When principal Robert Frasca was in high school, he took one AP class. Now, he oversees an offering of over 30 AP courses, in addition to a variety of CTE classes.
“For me as a principal, it’s all about opportunity, and so the more options we have, the more opportunities we’re able to provide for our students, the [better] so that they can choose what path they want to take,” Frasca said.
However, Frasca’s ability to open doors for students through AP and CTE courses may be taken away. HB5101, an education bill currently in debate in the Florida House, places such courses, along with AICE, IB and dual enrollment classes, in danger of losing funding.
Although nothing is certain, AP Precalculus teacher Aglaia Christodoulides worries what the proposal signals about the state’s emphasis on education.
“The future of our students is the future of us, so when they’re not equipped to be successful in whatever field they choose, the whole state is going to be in a disarray,” Christodoulides said. “Everybody deserves to be the best they can be, but you have to give them the opportunity to grow. Once you mess with public education, you are cutting that opportunity.”
Although the bill was originally filed in March, most teachers first heard of HB5101 on April 2. The news was met with widespread shock.
“I was disappointed, because obviously I believe in the value of rigorous education, but what hit my heart the hardest was that in eliminating those funds, essentially you’re not going to have…a means to ensure equity,” AP Language and Composition teacher Jaimie Ling said. “I feel like that’s just unacceptable. Every student deserves a quality education.”
The proposed bill’s implementation is school administrators’ main concern. As of now, many public schools in Florida offer AP and dual enrollment classes for free, but budget cuts could leave students to pay costs on their own. Interim Chair of the UF Journalism and Communications Department Harrison Hove worries about the bill’s unintended impacts on low-income students.
“When we talk about equity in our educational system, we want to make sure that all students, regardless of their background, have the same abilities and opportunities to achieve and to excel,” Hove said. “A deficit in funding would mean that [lower-income] students would not be afforded the same educational opportunities as their peers from wealthier backgrounds…it’s problematic.”
For first-year AP Physics C teacher Hunter Cannan, the news hit especially hard as he remembered AP teachers’ impact on his own life.
“I adored my physics teacher back in high school. I [just] remember sitting in that class and things were clicking, discovering those patterns and writing a lot of stuff down. He allowed me to explore, gave me the pathways that allowed me to gain confidence and decide to be a teacher,” Cannan said.
With over 20 AP classes taken over the course of high school, senior Michelle Pu agrees with Cannan. Although some classes like AP Psychology and Art History may have not paved the way to careers in those subjects, they allowed her to develop as a student and person.
“It’s allowed me to learn more topics and explore more content than I would have in a normal class,” Pu said. “I have friends in other states, and they don’t take as many [AP classes] because their exams aren’t covered…I feel like the focus should be on the students’ education, but if they cut the funding, then the focus isn’t on them anymore.”
The proposed bill could have more impacts than just making students pay for tests. Every year, the school receives around $750,000 from the state of Florida for AP and CTE funding. Approximately $180,000 go back to paying for student tests, but the rest is spent on new technology, printing fees and school renovations. Student services, like the newly-opened College and Career Center, have been completely funded by AP money.
“There’s a lot of things that people don’t know it’s used for…things that are not funded by the district [but] we believe will be a necessary service for our students for post high school success,” Frasca said.
By putting CTE course funding on the line, the bill also endangers students looking to pursue non-collegiate options after high school. Classes like Modeling and Simulation, Foundations of Programming and TV Production all offer industry-level certifications to students but only with the help of extensive financial support.
“I think we do a very big disservice to students by telling everybody that they’re going to go to college when some don’t. CTE is there to make up for this glaring weakness in public education,” programming teacher Benjamin Ross said. “I see no good that could come with this [policy]. Only negative consequences…students not broadening their horizons, having no incentive to challenge themselves.”
Another part of HB5101 aims to save costs by cutting teacher bonuses. With Florida already facing serious teacher shortages, Pu sees the bill as adding to the problem rather than solving it.
“AP teachers go an extra step to prepare their kids, to put effort into teaching the curriculum and also moving at a faster pace…I feel like they deserve the bonus,” Pu said. “I don’t like [the idea of] teacher pay cuts at all.”
Christodoulides notes that while the bonus cuts will be inconvenient, they are not the main issue.
“Teachers don’t do what they do for the money. They do it because they want to help their students grow…not being able to offer these classes, I think that’s more discouragement than anything else,” Christodoulides said.
Ling agrees, hoping that these coming months will bear good news rather than bad.
“I know that when my students leave this classroom, regardless of whether they qualify for college credit, they leave with a stronger sense of self that comes from challenging themselves,” Ling said. “We need to think about the future, to start writing those letters, sending those emails, screaming from the rooftops…this is the time to do something about it. And then maybe we will see change.”
