What Happened Down In Florida?

I grew up and attended school, for the most part in the "Orange Country" of Polk County, Florida. One of the local papers near my old home town of Winter Haven, The Ledger, is reporting that some 22,500 Florida students are repeating the third-grade this year. That's about 11% of last year's third-grade cohort.

Now we here at the 'Wonks are highly in favor of a three-part system of educational accountability. These three parts are: the school system, the parents, and the pupils themselves.

But these are third-graders, so we really can't hold these youngsters to the same standards of accountability that we would, say, eighteen-year old high school seniors.

So what combination of the other two components is responsible for this lamentable set-back?

Clearly, something in the Florida educational system is broken and is in bad need of repair.

Main Page