Education: Safety and preparation are at the top of the priority list

Influencer Chairman: Saif Ishoof.

Influencer Members: Julio Frenk, Elaine Liftin, Tracy Wilson Mourning, Lenore Rodicio, Martha Saunders.

The Question: How should Florida’s elected leaders ensure Florida’s children have access to a quality education, one that prepares them for the workforce of the future?

Summary of the broader survey findings:

The main issue posed to the Florida Influencers this year was about school safety. In response to that question, 88 percent of Florida Influencers said schools in Florida have not done enough to keep students safe.

Influencers said current measures don’t go far enough to protect children. Influencers also pointed to the safety issues as stemming from a lack of funding for support resources such as mental health counselors, technology upgrades and best practices, not just the lack of armed guards.

Last year the state passed a law improving student access to mental health resources and requiring armed guards at every school in the state. It was dubbed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, after a gunman killed 17 students and faculty there. The law enabled local sheriffs — at the discretion of school districts — to establish a program to train school employees as armed guards.

Statement summarizing the views of the working group regarding the issue:

Florida is approaching a major inflection point as it pertains to creating access to a quality education for children and ensuring that they are ready for the workforce of the future. Florida’s learners, starting in early environments all the way to adult learning populations, are among the most diverse learners in the country and the opportunity to leverage their human potential is one of the greatest assets to improve our state’s competitiveness on a number of different fronts in an ever more interconnected world. The state must embrace technology, engage responsible citizenship in communities, invest in human capital and recognize that one holistic pipeline will be the only way our state can maximize our broader human potential. We must all be willing to blur the line between vocational and academic systems, among disciplines and between boardrooms and classrooms to equip learners in Florida with the skills, dignity and grit to lead and succeed in the second half of the 21st century.

Potential solutions:

▪ More investment in educational innovation and leveraging of immersive technologies that support both classroom environments.

▪ Incentivizing more and deeper points of connection between industry and academic institutions to ensure learners are getting exposed to workforce environments earlier in their education.

▪ Promoting a culture of greater co-investment and partnerships between business and educators.

▪ Increasing of funding for K-12 teacher professional development on 21st century competencies.

▪ Scaling programs and avenues of communication that support college attendance culture in historically disenfranchised communities.

▪ Increasing programming targeted to get more inclusive pipelines of students into the teaching profession.

▪ More need-based scholarships.

▪ Scaling programming that supports dual enrollment and other college bound offerings.

▪ Cyclical pipeline that support lifelong learning.

What questions will the governor and legislature need to answer to make progress on this issue?:

▪ How do we attract, incentivize and sustain new teachers and the incoming cohorts of educators?

▪ How do we create an educational system that prepares learners for vocational and immediate workforce needs and also longer-range career and degree-based programs?

▪ How do we motivate businesses to invest in the workforce and learning infrastructure?