*PRESS RELEASE* Historic Voter Turnout in Florida Demonstrates Strong Support for Public Schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, November 9, 2018 CONTACT BillieAnne Gay, gay@fsba.org, 850.528.9104 Historic Voter Turnout in Florida Demonstrates Strong Support for Public Schools Tallahassee, FL – Florida experienced historic voter turnout with over 7 million Floridians casting their vote in the 2018 General Election on November 6. The 2018 election cycle has illustrated the public’s…

More Florida counties are voting to raise local taxes for schools. Is it a message to lawmakers?

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…

Florida legislators rebuff Gov. Scott, won’t shift $58 million for school Guardians

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

Deal on local property tax rates helped stabilize Florida’s budget

A leading Senate budget writer claimed vindication Friday in a lingering dispute with House leaders over whether to allow local school boards to capture all of the value of rising property values when setting local tax rates.  Rob Bradley, co-chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, underscored the point during a presentation on the state’s three-year fiscal…