TALLAHASSEE — It’s become one of the perennial fights in the Florida Legislature. In one corner: cash-strapped school systems with aging facilities and billions of dollars tied up in debt service. In the other: charter schools looking to build and refurbish facilities of their own. Both want dollars from the Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO)…
(CNN) — The former head of a private preparatory school in Miami, Florida is out an $80,000 discrimination settlement after his daughter boasted about it on Facebook. Patrick Snay, 69 — the former head of Gulliver Preparatory School — filed an age discrimination complaint when his 2010-11 contract wasn’t renewed. In November 2011, the school and…
BUDGET UPDATE We have prepared a detailed side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate Education Budgets for your review. In addition, the House has released a full FEFP Summary that provides district-by-district information on their budget. We have posted both of these items with Boarder-Line Issue 5 in our 2014 Legislative Session Resource Center at…
This Video Update features Dr. Wayne Blanton discussing the highlights of the House and Senate Education Budgets, SB 1620 and HB 7099 relating to an expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, and SB 864 and HB 921 relating to adoption of instructional materials. Dr. Blanton encourages you to take action on these issues.…
When it comes to the decisions that most directly affect the business of public education and what happens in classrooms, few people are as influential—and often as unacknowledged—as local school board members. Indeed, a new report from the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute suggests the makeup of local school boards can have a measurable effect on student…
Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday named Orlando businesswoman Marva Johnson to the state Board of Education. Johnson, 44, is a corporate vice president for Bright House Networks LLC. Read full story
Foundation for Excellence in Education blogger Mike Thomas has responded to a post we wrote last week looking at the claims in a television ad running in Tampa. The ad references the state’s top 10 ranking in an Education Week survey, rising graduation rates and more students taking and passing Advanced Placement exams. Read full story
The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued its first report in almost 15 years examining civil rights data from public schools nationwide, says The Chronicle. The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) from the 2011-12 school year compiled data from all 97,000 of the nation’s public schools and its 16,500 school districts…
Forty-one states now have instructional requirements for arts education at all levels (elementary, middle, and high school), though only 17 states have policies regarding assessment in the subject, according to a new report by the Arts Education Partnership, a part of the Council of Chief State School Officers. The group released an updated version of its annual analysis…
TODAY’S HAPPENINGS In the House Judiciary Committee: HB 139 – Coaches / Organized Youth Sports by S. Jones – PASSED; PLACED ON CALENDAR ON 2ND READING Revises definition of term “athletic coach”; expands provisions relating to athletic coaches for independent sanctioning authorities to require such authorities to conduct specified background screening of certain coaches of…