Q&A of the Day – Where Florida Ranks in K-12 Education
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio I keep hearing the left say that Florida still ranks near the bottom in education. I remember you saying that’s not true. What are the facts?
Bottom Line: As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts and the fact of the matter is that you’re right many continue to attempt to suggest Florida isn’t performing well in K-12 education. And you’re right that I’ve covered just the opposite. The Florida education narrative that’s endlessly regurgitated by what are generally critics of Governor DeSantis, is seemingly straight out of the Goebbels handbook of repeating a lie often enough until it’s believed. I most recently talked about the educational progress Florida’s made in January with Governor DeSantis’ first announcement regarding Florida’s push for Universal School Choice this year. It’s true there was a time Florida was near the bottom in education in most categories. But that was nearly two decades ago, and everything has changed for the better in grade school education in our state since then, not coincidently starting with Florida’s first foray into school choice in 2005. Here’s a quick recap of what’s changed.
In 2005, when Florida’s school choice program was first rolled out, our high school graduation rate was a paltry 59% and our students ranked 25th on the National Assessment. Fast forward to today. Florida’s graduation rate is now over 87% and our students are 4th in assessment outcomes. The National Assessment, which measures education progress in 4th and 8th grades isn’t the end all be all in attempting to gauge the overall education success in a state, but you wouldn’t need to be a SpaceX rocket scientist to know it’s implausible Florida could be the 4th highest ranked state on the national assessment and somehow be at or near the bottom in K-12 education overall.
In ranking states based on education outcomes, there’s a bit of subjectivity in the process. So rather than cherry picking categories let’s look at a few metrics which can be compared between them.
Two of those three are updated figures as of info made available within the past month based on the audited results of the 2021-2022 school year making it new information available for this conversation. Obviously, Florida ranks well above average everywhere, and in reality, is now one of the top states for educational outcomes. The third metric, that Florida’s #3 for overall educational outcomes, probably would take many by surprise. That’s based on a study by Education Week which boiled down K-12 education into average grade scores. The average grade score of a student nationally over the past year has been a “C” with a 73. In Florida it’s been a “B” with an 80.2. In other words, the average student in Florida’s education system is performing about 10% better than the average student anywhere in the USA, trailing only students in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
As had been noted by Governor DeSantis, Florida’s aggressive stance to first reopen schools and next to fight mask mandates (which was proven to greatly inhibit the ability of teachers effectively teach and students to effectively learn) allowed Florida to zoom past many other states we had lagged behind. The most recent study showed students who were remote learning retained only 65% of what students in the classroom did during the same time. What’s ironic about this is that the teachers’ unions which are commonly spreading the false narratives about the state of Florida’s education system today, were the same ones suing to attempt to keep Florida’s schools closed and for mask mandates once they were open. But hey, they’re consistent, as in consistently wrong. Florida is an above average performing state for K-12 education at worst and a top performer at best based upon what data you prefer to consider.