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Education Boss Bennett Resigns Amid Grade Changing Scandal

Saying he didn’t want to be a distraction, Florida Education Commissioner Tony  announced his immediate resignation Thursday amid a rapidly growing controversy stemming from his former job heading the Indiana education system.

Bennett, who during a news conference at the Department of Education called media reports out of the Hoosier State “politically motivated,” said Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Board of Education Chairman Gary Chartrand accepted the resignation.

“The decision to resign is mine and mine only because I believe that when this discussion turns to an adult we lose the discussion about making life better for children,” Bennett said.

Declaring that Bennett’s resignation “created an immediate danger to public welfare,” the Board of Education scheduled an emergency conference call Friday morning to appoint an interim commission.

Both Bennett and Scott recommended that Pam Stewart, chancellor of public schools, be named interim commissioner.

Stewart served as interim commissioner before Bennett was hired in December, a month after he lost a bid to be re-elected as Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction. Voters choose the Indiana superintendent, while Florida’s education commissioner is appointed.

Scott praised Bennett for helping with the governor’s legislative priority this past session of raising pay for teachers.

“He made a difficult decision today with the best interest of his family in mind, and he will no doubt continue to make a great contribution wherever he chooses to serve next,” Scott said in a release.

Bennett was the third education commissioner to serve since Scott was inaugurated in January 2011.

Bennett, who had no immediate plans for the future outside of a weekend with his family, said he made his decision so Scott, taxpayers, teachers and students wouldn’t be distracted by “the malicious, unfounded reports out of Indiana.”

Bennett has been engulfed in recent days in a controversy about whether he improperly changed a school grade to benefit a political contributor while he was Indiana’s education chief.

“Every minute we spend defending the credibility of your commissioner, because of what is said 800 miles away, is a minute we waste that we should have been thinking about educating children in Florida,” Bennett said.

During the news conference, Bennett reiterated his contention that he had done nothing wrong and he would request Indiana’s inspector general to investigate the allegations.

“I am fearless about what they will find,” Bennett said.

While running the Indiana schools, Bennett was noted for following the educational blueprint former Gov. Jeb Bush implemented in Florida, from the A-to-F grading system to expanding charter schools and voucher programs.

Bush on Thursday issued a statement that praised Bennett for his work in Indiana.

“Today, more Hoosier kids are graduating high school ready for college or a career and fewer are dropping out,” Bush said. “Last year, the parents of nearly 10,000 children in low-income homes were able to select the school that best fit their son or daughter. Leadership is doing what is right, knowing the results will follow.”

Patricia Levesque, chief executive officer of Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, in the same release called Bennett “a good man and a good friend. Florida’s students will feel the loss of his leadership the most.”

Bennett’s downfall played out quickly in Florida.

The Associated Press, after obtaining candid emails between Bennett and his Indiana staff, reported Monday that Bennett and his staff “frantically overhauled” the Hoosier State’s grading system last year when it looked like one of his political contributors’ charter schools might get a “C.”

Bennett said Thursday there was a “statistical anomaly that didn’t allow 13 schools . . . to have their grade truly reflect their performance because they were unfairly penalized for kids they didn’t have in their school. That wasn’t rigging anything.”

On Thursday, the Indianapolis Star reported that Indiana wouldn’t have had to take over a pair of Indianapolis public schools if similar changes were offered to local district schools. The charter school alleged to have received favored treatment is called Christel House.

“The issue was similar in both cases,” the Star reported. “Christel House had recently added ninth and 10th grades, and (Indianapolis Public Schools’) Howe and Arlington had added middle school grades. The students who filled those seats posted poor enough scores to drag down the schools’ overall ratings.”

The AP reported that Bennett acted to improve the grade of Christel House, raising the school from a C to an A by removing the ninth- and 10th-grade scores. The Star wrote that the local public-school superintendent asked Bennett to remove the middle school scores, allowing the schools to avoid a state takeover, but “Bennett was unmoved.”

Teachers unions in Indiana have demanded an investigation of the A-to-F rating system, the Star reported.

Last month, in advance of the release of Florida school letter grades, the Florida board of education voted 4-3 to back a recommendation by Bennett to prevent drops of more than one letter grade due to changes to the accountability system.

Without the changes, state officials said, 261 schools would have received failing grades this year.

A trio of Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday, Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, and Reps. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, and Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, called on Bennett to resign due to the Indiana reports.

Florida Education Association President Andy Ford wrote Thursday that Bennett’s policies have had no value in advancing education.

“The resignation of Florida’s latest commissioner of education is another symptom of the mistrust parents, teachers and the public have in the state’s incoherent and unsound school reform and accountability policies,” Ford wrote.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida