Florida School Boards Association
The Florida Education Association today lost an appeal in one of the cases it had filed challenging the legality of the teacher merit-pay law (SB 736) the Florida Legislature passed in 2011. The controversial law overhauled how Florida’s public school teachers are evaluated and paid and required that student test scores be used in instructors’…
Darcey Addo practiced with her son, Sammy, after dinner and again before school, coaching him on what to say. She had kept Sammy home during a district reading test earlier this month, and wanted him to be prepared when he was asked to take a make-up exam. She gave Sammy a letter explaining her decision…
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday proposed spending $23.5 million to expand Bright Futures scholarships, but did not address recent criticism of the program — namely, that new eligibility standards put in place to control costs have kept thousands of low-income and minority students from receiving the awards. Scott’s plan would direct new money…
A recent commentary written by William Mattox, a fellow with the right-wing think tank James Madison Institute, provides a glimpse of the strategy pro-voucher forces use to build support for their program. It begins with an anecdote of a student who says he was ill-served in “government schools” — a familiar pejorative used instead of…
Local school districts have asked Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, to work on legislation to change the requirement that schools can’t open any earlier than 14 days before Labor Day. With Labor Day happening late this year on Sept. 7, schools wouldn’t start until at least Aug. 24, making it the latest school year start…
Back about 15 years ago, the Florida Legislature gave school districts the opportunity to apply for charter status, freeing them from many of the rules and limitations that the state imposes on public education. Hillsborough County won the label. So, too, did Volusia and Palm Beach counties. The districts tinkered around the edges of the…
Close your eyes for a minute and daydream about a world without bubble tests. Education Week recently reported that some Republican Senate aides are doing more than dreaming — they’re drafting a bill that would eliminate the federal mandate on standardized testing. Annual tests for every child in reading and math in grades 3 through 8,…
State senators had a laundry list of questions for Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart last week. They aren’t done yet. On Tuesday, Sens. Don Gaetz, Bill Montford and John Legg sent Stewart six pages of follow-up questions. “We appreciate your willingness to discuss these issues fully and candidly and to engage senators on a very specific level,” the…
Your Jan. 3 editorial, “An encouraging Voucher Victory,” fails to correctly explain the basics of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. Vouchers divert money from the public school system by allowing corporations to fund the voucher program instead of paying taxes to the state. A corporation may receive tax credit for up to 100 percent…
Florida, often considered a leader in school reform, wasn’t ranked among the top 10 in the nation for public education this year. It wasn’t even in the top 20. The state earned 28th in an overall ranking of states and the District of Columbia published each year by Education Week in its “Quality Counts” report.…