More Schools Earn Failing Grades As Florida Prepares For Common Core Switch

More Florida elementary and middle schools earned an F rating this year, according to preliminary public school grades released Friday. But the number of schools earning the state’s highest rating also increased this year. “The increase in the number of schools earning an ‘A’ this year is great news for students and teachers who have…

Judge rules Florida Legislature broke laws on maps

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Legislature illegally drew the state’s congressional districts to primarily benefit the Republican Party, a judge has ruled, and has ordered them redrawn. Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said in a 41-page ruling Thursday that legislators relied on GOP political operatives who worked in secret to craft the final political maps adopted…

Florida Forced to Stagger Timing of Payments

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida is being forced to stagger payments to schools and health care providers because of limits with its 30-year old computer-based accounting system. State officials took the drastic actions because the current system can’t pay out $1 billion or more in a single 24-hour period. The state was forced to delay…

New FSA to replace FCAT

ST. PETERSBURG — Parents, teachers and public school officials are getting their first look at the new Florida Standards Assessment, and some are concerned with what they see. The Florida Department of Education unveiled a new website this week containing practice tests, test summaries, testing policies and administrator information about the FSA, which replaces the…

Florida first to adopt national financial education standards

Florida finance and business leaders have long pushed for the state’s students to better understand the way money works in today’s society. Lawmakers mandated financial literacy instruction for high school students in 2013. In June, the State Board of Education adopted a “financial literacy strand” into its social studies standards. Did you know Florida was…

FSBA’s 2015 Legislative Platform

FSBA’s Legislative Platform is the cornerstone for FSBA’s legislative and congressional advocacy efforts.  In order to represent you appropriately in Tallahassee and Washington, we need to begin to develop our 2015 Legislative Platform now.  To assist you in the platform development process, a new quick-link has been added to the FSBA website at www.fsba.org titled “FSBA 2015 Legislative Platform”…