TALLAHASSEE — Republican leaders of the Florida Senate want to drastically change how they dole out funding for after-school programs that provide homework help, mentoring and gang prevention services to thousands of children, often living in Florida’s most impoverished and vulnerable neighborhoods. Senators want to increase funding, provide it to more organizations and ensure the…
THIS WEEK’S HAPPENINGS Due to the FSBA Day in the Legislature Conference, we did not publish our usual daily reports this week, so this edition of the Daily Update provides a recap of the legislative action on key bills and the budget this week. Our Daily Updates will resume next week. EDUCATION BUDGET UPDATE The…
1. What does a public health emergency due to Zika Virus mean?: https://www.yahoo.com/health/florida-zika-public-health-emergency-140738703.html 2. More rigorous tests help to close “Honesty Gap”: http://achieve.org/files/Proficient%20vs%20Prepared%202.pdf 3. Paper test takers scored higher than online test takers: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/02/04/report-kids-who-took-common-core-test-online-scored-lower-than-those-who-used-paper/ 4. US elementary and secondary education revenues and expenditures reported: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015303.pdf 5. Heard about micro schools?: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/01/27/micro-schools-could-be-new-competition-for.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news1-RM
MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s history of fighting off mosquito-borne outbreaks puts the state in perhaps better position than most when it comes to the Zika virus. In 2014, chikungunya, a virus spread by the same species of mosquito as Zika, infected a million people in the Caribbean. While 452 travel-related cases were documented in Florida…
Signs hang in Santa Rosa County School District classrooms that tell students of their right to refuse to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Those signs will soon wind up in trash cans if the Florida state Legislature approves House Bill 1403 and its Senate companion – S.B. 1600. Read full article
On Monday, the Florida superintendents association issued a statement accusing the House Education Appropriations subcommittee of using inaccurate information to paint school districts as poor stewards of taxpayer dollars when it comes to school construction costs. It’s one thing to say it. It’s another to back up the statement. And on Tuesday, districts began releasing…
A Wisconsin-based religious rights group has urged the FHSAA to stick to its guns as it faces a possible lawsuit over its refusal to allow Cambridge Christian School to pray over the stadium loudspeakers before a recent state football championship game. Calling the FHSAA’s move “legal and wise,” the Freedom From Religion Foundation praised the…
Florida superintendents are going on defense to protect their locally generated tax revenue that’s dedicated to school maintenance, construction and other capital projects. The district leaders, who have met the past three days in Tallahassee, are growing increasingly concerned that state lawmakers will target the tax as a source of regular revenue for charter schools.…
This Video Update features FSBA Executive Director Andrea Messina giving a quick recap on several bills that moved through the committee process last week, including SB 886 / HB 669 relating to Public School Choice and HB 7029 / SB 830 relating to Charter Schools. These and other bills will be discussed in depth during FSBA’s…
In recent days, the Florida House and Senate have released their initial education budget proposals. Both chambers seek to up the ante beyond Gov. Rick Scott’s plan, with the Senate looking to cut local property tax contributions and put the state on the hook for the amount, instead. The House plan aims to increase the base student allocation by more…