In the old days, a guidance counselor would work mostly in high schools, helping students set up their class schedules and decide what they’ll do after graduation. But today’s school counselors have broader responsibilities, including being trained to recognize mental health issues in students before a crisis occurs. The counselors play an integral role, but…
We look forward to working with school board members who will be in Tallahassee this week for the FSBA Annual Day in the Legislature. To assist you in making the most of your time in Tallahassee, we urge attendees to carefully review our “Know B4 UGo” information and the materials in the “Preparation Activities and…
Local education officials will tell anyone who will listen: The state funding formula favors other school districts and hurts Volusia and Flagler. But even now that the Florida House and Senate are debating a change to that formula, those same officials aren’t holding their breath for a cure-all to their budget woes. Read More
Today’s agenda is fairly brief, but several bills of interest will be considered including, among others, bills relating to school board term limits, civics education, early learning, and government accountability. Today’s schedule is posted below and is updated to show the outcome on these bills after each meeting concludes. Please note that all of the…
Today, the House and Senate Appropriations committees will take up their proposed budgets, implementing bills, and conforming bills and will consider any amendments to them. We have prepared a side-by-side comparison of the education funding portions of the House and Senate appropriations bills as they stand today before consideration by the Appropriations Committee meetings. Please…
Expect money for education to be heavily contested during budget conferencing and negotiations of the later days of Session. That’s according to House Appropriations Chair Travis Cummings, who spoke to Florida Politics about the spending plan he believes his committee will forward on Wednesday to the House floor next week. The House and Senate late last week released initial…
As we near the mid-point of the Session, time is growing short for bills that haven’t been heard in their committees/subcommittees of reference so today we see a flurry of activity to consider bills that have been waiting for first hearings while others are completing work in their committees/subcommittees of reference and soon will be…
Another facet of the debate over devoting state funds to private education companies emerged Tuesday as the Florida Legislature considered a massive expansion of charter schools in low-income neighborhoods. Read More
As anticipated, the Florida House unveiled a PreK-12 spending planWednesday that’s more than a half-billion dollars leaner than the version released Tuesday by the Senate. Both differ from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request. After introducing his $21.6 billion proposal, House PreK-12 Appropriations chairman Rep. Chris Latvala made clear he anticipated changes as the session progresses. Read More
Today’s schedule called for consideration of the Senate’s school safety bill – SB 7030 – this afternoon in the Senate Infrastructure & Security Committee but there was not sufficient time for discussion, public testimony, and debate of the bill. Committee Chair, Tom Lee, apologized and rescheduled consideration of the bill for Tuesday, March 26. However,…