Property taxes likely to spur school funding fight

Another battle about using increases in local property taxes to bolster public schools will complicate upcoming state budget negotiations.  In his $87.4 billion budget proposal for 2018-2019, Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday called for a $770 million increase in funding for Florida’s kindergarten through 12th-grade education system. But nearly $7 out of every $10 of…

Are States Changing Course on Teacher Evaluation?

Bolstered by new research and federal incentives, experts decided about a decade ago that better teacher evaluation was the path to better student achievement. A flood of states started toughening their teacher-evaluation systems, and many of them did it by incorporating student-test scores into educators’ ratings. Read More

Does Florida’s constitutional mandate of one-subject legislation apply to HB 7069?

Logrolling.  It’s defined as the practice of including multiple unrelated items in a single legislative bill, with the goal of attracting wider support for the measure as a whole.  Florida’s constitution forbids it, stating: “Every law shall embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, and the subject shall be briefly expressed in the…

Editorial: Continuing debate shows need for legislative do-over

With the 2018 legislative session just weeks away, key failures of the 2017 Legislature continued to frustrate local elected leaders at separate meetings Tuesday in Collier County.  Two positive steps the Legislature could take in the next session that starts in January are to immediately repeal — then start over on components of — House…