Florida School Boards Association
A state appeals court on Wednesday rejected the Palm Beach County School Board’s claim that it alone should decide which charter schools open in the county, handing a partial victory to a charter that the school board has been fighting for two years to prevent from opening. But the court also ordered a state board…
Charter schools. Vouchers. Tax-credit scholarships. Education savings accounts. What are these things and how do they relate to school choice? Education Week reporter Arianna Prothero breaks down the different forms of public and private school choice. Read More
From Washington to the state Capitol, political stars are aligning for a major drive to expand charter and voucher schools – a double-barreled push sparking fear among defenders of traditional schools. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Michigan school choice advocate Betsy DeVos as new education secretary is viewed as a clear signal he is serious…
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor who for decades has pushed to expand charter schools in her home state of Michigan, to be his secretary of education. Read full article
Florida needs to invest more money in schools that offer students longer school days and years. And the state should ease regulations on public schools that perform well. Those are two provocative ideas raised by incoming state House Speaker Richard Corcoran in a recent interview with the head of a South Florida law firm. Corcoran, who is set to lead…
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 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.…
Miami Beach city leaders have turned to Florida’s superintendents for help in trying to close loopholes in the state’s class size reduction rules. The City Commission recently sent district leaders a copy of its September resolution that asks lawmakers to reverse the “weakening” of the 2002 constitutional amendment that occurred. Those include examples such as a…
The U.S. Department of Education announced today new grants totaling approximately $245 million under its Charter Schools Program (CSP), which funds the creation and expansion of public charter schools across the nation. Today’s grants are being awarded to state educational agencies and charter management organizations. The CSP supports the creation of high-quality public charter schools…