Stage is set for a big court battle over Florida’s funding of charter schools

The legal war has officially begun over a highly controversial, charter school-friendly education law Republican state lawmakers pushed through last spring.  Palm Beach County School Board members filed a lawsuit this week challenging the constitutionality of one part of House Bill 7069. Another, potentially more far-reaching lawsuit with the backing of at least 14 other school…

FEA Sues State, DOE And School Districts Over ‘Best & Brightest’ Teacher Bonus Program

The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, along with seven Florida teachers are suing the state, the Florida Department of Education and all 67 public school districts. That includes university lab schools, Florida Virtual School and the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. At issue: whether the state’s “Best and Brightest” teacher…

Irma delays financial aid selection for Florida’s struggling schools

Some of Florida’s lowest-performing traditional public schools will have to wait a bit longer to find out if they’ll be among the 25 schools that will get financial help through a new state program called “Schools of Hope.”  The State Board of Education was supposed to meet in Tallahassee on Wednesday to select the recipients…

Trump Cancels DACA, Impacting Tens of Thousands of Students and Teachers

President Donald Trump will end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that gives protection to an estimated 800,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the order to end DACA Tuesday morning at the U.S. Department of Justice. The decision leaves the undocumented residents, an…

Corcoran pledges to stay ‘on offense’ during 2018 legislative session

Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran declared Tuesday during a swing through Southwest Florida that he’s planning to stay “on offense” during the 2018 legislative session, potentially foreshadowing another contentious year in the Legislature. Referencing a controversial education bill passed this year that is being challenged in court, Corcoran told the Charlotte-DeSoto County Republican Club that…

School leaders urge Trump to uphold protections for ‘dreamers’

Robert Runcie came to this country at age six from Jamaica, the son of parents with a third grade education.  Today he’s superintendent of the Broward County School District, a large system at the forefront of efforts to celebrate the cultural diversity of its students.  On Wednesday, he added his voice to a chorus of…

Commentary: We fight for neighborhood schools, Sublette says of lawsuit against HB 7069

Last week the Orange County School Board voted unanimously to join numerous other Florida school districts in petitioning the courts to declare recently enacted House Bill 7069 unconstitutional. The decision to join the litigation was not made lightly, and was made only after concluding that constitutional principles of a uniform, high-quality education and local control…

Betsy DeVos Says School Vouchers Are Part of Tax Overhaul Discussions

More than a third of U.S. states have created school voucher programs that bypass thorny constitutional and political issues by turning them over to nonprofits that rely primarily on businesses to fund them. But the programs are raising questions about transparency and accountability at a time when supporters are urging that they be expanded into…