When stacked up against other states, Florida has a lot in its favor to lure new business: warm weather and quality of life, massive population growth, economic and tax incentives. But when it comes to public education, Florida loses some of its shine. And if employees and their superiors aren't confident their children will get a good education here, they'll be reluctant to uproot their families.

That's true for physicians, says Mark Weber, chairman of Lee County Horizon Council's education task force and chief executive officer of Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center. "They're highly educated people who intend for their children to be highly educated," he says. "They're going to look at public and private schools."

They don't always find what they're looking for in Southwest Florida, and the ability to provide good education opportunities will become more important as Southwest Florida continues to grow. "Lee County's about to hit the half-million mark, so we're going to be on the radar screen for larger employers," Weber says.

The quality of the area's public schools and the school choice program worried employees and prospective recruits when Source Inter-link Companies centralized its corporate headquarters in Bonita Springs. "There was a great concern that people were not going to be able to be successful [getting their children into] a school close to their homes," says Sally Jackson, senior vice president of corporate administration. "We use employees to talk to other people we're recruiting, particularly as we acquire other companies."

The positive personal experiences of others can be more reassuring than checking some of the standard measures of public schools, such as Florida's A+ Plan for Education.

"I'll tell you, it's very difficult to refer people to the school report cards," Jackson says. "In Lee County, we've got A and B [elementary and middle] schools, but we don't have any A high schools, at least the last time I looked."

Schools are not usually a make-or-break factor in a company's decision to relocate or expand in a certain area, but they are important. And the state's reputation for poor-quality education can knock it out of the running.

"Florida could lose out on being short-listed because of the public education system," says Steve Shimp, president of Owen-Ames-Kimball Company and an active education advocate.

But, says Jackson, "the key for people is: Are there other opportunities besides public schools for kids in the area? And there are."

Southwest Florida has a number of independent and parochial schools. "[And] increasingly, people are looking at what's going to be happening with charter schools," Jackson says. "That's a relatively new phenomenon here. Will the charter schools be successful, will they provide an alternative to traditional public schools?"

Apples and Oranges

Lee and collier economic development council directors know of no companies scared away from the area by education worries, but Tom Greer, president of the Florida School Boards Association, has had reports from both Palm Beach and Pinellas counties of companies opting to go out of state because of concerns about the quality of education available. The real problem, he says, is not just the quality of schools, but the criteria companies use to gauge that quality-especially the results of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.

"It's a deceptive measure," he says. "Every test is different because each state creates its own test, sets up its own assessment levels in what they qualify as 'proficient.'"

Under the NCLB, schools and states strive for Adequately Yearly Progress (AYP) guidelines established by each state, and Florida has established some of the most stringent. In addition, if "subgroups" of students-based on race, language proficiency, disability and other measures-don't achieve proficiency, then the whole school fails.

"Ours is one of three toughest, most rigorous in the nation, and our benchmarks are even more rigid than the FCAT test," says Greer. "So you're not measuring apples to apples and oranges to oranges." Other standards, including SAT and ACT scores, can be just as unreliable. A larger proportion of Florida students takes the tests than in many states, but the highest scores usually come from those schools where a small proportion of those eligible are tested. "They're highly dependent on the percentage of the general population that's tested, so they don't necessarily reflect fairly," says Shimp.

Florida measures up well in some nationally standardized tests, such as Advanced Placement tests, he adds. "We tested the most students on AP, and

we finished second nationally, and only 17 percent of our schools met AYP in the state. Mississippi, on the other hand, which had 87 percent of their schools meet AYP, finished 49th on the AP test."

Greer says the guidelines and standards Florida has set for itself under No Child Left Behind are unattainable. "Florida's the only state that the [Department of Education] has actually set them up to fail with standards and subgroup size," he says.

And that could have an economic impact on the whole state. Companies don't necessarily look behind the numbers; they just see that only 17 percent of Florida's schools met AYP, compared with other states with much higher results.

A major concern now, adds Greer: "Standard and Poor's has put on their Web site the No Child Left Behind/AYP test results for every state."

