Florida School Boards Association
TALLAHASSEE — Florida is starting to pull apart as its economy rebounds, as some areas bounce back while other largely rural areas face persitent low wages and poverty. “When things were bad, the whole state was uniformly in a bad situation,” chief state economist Amy Baker told a panel of Senate budget-writers Thursday. “As we…
Gov. Rick Scott’s education team is promising a “historic” increase in per-student spending in Florida schools next year. But to do that, Scott’s advisers want to shift more of the burden of paying for schools from the state to local homeowners through higher property taxes, setting up a new confrontation with the Republican-controlled Senate. “I…
With Florida legislative committees getting started, the state School Boards Association is putting the finishing touches on its legislative priority package for the new session. It’s focusing a lot of its attention on testing and accountability as it presents a proposal to members before formal adoption. Some of the ideas have been talked about before,…
TALLAHASSEE | Florida Rep. Richard Corcoran, soon to become one of the most powerful people in state government, delivered a fiery speech on Wednesday where he promised to usher in sweeping changes in everything from schools to legislative ethics and how long judges can stay on the bench. Corcoran, an attorney and one time top…
Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart called it “welcome news.” County school superintendents say it confirms their worst fears about the botched rollout of the Florida Standards Assessments and suggest the test results are worthless. So you read the following annotated excerpts from the just-released $600,000 study by Alpine Testing Solutions of this year’s FSA and…
Public speakers were evenly divided at a Tuesday public hearing on the Sarasota County School District’s plans to build and fund as many as 11 schools by 2040. Of the four public speakers, two spoke in favor of reinstating the impact fees, one-time charges on new construction to offset the cost of growth. Two, including…
In conjunction with the first of three public hearings, the Florida Department of Education has released its educator and reactor panels’ recommended cut scores for the Florida Standards Assessments. The proposal, in a lengthy slide presentation, shows recommendations for math and language arts exams at several grade levels. Generally speaking, if applied the suggested levels…
Florida testing and the use of the results will be front and center Thursday afternoon as the Senate Education Committee holds a 90-minute hearing on the aftermath of HB 7069, the bill adopted last spring to cut back on some (but not all) of the excesses that generated so much criticism over several months. Much…
For weeks now, Palm Beach County schools have struggled to get students to classes on time. Bus routes have been redrawn. And the district sent up flares, looking to hire anyone who wants to drive a bus. It’s the first crisis new superintendent Robert Avossa has had to face since taking over the job in…
As one of Stephen Colbert’s first Late Show guests this week, presidential candidate Jeb Bush invoked the now-familiar story of how he reformed education in Florida. “The government plays a useful role, but it ought to be reformed,” Bush told his host. “That’s why when I was governor of the state of Florida, I turned…