportunity - by not only electing Alex Sink as our next Governor - but by electing a strong Democrat to the U.S. Senate, and electing more Democrats to Congress, the Cabinet, and our State Legislature.

Just like the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who worked tirelessly to deliver Florida for Barack Obama, we must commit ourselves to be the change that we want for Florida.

This election cycle, it's up to us whether or not Florida continues to see high unemployment numbers and face stagnation.

You have already done so much to help us build the momentum we need to bring change to Florida in 2010, but there is still so much work to be done.

Frankly, the future of our state rests in the hands of each of us. With your help, we will change Florida and help Alex Sink win this historic election.

Thank you for everything you've done to get us here.

Sincerely,

Congresswoman Karen L. Thurman
Chair, Florida Democratic Party

From the Blogs

The latest stories from the Florida blogs...

The Reid Report: Charlie’s big dillemma

Pushing Rope: Telemarketer Crist

Blast Off!: Is Crist circumventing Florida law on judicial appointments?

Pushing Rope: Charlie Crist Promotes Fast Food Jobs

Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida: Attorney General Bill McCollum: Local Governments Can't Create Their Own Misdemeanors

Eye on Miami (Gimleteye): Weird: Something about Charlie

Smooth Like Remy: Where My Florida Ladies At?

Pushing Rope: Co-Ops Will Force Alex Sink To Clarify Position

Smooth Like Remy: Charlie Crist Shafted The American Worker With The Help Of George LeMeiux

Miami-Dade Dems: Crist vulnerable? Here comes Kendrick Meek

Blog to 2010 & Beyond: Crist Foggy on the Gambling Compact

Tally: Is Charlie Crist the New Ronald Reagan?

Betty Cracker: Crist almighty

Down With Tyranny: Is It Fair To Assume What Kind Of A Senator Charlie Crist Would Make Based On His Actions As Governor?

Susan Chandler: Big men don't cry

Penile State: Bye-bye, Charlie

Smooth Like Remy: Charlie Crist Has Been Reading Too Much Orson Wells

Pushing Rope: Crist on Morning Joe

Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Fla.: Attorney General Bill McCollum: Local Governments Can't Create Misdemeanors

Reid Report: Charlie’s morning whoppers

Pushing Rope: Charlie Crist Claims He Increased Employment

Orlando Sentinel: Crist's education gains claim requires some creative math

Orlando Sentinel: Crist's education gains claim requires some creative math

TALLAHASSEE – All year, Gov. Charlie Crist has touted that on his watch the state’s education system had gone from a ranking of 31st in the country to 10th this year.

Florida's one-term governor and leading U.S. Senate candidate made the claim over the weekend in a speech to Republicans in Michigan and again Tuesday morning as he made the rounds on cable news talk shows.

"We're very pleased with what's happened there -- from 31st to 10th in the nation since I've been governor, and I'm very happy for our children for that," Crist said this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show.

But the figures don't quite add up, according to the authors of the Education Week “Quality Counts” study the statement is based on.

The respected publication reported last January that Florida stood out compared to the national average scores in early childhood education and its assessment and accountability measures, produced more average scores for the caliber of its teachers and Kindergarten-through-12th Grade performance, and below average in school spending and college readiness.

Basically, the report gives Florida high marks for having accountability measures in place, but it is among the bottom of the heap in funding schools and gets an ‘F’ for college readiness. Overall, out of the six categories the study uses in its analysis, Florida and Arkansas finished with the same numeric score, 79.6 percent, indeed tying for 10th place.

But here’s where the confusion starts.

Education Week changed the way it conducted the study last year, shifting from collecting data in each of the categories every year to a “modular” research design where states are surveyed about half of the categories on an every-other-year rotation.

So, is it accurate to compare year to year? “Not really,” said Amy Hightower, the research director for the Editorial Projects in Education research center that produced the study. “We really do encourage states and the media that grading from one year to the next is not really comparable.”

That’s just for starters. Hightower said she wasn’t sure where Crist is getting the 31st ranking.

Until 2006, the research center only gave individual section grades, not overall ones, and that year Florida ranked 16th in the country. In 2008, Florida ranked 14th.

In 2007, the center didn’t issue overall grades, but did issue rankings for its newly minted “Chance for Success” and “K-12 achievement” indexes (two of the six categories now used to rank states). On both of those, Florida ranked 31st. Since then, Florida has fallen to 33rd in the rankings on “chance for success,” while the “K-12 achievement” ranking has climbed to 7th (not 10th).

Assuming that is the improvement Crist is mentioning, he still can’t claim credit for it – the 2009 report re-uses the same national data from the 2008 report, which was collected in 2007, when Crist first came into office.

The research center is careful not to draw correlations between performance and any particular policy changes within a state, but “if policy matters, then really the policy we’re talking about would predate the results,” Hightower said.

The time period that Education Week evaluated corresponds with years in which lawmakers devoted more cash to comply with constitutional mandates such as Florida’s class-size reduction requirement, increased incentives to retain and recruit teachers, and an explosion in real property wealth within the state.

And of course, Florida’s most significant policy reform has been Gov. Jeb Bush’s “A+” plan that mandated standardized tests for schools and tied school-funding to performance on the FCAT test.

“I think all of us are still parking on Jeb Bush’s dime as it comes to education reform,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican and former school superintendent who helped Bush trumpet the classroom reforms.

Crist did serve a short stint as education commissioner. And Gaetz gives the current governor credit for pushing for teacher merit-pay incentives and supporting reforms to make high schools less reliant on the FCAT assessment. But “all of us, including Charlie Crist, are stewards of Jeb Bush’s accomplishments and his innovations.”

Sen. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat running for attorney general and a frequent critic of Bush’s reforms, agreed Crist was “misusing the study.”

“It was not a study of how good they’re doing, but how many measurements they have.”

Crist told reporters Tuesday he had hoped to do more on the education front, but that Floridians understood the economy had forced his administration to "scale back."

"We've had to scale back, but the people get that. They've had to scale back," Crist said.

Things I Can Do Without

A governor who tries to distance himself from a great program and claim he had little role in, when he actually co-sponsored it.

Did You Know -- Bill McCollum

Were you aware of the following facts and quotes from Bill McCollum?

McCollum supported "personhood" rights for unborn while in Congress

McCollum opposes the public option

“During his twenty years in Congress, McCollum voted eight times to cut Medicare by at least $650 billion, voted to raise the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security, and voted to make it harder for government to crack down on health care fraud.”

McCollum opposed Crist's Seminole gaming compact

McCollum voted to approve a new nuclear plant

McCollum takes a lot of time off

"On the economic side we have big differences with the Democrats because we believe in growing the pie and growing wealth and not redistributing it."

On waterboardng: "I believe we have in this debate really stretched the definition of torture...I don't think the techniques that they're describing first of all were torture, by definition under the international way of defining it, and secondly I believe the men and women who undertook to get advice on this gave their best advice."

On the stimulus, "President Obama failed to involve the Republicans the way he professed to do at the beginning of the process."

McCollum opposed oil drilling closer to Florida's coast

This Could Be Very Good News

Bud Chiles May Seek CFO Post:

Lawton 'Bud' Chiles III, son of the late Democratic governor, and a Lakeland native, said the post being vacated by Alex Sink is one where 'you could create a voice for changing what is wrong in Florida today.'

'I've had a number of people talk to me about it,' Chiles told the News Service of Florida. 'I'm giving a lot of thought to it.'

About Time

Charlie Crist is taking a well-deserved day off tomorrow:

GOVERNOR’S SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

NO SCHEDULED EVENTS

It's about time.