"Florida may have set such vigorous standards [that] it may hang itself," agrees Shimp.

Quality Questions

The dearth of equitable measures is a big problem in comparing education in different states, and the education community in general tends to resist being measured, says Shimp. But the bigger problem is that in many categories that are equitable, Florida just doesn't make the grade.

Shimp, chairman of the workforce task force of Lee County's Horizon Council, also serves on the bipartisan Constitutional Accountability Commission. Headed up by former attorney general Bob Butterworth and former comptroller Bob Milligan, it was formed in 2003 by the Florida School Boards Association and by Florida Tax Watch to address the issue of educational quality in the state.

In 1998, Florida voters approved an amendment to the state constitution guaranteeing students "a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-qual-ity system of free public schools that allow students to obtain a high-quality education."

The commission's purpose is to define a "high-quality education."

Similar quality clauses in other states have led to court challenges by parents and taxpayers upset by schools failing to live up to the promise.

As a result, some school districts operate under judicially imposed systems. That's one of the reasons it's imperative that Florida gives meaning to its promise, according to Shimp.

By the 14 performance criteria that the commission found to provide relatively equitable benchmarks against other states, Florida performs miserably. Nationally, it rates in the top quartile in two categories: students returning for a second year of study at two-year colleges, and average beginning teacher salary. It's in the second quartile in terms of fourth-grade reading scores.

Of the remaining 11 criteria, Florida flounders in the bottom quartile in seven categories, and in the third quartile in four areas. Those criteria range from per-pupil expenditures (Florida ranks 45th out of 50), to eighth-grade reading and math scores (37 out of 50), to high-school graduation rate (49th out of 50). Even in average teacher salary, it rates 33rd among the states, according to 2002 figures, indicating that teachers might be hired on at a decent salary, but they don't keep up after the first year.

"Particularly in consideration of our economic resources and health of our economy, it pales in measure to the nation," says Shimp. "We're hoping it leads to legislative action to start a trend of improvement to fulfill the constitutional amendment." And while improving school performance is largely a "societal and community exercise," he adds, "it will also take funding."

Companies generally refer to such performance measures as graduation rates and per-pupil expenditures, along with information provided regionally or at the state level-such as Florida's A+ Plan. In 2004, out of Collier County school district's 37 schools, 57 percent earned an A, 5 percent got Bs, 30 percent had Cs and 8 percent got D grades. Lee County's 62 schools included 53 percent with As, 19 percent with Bs, 26 percent with Cs, and 2 percent with Ds. No school in Collier, Lee or Charlotte (17 schools) counties had a failing grade.

In 2003, all three counties had four-year graduation rates of about 68 percent, according to the state Department of Education-though an independent study by the Manhattan Institute (whose numbers were used by the accountability commission) has called those calculations into question.

If a company or its employees were to check SAT scores, they'd find Florida trails the nation in verbal and math scores.

In 2004, Florida's total score was 998 out of a possible 1,600 points. That compared with a national total score of 1,026.

And if they check into how Florida is doing by No Child Left Behind standards, they'd find that Collier, Lee and the state as a whole failed to make adequate yearly progress in 2004.

Working for the Future

Economic development officials are quick to point out that Florida's schools are only part of the equation. The state, in fact, is known for having a good workforce, primarily because its quality of life attracts talent to the area.

"The thing we try to provide to a prospect or an

existing company is a good available workforce," says Regina Smith, executive director of Lee County's economic development office. "With our population growth, we have a lot of folks moving into our area that bring a wealth of skills to our marketplace, so we compete well with other areas."

Others agree. "This area seems to attract highly educated individuals because of the quality of life," says Tammie Nemecek, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Council of Collier County. "[Employers] don't rely entirely on locally educated workers because they know they can attract from out of the area."

