Florida’s success
Florida has served as a leader in the area of educational options, and the results are paying off- for students and for taxpayers.
As Virginia Walden Ford notes in this post for the Heritage Foundation’s blog, The Foundry:
And now growing evidence shows that school reforms that incorporate school choice can deliver real progress. One place where this is becoming increasingly clear is Florida, a state that is a national leader in offering families school choice options. In Florida, a decade of aggressive education reforms has led to remarkable progress in improving students’ academic achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Since 1998, Florida students have improved by 32 percent in the percentage of 4th grade students scoring “basic” on the reading exam as well as a 54 percent increase in those scoring “proficient.”
What’s most inspiring about this story is that the greatest academic gains have been made by Florida’s African American and Hispanic students. For example, Florida’s Hispanic students now outscore the statewide average of all students in 15 states on the 2007 fourth-grade reading exam. Florida’s African American students also beat the statewide average of all students in Louisiana and Mississippi, and they are close to passing other states.
Ms. Walden cites the new Heritage study that shows just how Florida has achieved this success. Hopefully, Florida’s success will help other states, like Virginia, provide the same kinds of opportunities for all students, so that they may all have the opportunities to avhieve success.
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