Florida School Boards Association
If you need financial aid to help you pay for college, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®). The 2017–18 FAFSA will be available on October 1, 2016 — three months earlier than usual — at 12 a.m. Central time. You should fill it out as soon as possible on the official government site, fafsa.gov. To…
Reading, writing, and arithmetic aren’t the only things our nation’s children will be learning this school year! Schools have made major strides in helping students learn the importance of healthy eating through balanced meals and nutrition education. Now that kids and teens are boarding their buses for another school year, the entire school community has…
After months of criticism from Republican lawmakers, state chiefs, and teachers’ unions on its approach to spending rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act, the U.S. Department of Education last week released a new proposal that appears to give districts and states some additional flexibility when it comes to ensuring federal funds for low-income students…
Florida economists delivered some sobering news Wednesday to state lawmakers: Money is tight. Citing rising costs — especially in Medicaid spending where pharmaceutical costs have been climbing — economists forecast a $1.3 billion budget shortfall by 2018, when Gov. Rick Scott will be entering his final year as Florida’s chief executive. Read full article
Calling it a “game changer,” Florida leaders made a sweeping overhaul of teacher evaluations in 2011, tying those reviews to student test scores in a push to boost educator quality and, in turn, student achievement. But by the numbers, the new evaluations have led to little change. At the end of the 2009-10 school year,…
Florida will have very little extra money to spend in the coming year, meaning that top legislators and Gov. Rick Scott may have slash the state budget to meet some of their promises. The annual forecast released Tuesday shows that despite the state’s gradual economic recovery Florida is expected to bring in just enough money…
September 17 is Constitution Day/Citizenship Day, commemorating the September 17, 1787, signing of the U.S. Constitution. In recognition, Congress has mandated that every educational institution receiving federal funding hold an educational program about this seminal document. Read full article
Sarasota County School Board Chairwoman Shirley Brown thanked the the Superintendent Search Committee before the board accepted the committee’s list of superintendent finalists at the school board’s meeting last night. The list features eight applicants, including Executive Director of Career, Technical and Adult Education for the Sarasota County School District Todd Bowden. Although Bowden is the…
Congress’ failure to provide emergency funding to combat the Zika virus has led to dire consequences — at the worst possible time. As pointed out recently by Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National…
Often the key benchmark used to assess the strength of the labor market is the unemployment rate. But in a Labor Day-timed snapshot on how Florida workers are faring, researchers at Florida International University zeroed in on two other numbers: $39,099 and $28,236. The first is the average annual salary in Florida; the second figure…