Over the last couple of years, the topic of education and schooling had become a hot potato in the political and culture wars that have enveloped the country. School board meetings have become battlefields and battle lines have been drawn.  What topics should we teach? How should we teach students about hard topics and hard history, like inequality, racism, or slavery?

While all of these are interesting questions, they ought not cover up the fact that American students are struggling and our achievement scores in math and reading have been falling regularly.  In fact, one report shows that American test scores have been steadily slipping. and Florida students often fare worse than their peers in other states.

Here are some resources for you to consider:

https://www.cato.org/commentary/study-finds-declining-student-achievement-increased-harm-school-choice-common-core?queryID=2f5f878e4d551d94fd2fff85a16b4aa2#
Links to an external site.

https://www.cato.org/commentary/study-finds-declining-student-achievement-increased-harm-school-choice-common-core?queryID=2f5f878e4d551d94fd2fff85a16b4aa2#
Links to an external site.

With all that in mind, respond to the following two-part prompt:

A) What do you think are the qualities of “a high quality education” — the education that should be taught in our public schools?

B) Should school or teacher incentives be used to increase the quality of the education in Florida Schools?