More trouble in Florida
Remember the FBI raid on the Miami-Dade teachers' union (UTD) offices? Well, the scandalous findings from that raid are making headlines now. UTD President Pat Tornillo has apparently been spending money lavishly on himself :
* The Miami Herald got hold of 21 months’ worth of UTD credit card statements, many of which were charges for personal and luxury items by President Pat Tornillo. James Angleton, the union’s chief financial officer who fingered Tornillo to the FBI, says Tornillo already gets a $42,700 annual stipend to cover his business expenses, so that UTD should almost never have to reimburse him. Nevertheless, Tornillo’s charges included a six-night, $20,000 stay at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami, even though he has a rental apartment “300 yards away,” according to the Herald.
He charged python-print pajamas [!] and a matching robe to the union, plus made a purchase from the Sinclair Intimacy Institute. You can visit their web site at http://www.bettersex.com for a full list of products your brain really doesn’t want to associate with Pat Tornillo.
Over the 20-month period, at least $350,000 in union dues were spent on Tornillo’s tailored suits, vacations, jewelry, cable TV service, artwork and groceries.
It gets better. The union's CFO made a six-figure personal loan to the UTD last fall to help the union "make ends meet." This was but one in a series of personal loans made to improve the credit rating of the union while it was having difficulty meeting its bank loan payments.
The UTD is desperately trying to separate itself from this scandal in order to avoid public backlash. The union's legal affairs are now going to be handled at the state level by the Florida Education Association - the same association that is publicly criticizing the FCAT. I suppose this means that holding schools accountable for education is bad, while managing a corrupt union that wastes millions of dollars is perfectly okay.
And speaking of the FCAT, the coalition challenging Governor Bush isn't backing down. The FCAT Protest Coalition has announced that they will pursue legal action against Florida if the governor does not suspend the FCAT results and allow the thousands of students to receive their high school diplomas. But Gov. Bush isn't backing down either. Spokeswoman Alia Faraj announced Saturday that "there was no chance of suspending the FCAT results."
Meanwhile, we hear stories such as this one:
For Tatiana Jacobs-Debrow, 18, a senior at Miami Northwestern, the test means she won't be attending the University of Miami next year. She had planned to study computer science.
In tears, the teen's mother pleaded with the group for help Saturday.
''My baby came to me yesterday and she couldn't even look me in the eye because she felt ashamed,'' Tonya Jacobs-Debrow said. ``That isn't right. My daughter is an honors student.''
How can a high school honors student who is planning to major in computer science fail this test? Information about the FCAT can be found here. The test items are at a 10th-grade level. This honors student has been given multiple attempts to pass. She was allowed to use a calculator on the math and science sections, and all the formulas are provided. And yet she can't pass a math exam that asks her to read and interpolate graphs, and multiply negative numbers (pp 19-20)? She can't pass a reading exam that asks simple questions about the meaning of words and the basic writing strategy of an essay (p. 8)? On multiple attempts over two years? When she needs a score of only 300 out of 500 on each section to pass?
Either she doesn't have the ability, or she knows her stuff but answers very carelessly, or she freezes up on exams. None of these bode well for someone who is planning to take college-level computer science classes. What's going on here?
For more on the FCAT controversy, see the news articles below:
FCAT Fallout: 1 In 11 Seniors Won't Graduate On Time
Some seniors who failed FCAT will take part in graduation
FCAT Protest Draws 3,000
State Works To Minimize FCAT Fallout
Bush: FCAT scores up in every grade but 10th
Politics still follows FCAT even as test scores rise
FCAT Moratorium Rejected