After last-minute changes, Legislature sends education ‘train’ to Scott’s desk

TALLAHASSEE — The Legislature sent a massive omnibus education bill to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk on Friday after spending the final hours of the 2016 legislative session negotiating privately and trading several amendments that were each more than a hundred pages long. The House voted 82-33 on Friday to pass a heavily amended HB 7029, a…

Massive education bill OK’d on final day

A wide-ranging education bill dealing with everything from funding for high-performing universities to high-school membership in athletic associations made it through the final day of the legislative session Friday, despite the long odds that such policy “trains” often face. But in the process, lawmakers cut a provision aimed at ensuring that taxpayer-provided construction dollars for…

Florida Senate sends massive education proposal to House

TALLAHASSEE — A wide-ranging education bill with more than a dozen significant policy proposals passed the Florida Senate without any debate Wednesday on the measure’s most consequential components. HB 7029 deals with capital funding for charter and traditional public schools, accountability measures for charter schools, open enrollment in K-12 public schools, high school athletics and…

Recess bill won’t get Senate hearing, Education Committee chairman says

Sorry, recess moms. The push to mandate 20 minutes of daily recess in Florida’s elementary schools, which passed three House committees without opposition, won’t be heard by the Senate Education Committee this session. “I am not going to put it on the agenda,” committee chairman Sen. John Legg told the Gradebook. “It doesn’t merit a Tallahassee solution.”…

Rep. Fresen’s close ties to charter schools continue to raise questions of conflict

TALLAHASSEE – A familiar face is back at the center of a perennial tug-of-war in the Florida Legislature between privately-managed charter schools and district-run public schools over taxpayer money for construction projects: Erik Fresen, the Miami Republican who controls the purse for education funding in the Florida House. His connections to the charter school industry…

Term limits legislation advances in Senate

A proposal that would extend term limits for state legislators to 12 years easily passed its first Senate committee Tuesday, but even the sponsor of the constitutional amendment says the measure faces an uphill fight to become law. The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, on a 6-2 vote, passed the legislation (SJR 902), which would add four…