SPECIAL SESSION UPDATE Governor Scott issued a press release stating, among other things, his intention to establish a Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding charged with examining health care issues and gathering information that could inform the building of a budget before July 1. In addition, the Governor stated that he would immediately begin working…
Going into the 2015 Florida legislative session, Senate Education Committee chairman John Legg said only one school-related bill mattered: Changes to the state’s testing system. In the end, that’s all lawmakers could manage to accomplish before the House abruptly ended session three days early over budget disagreements. HB 7069 is one of just nine bills…
Hearing complaints that state tests carry too many consequences, the Hechinger Reportreviewed the stakes attached to Common Core-associated exams in 44 states and the District of Columbia. Its question was, essentially, how will each state use its test scores? “We found that very few states will be using this spring’s scores for any student-related decisions. And…
FSBA LEGISLATIVE SESSION REVIEW WORKSHOPS Normally, at the end of each legislative session, FSBA compiles a comprehensive Legislative Session Summary and conducts a series of Legislative Session Review Workshops throughout the state. We had set a tentative schedule for these Workshops but, given the absence of a state budget, uncertainty of when the state budget…
TALLAHASSEE — As a $5 billion rift splits the Legislature, the House sent its members home Tuesday with three days left in the legislative session, a rare move that shocked lawmakers, lobbyists and others working at the Capital.. “We have done all we can this session,” House Speaker Stever Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, told his surprised…
The sudden shutdown of the Florida House that derailed the 2015 session Tuesday makes it even more difficult for the Legislature’s presiding officers to agree on the framework for a special session. The ugliness between House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner won’t easily subside, and Gov. Rick Scott has already said he…
FLORIDA HOUSE ADJOURNMENT As we reported to you earlier today, the Florida House adjourned, sine die, early this afternoon, three days prior to the scheduled end of the Session on May 1. House Speaker Crisafulli explained that efforts to resolve the disagreement between the House and Senate over health care issues had not been productive…
FSBA LEGISLATIVE VIDEO UPDATE #8 Our Video Update for the 8th week of the 2015 Legislative Session has been posted on the FSBA website at www.fsba.org – you may access the video by clicking on the link to 2015 Legislative Session Video Update 7 under “Legislative Session Updates” (located below the pictures on our main page)…
They are so gosh darned good to us, I don’t know how we stand it. From the moment they arrive in Tallahassee, our state legislators insist on sending back unnecessary gifts. Fancy-sounding laws we neither asked for, nor need. It’s too much. Really. Please, stop. Take this new schools bill (HB 1145) the House passed…
Florida faces a confidence crisis in its annual testing program. Last week, for the second time in two months, the computerized system crashed, the result of avoidable vendor errors. The upshot has been heightened challenges to Florida’s 15-year-old accountability model. Parents and education advocates question whether the state pushed online testing before its time. They…