Northeast Florida candidates push different proposals for educational choice

Education policy has been one of Florida?s highest-profile issues in recent years.

Now three Republican candidates for Northeast Florida?s state Senate District 4 ? Wyman Duggan, Aaron Bean and Mike Weinstein ? propose injecting additional choice into the system.

But there are caveats.

?The biggest thing is I would give more parental choice in schools,? Bean said. ?I think the best thing we can do is get parents more involved.?

He said that he backs many of the choice-centered reforms offered by former Gov. Jeb Bush, one of Florida?s most prominent education reformers.

?I have talked to him and met with him, and talked about reform issues with his policy director, Pat Lavesque,? he said. ?I?m very supportive.?

Bush, who has endorsed Bean, advocated for a proposal dubbed the ?parent trigger? bill in the last session. It would have allowed parents of students attending a poorly performing public school to vote to convert it to a charter school. The bill drew heated opposition from teachers? unions.

?I voted against it because I thought it would potentially put neighbors versus neighbors,? Weinstein said.

Weinstein was one of just two House Republicans to oppose the bill. It died in the Senate on a heated 20-20 vote.

Duggan, a lawyer, says keeping all options on the table ? including a ?parent trigger? bill ? is the best way to spur needed innovation in education.

?It puts the parents in charge,? he said. ?I see nothing wrong with that.?

He says that a look at even the most basic aspects of the education system could provide needed changes.

?The system continues to be based on a model and on assumptions that essentially have their basis in 19th-century agrarian America,? he said.

Duggan would like a greater focus on the skilled trades.

?The idea that everyone has to go to college or they have failed educationally, or that you don?t have a bright career prospect, is wrong and harmful,? he said.

Weinstein?s biggest education-related pushes in recent years have been to pass legislation requiring the state to determine the minimum it costs to fund public schools.

?The voucher system and charter school systems are something I support, but I?m trying to make sure we have an analysis of what is left behind in traditional public schools,? he said. ?A majority of our children are still going to be in public schools.?

He has unsuccessfully sponsored the bill twice, and ?will file the exact same bill? if he gets a spot in the Senate.

Bean, a former member of the Florida House, says he does not want to abandon public schools but increased choice is the best way to improve all schools.

?If you have a restaurant and another restaurant moves in next door, it?s going to elevate your game,? he said.

Bean also had harsh words for Florida?s teachers? unions.

?We just have to know the unions are out for getting the most they can for their union members,? Bean said. ?My goal will be to make sure that kids are the priority.?

Duggan said he thinks teachers unions deserve a spot at the table but said they are too rigid.

?It seems they feel that any deviation that could spur flexibility or innovation is per se bad,? he said.

Weinstein says every effort should be made to involve unions.

?We need to try to make the dramatic improvements we need with the union?s involvement,? he said. ?If they won?t participate in implementing improvements, we will have to do it without them.?

Matt Dixon: (904) 716-8789

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