When this year’s ugly district school board campaigns in Florida are over, will anybody remember that one of the responsibilities of our public schools is to give students the opportunity to achieve at the highest level?
Of course, many of the issues that school board candidates are battling over are desperately important.
Yes, the mental health needs of our students should be addressed. Yes, students who are not heading for a four-year college should have access to excellent career and technical education opportunities. Yes, we should not be bullying students because of their race or gender identity. Yes, students should learn about the horrific things that have been done in the past to some Floridians because of their skin color. And yes, students from disadvantaged backgrounds should be given an opportunity to achieve at the highest level just like more advantaged students.
When the campaign battles over these issues are over and the victors have taken their seats on Florida’s district school boards, will those victors remember that one of their jobs is to give every student the opportunity to fulfill her or his potential?
As a state, we have done a poor job of giving each student the opportunity to prepare for STEM careers that require a bachelor’s degree or beyond. The rate at which Florida’s public high school students take calculus is about half the national rate. Our state’s students take physics at less than half the national rate. One-seventh of Florida’s large public high schools (that is, high schools with more than 1,000 students) didn’t teach physics at all during the 2021-22 school year. Our state’s students are even behind the national enrollment rate in chemistry.
Partly because of that, Florida was ranked 35th in the nation in 2019 for the rate at which students earned bachelors’ degrees in science and engineering fields. That sorry statistic has consequences for the state’s economy. During that same year, Florida was ranked 43rd in the nation for the percentage of its workforce that had jobs in knowledge- and technology-intensive industries – industries that pay their workers relatively high wages. That was one of the factors that led to Florida being ranked 35th in the nation for median household income in 2019. In turn, that low median household income is a primary reason why US News and World Report ranks Florida 41st in the nation for housing affordability.
I hope my concerns are groundless. I hope Florida’s new district school board members will make it one of their high priorities to support student excellence, even in subjects like calculus and physics. That means finding a way to recruit, develop and retain highly qualified teachers in math and science. And that means making public schools better places to teach for educators in all subjects than they are now.
Sometime next year, we will start to see what the results of this year’s district school board warfare are in our state’s high school math and science classrooms. As of today, I’m pessimistic.
Bridge to Tomorrow 