Sarah Gonzalez

Post and audio were updated yesterday.  Details at State Impact.

It’s been almost a month since self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin—an unarmed black teenager from Miami Gardens.

Martin’s death has inspired a national debate about race and justice.

February 19 At 4pm

StateImpact Florida and WLRN are holding an online education chat in advance of our WLRN-Miami Herald News Town Hall, where you'll get the chance to ask lawmakers about their education priorities this legislative session. 

Tony Bennett drove from Indiana over the weekend to start his first day as schools chief in Florida on Monday.

Last month the State Board of Education hired Bennett, a Republican who served as Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction for one term.

He lost his re-election bid there after Democrat Glenda Ritz organized a grassroots campaign with help from the teachers union.

Bennett was viewed by some as being too aggressive towards teachers and not showing enough compassion when he pushed new policies, such as merit pay. 

Wendy Pedroso has never liked math, but for most of elementary school and middle school she got B’s in the subject. It wasn’t until ninth grade at Miami Southwest Senior High School, when Pedroso took algebra, that she hit a wall. In particular, she struggled with understanding fractions.

“I kept getting stuck in the same place,” Pedroso, 20, recalled recently. She failed the class, and worried that she’d never get to go to college. Pedroso sought help from tutors, took algebra again over the summer and passed. She went on to graduate from high school in 2011.

Shakira Lockett was a pretty good student in elementary, middle and high school. The Miami-Dade County native says she typically earned As and Bs in English classes.

Math was always something of a struggle for Lockett. Still, she got through her high school exit exam with a passing grade and went on to graduate from Coral Gables Senior High School in 2008.

She went straight to Miami Dade College. Then, something unexpected happened: She flunked the college placement exams in all three subjects – reading, writing and math.

Saudi Arabia and South Korea are among the top 5 leading places of origin for international college and university students in Florida.

That's according to the Institute for International Education, which released its Open Doors fact sheet today.

It reports that during the 2011-12 school year, 32,567 students from other countries enrolled for the first time in a Florida college or university. 

Miami-Dade voters have approved a $1.2 billion bond referendum to improve public school infrastructure and access to technology.

Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho proposed the measure back in August.

Carvalho has said the bond would establish a "technology baseline" for Miami-Dade schools—so that all schools have at least a minimum number of computers, for example. 

Alachua County school board member Eileen Roy has called a proposed constitutional amendment coming before voters in November “the very death of public schools.”

The state’s largest teacher’s union is running ads against the change and mobilizing teachers to get out and vote against it.

Amendment 8 – dubbed the Religious Freedom Amendment – is likely to be one of the most contested ballot questions this fall.

The big question: Will it take taxpayer dollars away from public schools — to fund private, religious schools?

Many school districts say math and science teachers are among the most difficult positions to fill.

But in Orlando schools, custodians are the highest in demand.

This summer, the Orange County school district asked principals which positions they needed help filling.

The top answer across the district? School Custodians.

Schools have been open for a couple of weeks across much of Florida, but not all of the students know who their teachers are yet.

There’s typically a lot of teacher turnover during the summer break, and schools can’t always get vacant teaching positions filled by the time school starts.

Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs lost last night in the Congressional primary. 

She was hoping to become the Democratic nominee for District 22, which covers Broward and Palm Beach counties. The seat was  left vacant when Republican Rep. Allen West changed districts.

During her concession speech, Jacobs thanked the crowd of about 50 for believing in her. 

"I'm so blessed to have been a part of it," Jacobs said. "I think it was the most wonderful thing I've ever tried to do, and I'm sad about not winning but energized by the future."

Last year, Luis Gonzalez failed freshman English, Algebra and Physical Science. When he starts school later this month, he’ll still be considered a freshman.

His school has a different name for it.

“They call it a ‘fresh-more,’” he said. “By years I’m a sophomore. But I’m going to have freshman classes.”

Gonzalez thought he could make up the classes during summer school.

But summer school wasn’t an option for the Pasco County student.

There is a place on school campuses for students who break the rules.

In some Florida schools, it’s called SCSI.

Marcus Pryor, a junior at Miami Northwestern Senior High, thinks it stands for School Criminal Scene Investigation.

SCSI actually stands for School Center for Special Instruction. And in Miami, it’s where students go when they get an in-school suspension.

It’s an alternative to out-of-school suspension Florida schools can use for offenses considered minor, like consistent tardiness, wearing baggy clothing or cutting class.

Danna Contreras doesn’t like the new FCAT.

The sophomore at Booker T. Washington High School in Miami emigrated from Colombia three years ago.

She wears thick, pink-rimmed glasses and she squints a lot. She says the new computerized version is harder to take.

“I think I am better with paper, not on the computer because sometimes my eyes hurt,” she said.

That’s not the only reason she’s worried about her reading score.

“I have difficulty speaking English and the vocabulary is really hard,” she said.

It’s been nearly a month since self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen in Sanford, Fla.

Martin’s death has inspired a national debate about race and justice.

But at the high school Martin attended in Miami, his death had not been announced publicly until today, when the school held a moment of silence for the slain student.

Ashley Aristide is a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High in Miami, where Martin went to school.

She’s having a hard time coping with her friend’s death.

Spanking in school may seem like a relic of the past, but every day hundreds of students — from preschoolers to high school seniors — are still being paddled by teachers and principals.

In parts of America, getting spanked at school with a wooden or fiberglass board is just part of being a misbehaving student.

"I been getting them since about first grade," says Lucas Mixon, now a junior at Holmes County High School in Bonifay, Fla. "It's just regular. They tell you to put your hands up on the desk and how many swats you're going to get."

Earlier this month, an investigation by StateImpact Florida and the Miami Herald revealed that most Florida charter schools are not enrolling students with severe disabilities, like autism or cerebral palsy.

This month, an investigation by StateImpact Florida revealed that more than 86% of Florida charter schools don’t serve a single student with a severe disability, compared to half of traditional public schools.

State education officials say no school is required to take every student with every disability. But lawyers are divided on whether charter schools can legally turn kids away.

No one person decides where a student with disabilities can go to school.

Tres Whitlock is stuck in a public school where he feels ignored. He wants out.

The 17-year-old would-be video game designer researched his options online and found his perfect match – Pivot Charter School.

“It’s computer-based and I think I will do better,” he says.

But when Whitlock tried to enroll in the school he found a series of barriers in his way.

This story is a collaborative investigation between The Miami Herald and StateImpact Florida. Read the Herald’s story.

It’s been a rough week for anthropologists with Gov. Rick Scott singling out the field as an inefficient use of higher education budgets.

Why should taxpayers foot the education bill for an anthropologist who can’t find a job? Scott asked a business group last week. Colleges should “drive” students into science, technology, engineering or math — known as STEM — programs, he said.

Every school district in Florida is dealing with layoffs and budget cuts. But Broward County in South Florida is facing the largest budget deficit in the state—more than $140 million. And its forced teachers and students in the nation’s 6th largest school district to get creative about spending money.

Students at South Broward High in Hollywood waited in the rain during the first week of school to get inside what used to be the video production classroom. Only, the video production program was cut last school year.

The Obama administration on Thursday said it would review the deportation cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants. The administration wants to put high priority on removing convicted criminals, and low priority on cases that involve people who pose no security threat.

That might make a big difference for thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.

New Hope For One Student