That said, academic and business interests are busily collaborating in both counties to provide additional education opportunities and workforce skills. Lee County's Horizon Council and an education task force in Collier concentrate on ways to improve career education and stay current with related trends. Both counties are moving toward comprehensive high schools, which offer students the chance to focus on career options through academics. At Ida S. Baker High School in Cape Coral, the first to open in Lee, five academies emphasize different industries: medical and biotechnology, public service, business/technology, engineering and manufacturing, and building and construction. Collier County is also eyeing prospects for comprehensive high schools at the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology and in Immokalee.

"We're looking at how to get the word out to students and parents as to what kinds of education programs should be offered at the secondary level, so we can meet the needs of businesses

locally as well as regionally and nationally," says B.J. Lattanzi, administrator of career education for Collier County schools. "So we're preparing them both to stay and enter the workforce here with post-secondary education and workforce skills, as well as attain that high rigor required to enter post-secondary institutions, college or beyond."

The business community's input and active involvement is critical to success in career education efforts, and Source Interlink's Jackson has noticed a high level of involvement among the business community.

"Businesses are interested in trying to create better schools," she says. "I've noticed here a huge business commitment to partner with public schools and come up with strategies for improvement."

A current review of industry trends in Collier will help guide educational offerings, says Lattanzi. "For example, Web design five years ago was a hot ticket, and we put in a lot of Web design programs in our schools. But now the market is saturated. So what do we need to look for?"

Shimp believes that Lee County is on the right track, with county support and strong public-private partnerships such as the Horizon Council.

"I just wish we could get the next tier up-the state," he says. The legislature, governor's office, Department of Education and university system need to collectively focus on funding and on measuring the state's education opportunities against the rest of the nation.

"When you start to compete on a national level, Florida is, at best, a fourth-quartile state," says Shimp. "State legislators don't want to hear it, especially if it's going to get into wallets."

Well Prepped

Canterbury School's Mason Goss on private education

The steady stream of new students into Southwest Florida has boosted demand for private education. At Fort Myers' Canterbury School enrollment has more than tripled in the past two decades.

The son of Porter Goss, the nation's director of Central Intelligence, headmaster Mason Goss and his wife both attended the independent school, and their three sons are continuing the tradition.

Founded in 1964, Canterbury School's curriculum covers pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Goss, 37, recently spoke to Gulfshore Business about education, independent schools and Canterbury in particular.

Q: What kinds of colleges do your graduates attend?

A: Up until about 10 years ago, the norm for our students would have been to go to smaller liberal arts colleges, because that is what we are fashioned after-Amherst College, Rollins College and those types of schools. Because of the economics, frankly, more and more of our students are going into public universities. People always look to see the number of our students that attend an Ivy League school. Each year, out of a class of between 50 and 60, probably three to five are being admitted to one of those schools; we take pride in that because the Ivies are ridiculously competitive.

Q: Is your enrollment growing?

A: We've gone from a school of 200 over 20 years ago to 670 now. We will be building in the next few years to accommodate some of this growth. This goes hand in hand with any influx of people into our community.

Q: Do you see parents moving into the state taking a closer look at private schools because Florida's public schools have a lackluster image?

A: We do. Correctly or not, people reach conclusions about the public system. We've benefited from that. It's not anybody's fault, but the public schools have to deal with all abilities, and that affects the overall scores on the standardized tests.

With the SAT results, however, when you compare the average scores of Canterbury School or The Community School of Naples with the public schools' scores, there is a dramatic difference. Our class size is 17 for pre-K and grade school, and 12 in high school. With only 12 kids in a classroom, we're able to do a lot.

Q: For many parents, a private education-particularly at an independent school-is expensive. What do you have available for financial aid?

A: We will give out close to $1 million next year in need-based financial aid. We are very committed to diversity, so if a student has the ability and the desire to be here, we try to make it happen.

Q: What do you see as primary benefits of an independent-school education?

A: We are not held back by the bureaucratic encumbrances of a public school. If we want to offer Latin, we offer Latin. Teachers have more independence in creating curriculum. They use national standards in creating format, but there is a good deal of autonomy in the classroom. These days you hear a good deal about an emphasis in public schools on preparing kids for tests. Our students are not being taught to a test; they are being taught to think.

-Mary Lou Smart