Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bills revamping early learning, literacy at West Miami Middle

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law two pieces of legislation that will reshape Florida’s early childhood learning system and create new initiatives to help struggling readers.

DeSantis held a signing ceremony for the two bills first in Indian River County, then again at the media center of West Miami Middle School. He was flanked by Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade County School Board member Marta Perez, early learning advocate David Lawrence Jr., and several state lawmakers from the Miami-Dade delegation.

HB 419 sets in motion a plan to gradually implement a new pre-K grading system that will measure toddlers’ progress by taking into account test scores, learning gains and teacher-child interactions. The measure puts the Florida Department of Education and the Board of Education in charge of 30 regional early learning coalitions and an annual budget of roughly $1.3 billion.

The state Board of Education, with its newfound authority, would now be able to withhold funding from early learning coalitions to enforce the new accountability measures.

“This legislation is really significant for accountability,” said DeSantis, who said the state’s kindergarten readiness rate was 42% when he took office. “It’ll turn the tide for these families and these students.”

10 years of advocacy pays off

DeSantis then turned the floor over to Rep. Vance Aloupis, a Miami Republican who has been a leading voice on early education policy in the Legislature. Aloupis is the CEO of the Children’s Movement of Florida, a South Florida nonprofit that advocates for young kids.

Aloupis has spent the past several years working with Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, to reshape what they call a “broken” pre-kindergarten accountability system. They came close to passing legislation that would overhaul the system last year, but the effort died toward the end of the legislative session.

“The dirty little secret of pre-K that we have fought for 10 years is that there is no accountability in it,” Aloupis said, while adding that the policy changes approved by the governor on Tuesday will be “transformational.”

DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a second measure, HB 7011, that will set up a statewide monitoring tool to gauge the academic progress of kids from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

Tucked in that bill is also a new initiative that is designed to help schools that need to improve their reading scores.

The measure will create the Reading Achievement Initiative for Scholarship Excellence (RAISE) program, which will deploy literacy support teams to schools that the Florida Department of Education deems could use the extra support based on results from statewide, standardized English Language Arts assessments and other criteria.

“What these pieces of legislation will do is ensure that we have the data, we have the resources we need to make sure every child is reading at grade level by 2030,” Aloupis said.

Under the newly created RAISE program, certain high school juniors and seniors would also have the opportunity to tutor students with substantial reading deficiency in kindergarten through third grade, in exchange for community service hours.

DeSantis on Tuesday touted the tutoring opportunity as one that would allow high school students to not only meet the requirements for graduation, but qualify for a Bright Futures college scholarship, which can cover 75% to 100% of a student’s tuition.

About those masks in school ...

While in Miami, DeSantis was asked about mask use in schools. Florida’s Education Commissioner, Richard Corcoran, recently asked superintendents to amend school districts’ mandatory mask policies to be optional, saying that mandatory policies “serve no remaining good at this point in our schools.”

Experts say rigid measures like mandatory masks and social distancing are precisely why schools are not the cause of COVID spread.

“I don’t begrudge anyone for making decisions,” DeSantis said. “I think that counsels in favor of letting parents make the decision of how they want to send their kids to school.”

DeSantis added: “I personally do not believe the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of putting the masks on these kids at this juncture given the data.”

DeSantis also touted his rollout of vaccines, citing fewer hospitalizations among seniors and the availability of vaccines for teachers.

“We would tell people that that’s the right thing to do. Go get it,” he said. “If you get it, you are protected.”

“We’ve all gotta be given a consistent message that you know what, it is worth taking because it is working, and the people who have done it have been protected,” he said.

On Monday, DeSantis signed a law banning “vaccine passports” and forbidding businesses from asking for proof of a COVID-19 vaccination. One private school in Miami is taking the opposite approach.

Centner Academy made national headlines for announcing a policy to not employ anyone who has received the vaccine. DeSantis has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the Centners, the husband-and-wife co-founders of the school.

Asked whether he thought the academy’s policy was appropriate and, if not, what would he do about it, DeSantis sidestepped the question. He said his bill did not get into employment mandates.

“I think to mandate it or prohibit it either way would not be something we’d do,” he said.