Florida School Boards Association
An issue that has bedeviled dozens of counties across Florida — including Miami-Dade and Broward — returns to the spotlight this legislative session thanks to a Clearwater senator who has filed a bill that would fix a shamefully inequitable state mandate. In 2004, the Florida Legislature forced 38 counties to pay a portion of the…
With two votes Wednesday, the State Board of Education put to bed a lengthy, heated debate over how difficult Florida’s student testing and school grading formulas should be. Board members made it harder to get a passing score on the tests, and easier for a school to earn an A, just weeks before students begin…
Fresh off a year spent snared in gridlock over redistricting and the state budget, the Florida Legislature returns Tuesday for its annual 60-day session with fresh optimism that it will restore harmony to the process and put a halt to taxpayer-funded overtime. The session, set two months earlier than normal, is expected to open with…
AS HE OFTEN DOES WHEN DISCUSSING the merits of education bills before the Legislature, state Sen. Don Gaetz is drawing heavily on his days as a school board member and district superintendent from 1994 to 2006. “For way too long, children with intellectual and physical disabilities have been pushed to the margins of education,” he…