The Florida Legislature’s massive education bill is a mishmash of good and bad ideas crammed into one hot mess on the last day of the legislative session. These issues, ranging from suicide prevention to prekindergarten readiness, from school choice to athletic recruiting, from construction money to charter schools, should have each been decided on their…
Like other Florida elected officials, school board members face strict guidelines about taking gifts from vendors and lobbyists that do business with their districts. But what if the board member is dating a vendor? Can she accept presents worth more than $100 from him? In a recent advisory opinion, the Florida Commission on Ethics says…
A handful of education policies were among the nearly six dozen bills Republican Gov. Rick Scottsigned into law today — including one that will test competency-based education in four Florida counties and another desired by the Miami-Dade school district to ensure tax revenue gets to public schools faster. HB 1365 sets up a five-year pilot program in certain Florida counties with the goal…
As expected, Gov. Rick Scott on Monday named Kim McDougal as his new chief of staff, effective April 2. McDougal, 53, most recently served as Scott’s legislative affairs director and education policy coordinator. She has been in state government for nearly three decades and has spent much of that time in the Department of Education.…
Gov. Rick Scott vowed to make steep spending cuts upon taking office in 2011. With an assist from state lawmakers, he’s done just that in the past six years. More than 13,000 state positions have been eliminated, which will save $152 million next year. The state has slashed more than $800 million in its mental…
By the end of her teaching career, Mulberry High English teacher Katherine Langford was expected to spend just three days teaching ”Moby Dick.” Langford, who retired last school year after 40 years of teaching in Polk, used to design her own curriculum, pacing and lessons. But the Polk County School District has increasingly tightened its…
When Polk residents ask School Board members why the School District is doing something, they often get the same answer: The state mandates it, or, the federal government mandates it. Protesters are vocal about their frustration with ever-increasing mandates that affect public education, especially when it comes to Florida’s standardized testing and accountability policies. Some…
This Video Update features FSBA Executive Director Andrea Messina providing a final wrap-up on the 2016 Legislative Session. Ms. Messina discusses some of the key elements in the education portion of the state budget and the related implementing and FRS contribution rate bills. She also provides an overview of HB 7029 — a bill that includes…
1. Florida is closing the achievement gap: http://www.educationequalityindex.org/ 2. A national report card on school funding: http://schoolfundingfairness.org/ 3. Computer coding as a foreign language not a dead issue: http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/college-game-plan/should-computer-coding-be-considered-foreign-language-school-some-say-n543656 4. Let’s do this in Florida. Youth apprenticeship pilot program launched in Maryland: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/state-launches-1st-youth-apprenticeship-pilot-program/2016/03/23/3f791a6c-f0d4-11e5-a2a3-d4e9697917d1_story.html 5. ESSA rulemaking has begun: http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2016/03/writing-rules-for-essa-213320
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 24, 2016……….Ion Sancho has long been one of the most-outspoken elections officials in Florida. But after overseeing this fall’s voting in Leon County, he will step down after nearly three decades as an elections supervisor. A familiar figure to those who have followed Florida’s frequent election controversies, Sancho often was quoted…