FSBA Daily Updates: Legislative Session 03-25-2015

TODAY’S HAPPENINGS In the House Local Government Affairs Subcommittee: HB 63 – Public-Private Partnerships by Steube — PASSED Deletes Public-Private Partnership Guidelines Task Force; revises provisions regarding responsible public entities & unsolicited proposals submitted for qualified projects; revises provisions regarding comprehensive agreements entered into between responsible public entities & private entities; deletes provisions relating to notice to…

FSBA Daily Updates: Legislative Session 03-24-2015

In the House Government Operations Subcommittee: HB 585 – Holidays & Observances / Sir Lancelot Jones by Raschein — PASSED Designates second Monday in October of each year as “Sir Lancelot Jones Day”; authorizes Governor to issue proclamations commemorating occasion; encourages public officials, schools, private organizations, & citizens to commemorate occasion. HB 599 – Exemption…

Finland’s radical new plan to change school means an end to subjects

Finland’s classrooms are very different from America’s — far more permissive, with less of an emphasis on academics. There are no standardized tests until high school, and children get 15 minutes of recess in between lessons — more than an hour of recess a day. “Play is important,” one Finnish teacher told the Smithsonian magazine. “We value play.” Yet Finnish kids always get…

Florida Senate differs with House as both try to solve school testing problems

A day after the Florida House unanimously backed a bill to reduce state-mandated student testing, the Senate took a whack at the hotly debated topic. The measure that emerged Thursday from the Senate Education Appropriations subcommittee (SB 616) included the same goal of reducing the state’s emphasis on tests. But it differed from the House…