TODAY’S HAPPENINGS In the House Finance & Tax Committee: The committee considered Proposed Committee Bill (PCB) FTC1 that provides a tax cut package valued at approximately $435 million. The bill was filed as HB 33-A. In the Senate Appropriations Committee: The Committee amended and passed SB 2-A — Health Insurance Affordability Exchange which offers premium…
Dunbar High School students have done it again! Because of their exceptionally high scores on Microsoft Office certification tests, students Bennett Hunter (11th grade), Tyler Millis (11th grade) and Ian Sexton (12th grade) have been named tops in the State of Florida in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013, Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Excel 2010, respectively. Competing…
TALLAHASSEE — A contrite Legislature returned to the capital Monday with a series of concessions and the goal of quieting the bitter intraparty feud over health care that sent lawmakers into overtime. The House, which left the regular session three days early, gaveled open the session as loudspeakers blared the Beatles tuneCome Together, and then…
In response to a previous study which made the case that online classes are not as effective at community colleges, the US Department of Education is funding a $1.6 million study concerning the effectiveness of virtual schooling in the state of Florida to take place over a three-year time span. A previous study presented at the…
Florida’s testing season has ended. The final bell of the school year is near. Yet so much about the state’s new exams has changed or remains in limbo following a spring filled with testing problems and new legislation. State and local education officials are scrambling to decipher the new laws and implement them for students,…
FSBA 2015 LEGISLATIVE SESSION SUMMARY — PART I FSBA’s Legislative Session Summary – Part I provides detailed summaries of the education related bills that were passed during the regular Session. In addition to the detailed Summary, we have conducted two Education Legislation Webinars on these bills. The first webinar focused on HB 7069 and the…
Gov. Rick Scott visited a Miami elementary school Monday to ask lawmakers to meet his request for school funding. Lawmakers return to Tallahassee today to finish the budget. The big disagreement is how to pay for health care. And that could affect how much money is left for education. Scott opposes expanding the state-run Medicaid…
It’s a law that helped give rise to the tea party, spurred a Republican takeover of Congress and has been the subject of GOP-backed legal challenges that have extended all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Barack Obama’s health care reforms — commonly known as Obamacare — have roiled state and national politics…
As the state Legislature prepares to convene for a special session in hopes of hashing out a health care compromise — and passing a balanced budget — school districts across the state are in a budget limbo. Districts rely on local taxes and state allocations to function. But without a finalized state budget, school financial…
The panel asked to choose a firm to review the validity of Florida’s new testing system doesn’t appear to have much work to do when it meets Friday. Only one group has submitted a bid to do the work. A partnership of Utah-based Alpine Testing Solutions and Washington, D.C.-based edCount LLC proposed to do the evaluation…