Florida School Boards Association
One of Florida’s largest for-profit charter school management companies, Academica, has long enjoyed considerable influence in the state Legislature. Until last year, two Academica employees served as state lawmakers — and the brother-in-law of the company’s founder also held the education purse strings in the House. Read full article
The U.S. Department of Education today announced more than $427 million in School Improvement Grants (SIG) to help turn around America’s persistently lowest-achieving schools in nearly every state and U.S. territory. Read full article
Tens of thousands of Florida’s poorest students are finding it harder to afford college because of tougher qualifications for the state’s Bright Futures scholarship. The academic scholarship was created in 1997 to keep the state’s top students in Florida schools. But the legislature voted in 2011 to increase the required scores on ACT and SAT…
Floridians support allowing trained staff to carry guns at public schools, according to a new USF-Nielsen Sunshine State Survey released on Tuesday. Fifty-six percent “strongly favor” or “favor” having armed guards in schools, while 50 percent “strongly oppose” or “oppose” it, according to the poll. Read full article
Newly released national high school graduation rates show improvement across the board, including in Florida. But Florida continues to sit near the bottom of the pack, despite its growth. The 2014-15 data, distributed by the White House on Monday in advance of an education speech by President Barack Obama, shows Florida had a 77.9 percent…
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is officially calling for a ban on new charter schools. During its national meeting in Cincinnati Saturday, the NAACP’s national board ratified a proposal which was put forward by its members this summer. Members cited concerns over discipline and segregation within charter schools, among many other…
They’re in demand among parents who say traditional public schools have failed — but they’re not always successful. Their intense rate of growth has fueled an equally intense debate about the role they’ll play in the future of U.S. education. Advocates see their expansion as evidence that parents have a huge appetite for school choice.…
The U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term Oct. 3 still feeling the effects of the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia. With the nomination of Merrick B. Garland stuck in political limbo, the eight members of the court have adopted a cautious approach to their docket for the new term, many legal experts say. …
A 16-year-old’s tweet saying he “can’t wait to shoot up my school” is not a criminal threat under current Florida law, a state appeals court ruled, noting the law at issue hasn’t been updated in over a century. Read full article
The impact of the state Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to kill Nevada’s controversial education savings account law is expected to ripple across the nation as more than a dozen states consider similar legislation. The justices ruled Senate Bill 302 violated a constitutional mandate by diverting money meant exclusively for public education into education savings accounts…