Florida School Boards Association
The practice round was rough. When Florida implemented a new Kindergarten Readiness test last fall — designed to determine if the state’s thousands of Voluntary PreKindergarten (VPK) programs were preparing children for school — 42 percent of providers statewide missed the minimum threshold of having at least 60 percent of their former students pass a…
The Sunshine State’s education system ranked right in the middle of the nation, according to a new WalletHub study. Florida came in at No. 26 — between South Dakota and Ohio. To determine which states had the best — and worst — education systems, WalletHub analyzed 25 key factors of a state’s education system including…
Florida issued its annual batch of school grades last month. Each elementary, middle and high school got an A, B, C, D or F. Those grades certainly matter if a school consistently earns a D or an F. According to state law, such low performers risk being closed, converted to charter schools or turned over…
One group, describing itself as the “framers” of an education constitutional amendment, was largely appointed by former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. Another group was appointed by 1990s-era Republican legislative leaders. But two decades after the groups served together on the 1997-1998 Florida Constitution Revision Commission, they are clashing in the state Supreme Court. The root…
It’s still a long way to November, when voters will be asked to vote up or down on 13 proposed amendments to the state constitution. But only a few so far have generated as much debate as Amendment 8, a measure that is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters. Read…
As part of their efforts to prevent school shootings, Florida lawmakers mandated the creation of a centralized database that will combine individual-level records from the state’s law-enforcement and social-services agencies with information from people’s personal social media accounts. The provision, tucked within the 105-page law passed in March following the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas…
Congress passed a bipartisan overhaul of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act on Wednesday and sent it for signature to President Donald Trump, who has made career and technical education, or CTE, a priority for his administration. The $1.1 billion program, last reauthorized in 2006, provides funding for job training and related…
Florida TaxWatch, the non-profit that calls out legislative “turkey” spending each year, is promoting an education agenda that would focus on the important role that school principals play in academic success. For the past six years, the group has recognized principals whose schools, which serve low-income children, have accomplished test scores that exceeded expectations. Read More…
Enrollment in Florida’s public schools is projected to grow by fewer than 17,000 students in the 2019-2020 academic year under a forecast approved Tuesday by state analysts.The projected increase for 2019-2020 is not as robust as in prior years, in part, because of the expansion of voucher-like scholarship programs that could send more students to…
A Leon County circuit judge will hear arguments Aug. 17 in a dispute about a proposed constitutional amendment that calls for changes in the state’s education system. Judge John Cooper on Monday scheduled the hearing in the lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, which is trying to keep the constitutional amendment…