Nelson, Scott ads on education are untrue

In his ad boasting of Florida’s educational achievement in reading and math, some of Gov. Rick Scott’s numbers just don’t add up.

Scott’s sunny ad cheerleading for Florida schools came out just five days after a dimmer assessment in an ad for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. But it, too, doesn’t tell the whole truth.

“When Rick Scott became governor, he subtracted more than $1 billion from local public schools,” a worried female voice intones in an ad for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s re-election campaign. “It’s no wonder Florida now ranks 40th in education.”

Scott, who is running against Nelson for the Senate seat, described a far rosier picture of Florida schools.

“Fourth grade reading and math scores? First in the nation. Eighth grade reading? First. High school AP classes and college education? Both ranked first in the nation,” Scott proudly states. “And now, our highest education funding ever. I like it when Florida’s first.”

Nelson’s assertion that Florida ranks 40th in education comes from the Aug. 30 education rankings from U.S. News and World Report. In those rankings, Florida comes in seventh overall, based on a firstplace finish for higher education and a 40th place finish for PreK-12 education.

That’s the same source Scott used to call Florida’s colleges and universities the best.

Nelson’s ad also mentions cuts of more than $1 billion when Scott first became governor. This is true, but Scott came into office as the Great Recession was reaching its nadir. With property values cratering and Florida’s education budget largely dependent on property taxes, lawmakers had to patch a massive hole in the budget. The cuts made to shore up the budget were largely restored in subsequent years.

Today, per-student funding is, as Scott says, the highest it has ever been. Indeed, education funding on a per-student basis surpassed pre-recession levels in the 2016-17 budget year. The 2018-19 budget’s $7,408 per student is the highest number ever.

That said, Florida’s perstudent spending is far below the national average. The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, puts per-student spending on education in Florida at 41st in the country.

The rest of Scott’s claims are untrue. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the U.S. Department of Education rating that shows how much students know in various subjects across demographic areas, in 2017, Florida had the largest improvement of any other state in fourth grade reading and math and in eighth grade reading.

But the state is not No. 1 in any of these areas. In fourth grade math, Florida was in a three-way tie for eighth place. Massachusetts and Minnesota were tied for first.

In fourth grade reading, Florida was in a four-way tie for eighth place. First place again went to Massachusetts. And in eighth grade reading, Florida was down in the middle of the pack, with first place taken by Department of Defense Educational Activity, the federally operated school system tasked with teaching the children of military families overseas and in some states.

While Scott says Florida’s AP classes are first in the nation, the white board he marks up in the commercial as he talks reads “high school AP enrollment.” This is closer to the truth, as in 2016 Florida jumped from second to first place in the number of high school graduates who took an AP exam. But Florida came in fourth place in terms of the percentage of graduates that year who scored a three or better, which is required to earn college credit from the exam.

In short, Nelson accuses Scott of cutting education funding that has since been restored, and Scott boasts of educational rankings that are not accurate.