A bill that won’t likely be filed for another 30 days rose to the top of the Florida House’s education priorities Wednesday, as Speaker Richard Corcoran and the chairmen and vice chairmen of all education committees gathered to announce the “Hope Scholarship.” Modeled after the corporate tax credit scholarship, which allows donors to contribute to…
Long before Florida entered the deadliest hurricane season in a decade, auditors at the state’s Division of Emergency Management sent out a warning: the state was ill-prepared for a major disaster. A 23-page annual audit completed in December 2016 by the agency’s inspector general detailed a lengthy list of deficiencies needed to prepare and respond…
Aiming to reward the state’s top performing schools with fewer mandates, the Florida Legislature added a section into HB 7069 last spring creating the “Schools of Excellence” designation. This week, 640 schools from 44 counties, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando, will learn that they landed in that new category. Three lab schools also will…
This issue of the FSBA Session Spotlight provides information and updates on a variety of issues including hurricane preparedness and response, Legislative Interim Committee Meetings, legislative special elections and changes to key legislative committees and subcommittees, state budget development, the ongoing work by the Constitution Revision Commission, and federal issues. [toggle title=”Hurricane Preparedness and Response Resources“]…
A coalition of nearly all Florida lawmakers is pushing for nearly $27 billion in additional hurricane relief money, underscoring the tremendous financial toll this year’s storms have had. The request covers the gamut, from money for citrus and livestock losses to funds for the Herbert Hoover Dike to the need for schools that could see…
Families from Puerto Rico who were displaced by Hurricane Maria won’t have to worry about having transcripts or immunization records if they enroll their children in Florida’s public schools this month, state education officials announced Friday. But for county school districts taking in the new arrivals, there is no guarantee the state will provide financial…
Crisis, what crisis? Just a year after dire predictions that the state’s economy was in peril due to rising insurance costs, Florida businesses could see an average 9.3 percent reduction in workers’ compensation premiums in the coming year under a rate filing Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier will consider later this month. If approved, manufacturing businesses…
After Hurricane Irma kept Florida children out of classes for a week of September or longer, school district officials had a math problem to solve. If primary students had to receive at least 720 hours of classroom instruction over the year, and secondary students 900 hours, how much time would they need to make up?…
A Constitution Revision Commission panel tasked with reviewing proposed amendments to the first article of the Florida Constitution is using a deluge of public proposals to narrow its scope for future meetings. The commission meets every 20 years to propose constitutional changes, which must then receive 60 percent support from voters. The CRC’s Declaration of…
As Florida communities prepare to take in Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria, five lawmakers are asking the state’s top education official to grant flexibility to public schools so they can accommodate additional students in the coming months. In a letter to state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart on Monday, the lawmakers formally asked the state…