As we approach the start of the 2019 Legislative Session on March 5, 2019, FSBA will be working to keep our members well informed of the activities of the Florida Legislature and related events in Tallahassee. Our main tools for accomplishing this are this Session Spotlight blog and our Legislative Session page. In addition, we…
Lawmakers are facing an end-of-the-year traffic jam with legislation piling up and a tight schedule that leaves them little wiggle room. Leadership is juggling a backlog of must-pass bills and nominations as well as eleventh-hour requests from rank-and-file members as legislators try to cram as much as possible into the final days of the work…
A fight over education policy is brewing at the Capitol. It pits supporters of traditional public schools against advocates for more school choice. With new leaders in place, the Florida House and Senate will be the battleground for the contest over the state’s educational future. Each chamber will have its own distinct ideas about how…
Nine months after a mass school shooting in Parkland left 17 dead, an I-Team investigation found Florida still failing kids with serious mental illness – a broken system that top law enforcement bosses say is a threat to public safety. Read More
Hillsborough County school superintendent Jeff Eakins takes a clear message from last week’s election, which saw many Floridians vote to tax themselves more to help public schools meet rising costs. People see the challenges firsthand and “they know they want better,” he said, referring to tax referendums that won approval in Hillsborough and seven other…
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…
Florida’s Supreme Court justices gave just a few hints Thursday of how they’re thinking about a 9-year-old case that contends, essentially, that the Legislature has shortchanged some students in the state’s public education system. The case, Citizens for Strong Schools vs. Florida Board of Education, focuses on the Florida constitution’s mandate that the state has a “paramount…
The key to solving the wide array of policy challenges facing Florida starts with one thing: education. That was the takeaway from the final 2018 survey of the Florida Influencers, a group of 50 leaders from across the state. Asked to rank five issues by order of importance to Florida’s future — education, the environment,…
Getting back to normal after a devastating hurricane is long, arduous, and expensive for schools. In Florida’s Panhandle, education leaders have started the strenuous work of cleaning up and repairing schools ravaged by Hurricane Michael earlier this month, but they are also running into a longer-term problem: steep cost estimates that could lead to mounting…
Florida Panhandle officials are trying to figure out how to resume classes after Hurricane Michael damaged or destroyed many schools last week. Schools in at least eight counties — Washington, Liberty, Jackson, Gulf, Gadsden, Franklin, Calhoun and Bay — will remain closed until further notice, the office of Gov. Rick Scott said Monday in a…