Tampa Bay's Hillsborough County School District Fiscal Fiasco caused by optimistic Bill Gates $100-million grant that failed

Tavares, FL Oct. 26, 2015

Gee, will Lake County Schools have the same problem caused by Bill Gates
since Lake gets Gates grants (although not anywhere as large) ?

One of the results of the Fiscal Fiasco in Hillsborough County Schools was
excessive spending and shifting of people to focus on teacher training
rather than students?

The originating Supt. of Schools is gone. It seems the halo surrounding
Bill Gates grants is tarnishing...

"...the (Gates) foundation is holding back the last $20 million, critics of
the reform movement have been chortling."

Read about the decline of the Hillsborough County School District caused by
the Gates Grant HERE.

Here are some excerpts:

A review by the Tampa Bay Times has found that:
* The Gates-funded program - which required Hillsborough to
raise its own $100 million - ballooned beyond the district's ability to
afford it, creating a new bureaucracy of mentors and "peer evaluators" who
don't work with students.
* Nearly 3,000 employees got one-year raises of more than
$8,000. Some were as high as $15,000, or 25 percent.
* Raises went to a wider group than envisioned, including
close to 500 people who don't work in the classroom full time, if at all.
* The greatest share of large raises went to veteran
teachers in stable suburban schools, despite the program's stated goal of
channeling better and better-paid teachers into high-needs schools.
* More than $23 million of the Gates money went to
consultants.
* The program's total cost has risen from $202 million to
$271 million when related projects are factored in, with some of the money
coming from private foundations in addition to Gates. The district's share
now comes to $124 million.
* Millions of dollars were pledged to parts of the program
that educators now doubt. After investing in an elaborate system of peer
evaluations to improve teaching, district leaders are considering a retreat
from that model. And Gates is withholding $20 million after deciding it does
not, after all, favor the idea of teacher performance bonuses - a major
change in philosophy.
* The end product - results in the classroom - is a mixed
bag.
Hillsborough's graduation rate still lags behind other large
school districts. Racial and economic achievement gaps remain pronounced,
especially in middle school.
And poor schools still wind up with the newest, greenest
teachers.
Go to the link to read the entire investigative article.
Is Lake County heading the same way, just on a smaller scale?
Vance Jochim
FiscalRangers.com