House’s proposed $200M charter school incentive

Administrators at some of Florida’s largest school districts — including Miami-Dade County — are speaking out in opposition to House Republicans’ $200 million “schools of hope” plan that would pit new, specialized charter schools against the districts’ perpetually failing traditional public schools. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is “actively lobbying against” HB 5105, a spokeswoman said,…

Legislature vows transparency on negotiating education policy. History says otherwise.

Florida lawmakers this week set into motion a budget process that will result in several highly consequential policy reforms affecting public education to become law this year in one form or another.  But if years of precedent are any indication, what exactly those final laws might be will now be determined through deal-making and negotiations…

Special Ed School Vouchers May Come With Hidden Costs

For many parents with disabled children in public school systems, the lure of the private school voucher is strong.  Vouchers for special needs students have been endorsed by the Trump administration, and they are often heavily promoted by state education departments and by private schools, which rely on them for tuition dollars. So for families…