Florida: In The Toilet Of Educting Our Children

Florida's stink isn't only from the incontinent old people.

In Florida, some shitheads responsible for education thought this was a good idea:

McDonald's Corp. has voluntarily pulled its sponsorship of report-card covers in Seminole County, Fla., public schools.

This is the report-card jacket McDonald's had agereed to sponsor.

"This is a good day for parents and children in Seminole County and anyone who believes that corporations should not prey on children in schools," said Dr. Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "We are pleased that McDonald's is listening to parents all over the country who believe that report cards should not be commercialized."

Cover printing costs
The fast-food giant had agreed to sponsor the report-card jackets for the county's elementary schools to cover a printing fee of $1,600. There are 27,000 children in the school district.

On the jackets, McDonald's offered a free happy meal to any student with all A's and B's, two or fewer absences, or good behavior in a given academic quarter. Susan Pagan, an area parent, notified the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and an all-out public-relations battle ensued by early December. According to the campaign, the school district received more than 2,000 calls of protest.

The school district could not be reached immediately for verification.

"It was McDonald's decision to remove our trademarks from report-card jackets in Seminole County, Fla., because we believe the focus should be on the importance of a good education," said Bill Whitman, a spokesman for McDonald's USA. "McDonald's, not the school district, will cover the cost to reprint the report-card jackets."

Regina Klaers, a spokeswoman for the school district, said in December that the school approached McDonald's for the sponsorship, not vice versa. For the 10 years prior to McDonald's sponsorship, Pizza Hut had picked up the tab. During that time, Ms. Klaers said, there were no parental complaints.

Parental initiative
"In the absence of needed government regulation to protect schoolchildren from predatory companies like McDonald's, the burden is on parents to be vigilant about exploitative marketing aimed at children," Ms. Linn said. "One parent can make a difference. There is no doubt that the Seminole County ads would have continued -- and violated McDonald's pledge to stop advertising in elementary schools -- had one parent not called attention to the problem."

Mr. Whitman of McDonald's said that support of education and academic excellence is part of the company's heritage. "Our support of education, as well as our relationship with local schools across the country, is a long-standing commitment and will continue," he said.

Last summer, McDonald's signed on to join the Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Advertising Initiative. Signatories, including Kraft Foods and Burger King, are to curb advertising to children and focus on healthier options. The reductions were to have been apparent by this January.

Link.

The same shitheads think this is a good idea:

Despite concern about pushing advertisements to a young captive audience, the Seminole County School Board agreed unanimously Tuesday to let a Massachusetts company put its daily radio show on school buses.

Bus Radio got the go-ahead to broadcast a program of rock music, FCAT lessons and advertisements to about 4,800 students on 53 buses in a trial run that will go through the end of the school year.

If district officials decide it is a success, they’ll let the company put its radios in the district’s fleet of buses serving more than 30,000 students.

Officials say the radio program will keep students busy so drivers can concentrate on the road. Critics contend that it forces ads on kids who have no alternative but to listen.

Orange, Volusia and Polk schools have rejected Bus Radio, but the Osceola and Brevard districts may be interested. The company has its radios in about 7,500 buses around the country.

Seminole School Board members said the benefits of the radio show seem to outweigh any drawbacks, but they will evaluate Bus Radio’s performance during the test run.

“This is strictly a pilot. I am real concerned about it,” School Board member Dede Schaffner said.

Board member Diane Bauer said she wants to know more about the ads that will be on the show. Board member Sandy Robinson suggested a committee be set up to check out ads and songs before the trial run starts, and other board members agreed.

To help win support, Bus Radio has promised the district six minutes out of each broadcast hour for its own use. Officials plan short lessons to help students pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The district also will get a share of the company’s advertising revenues, although that is expected to amount to only a few thousand dollars a year.

Superintendent Bill Vogel had been unaware that the Parent-Teacher Association and dozens of other groups oppose Bus Radio in a nationwide flap over advertising to schoolchildren. But he stood behind his recommendation to approve the contract and suggested that a PTA representative to be on the committee reviewing songs and ads.

Nancy Cox, a Heathrow Elementary teacher who serves on the national PTA board, told the Orlando Sentinel that the group has taken a stand against Bus Radio, and she agrees advertising to schoolchildren on buses is inappropriate.

Link.

But teaching anything substantive? The whole state thinks that's a bad idea:

Despite impassioned opposition from science experts, teachers and some clergy, Clay County School Board members unanimously resolved Tuesday night that evolution should be presented as a theory, and not fact, in the classroom.

The board passed a resolution, proposed by Superintendent David Owens, asking the Florida Department of Education to reword its newly proposed state standards, which presents evolution as "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported in multiple forms of scientific evidence."

Baker County approved a similar resolution Dec. 17.

"It's not like we're asking for permission to teach creationism or any of those things. What we're saying is let's not be so dogmatic in our approach," said Owens, who said it meets the needs of Clay County.

School Board attorney Bruce Bickner said evolution will continue to be taught and the resolution has no bearing on what is taught or what will be taught. It's just semantics, he said.

Objectors in the audience said the action squashed a major leap forward in science with far-reaching effects.

"Evolution is widely accepted in the science community as factual. Science education should reflect scientific consensus," said Paula Horvath-Niemeyer, a Keystone Heights parent of two teens and a University of North Florida faculty member.

"I'm extremely disappointed," said Linda Crawford, who said the action will make Clay County known for its objection to excellence in science education.

Chairwoman Carol Studdard said she felt many speakers didn't understand the issue.

Board members Carol Vallencourt and Charles Van Zant said they doubt the resolution will sway the Florida Department of Education to change the wording.

"We're beating a dead horse deader," Van Zant said.

Though he voted for the resolution, board member Wayne Bolla said he didn't think there is a difference in the word concept and theory.

Ridgeview High School teacher David Campbell, who helped create the standards, said the process took eight months of work and the standards reviewed by hordes of experts and a Nobel Prize winner.

"This resolution is seriously flawed and circulated by someone who doesn't understand science," he said. "The language says concept - a general principle, not fact. The word fact isn't there. The word fact was carefully avoided. We put the best science possible in the standards."

Flagler College student Kristine Hoppenworth of Middleburg was in tears after the vote.

"They weren't clear on what they were voting about," she said. "They are not listening to the public, not listening to the experts. I think it is reducing the study of science to school board politics."

Link. And it's elsewhere in the state too.