Florida School Boards Association
After a state commission found out Wednesday that nearly 200 schools, including many charter schools, have not had armed security as required by state law, commissioners urged the Florida Department of Education to “name names and name people” to try to force compliance. Within two hours, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran agreed to publicly name non-compliant school…
The U.S. Department of Education has formed a five-person team that will be devoted full-time to helping schools recover from hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, one of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ top deputies told a group of House lawmakers Wednesday. Read More
A statewide grand jury charged with investigating whether school districts are complying with safety requirements following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will start hearing testimony “as early as next month,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Tuesday. The Florida Supreme Court impaneled the grand jury in February, at the request of…
The Florida Supreme Court said Friday it will hear arguments in a dispute about how much the Broward County School Board could be forced to pay to parents and victims in last year’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Justices issued a unanimous order saying they will take up the case and will…
A new app designed to keep students safe in school by letting them submit anonymous tips about suspicious activity is already getting results in Northeast Florida. FortifyFL was created by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Education in response to the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman…
In a video that appeared on YouTube in mid-May, the Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives said “union bosses and their media allies” were pushing a “myth.” It wasn’t true, they said, that state funding for public schools had increased only 47 cents per student this year. Three months later, as the new school year got…
If a ballplayer batted .500, it would be stupendous. If a team wins half its games and loses the other half, it might be called a rebuilding year. If you broke even in a casino, you’d figure it’s better than losing. But Florida voters had a coin toss land on its edge this month in…
Florida legislators are sticking to their guns — and splitting from Gov. Rick Scott. More than $58 million will stay with a budding program to arm and train school employees instead of being redistributed across the state to ease the cost of paying school guards, as Scott requested. Read More
Despite repeated requests from Florida Gov. Rick Scott, legislative leaders have officially refused to steer $58 million to school districts to help them hire more campus police officers.Scott in late August asked that legislators shift unused money from the state’s guardian program to pay for more officers. Read More
A controversial proposed constitutional amendment that could have significantly altered Florida’s public education landscape will not go to voters in November. In a narrowly divided 4-3 decision, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Amendment 8 should remain off the ballot. It upheld the order of Leon County Judge John Cooper, who found the measure’s title and summary misleading. Read More