Florida School Boards Association
TALLAHASSEE — The Scott administration’s plan to evaluate schools’ performance in 2014-15 without taking into consideration the year-to-year improvement of students is based on an esoteric provision in the state’s education accountability law that lawmakers and school district leaders say is being misused. In 2013, the Legislature amended the state’s law that directs the Department…
Less than a year after lawmakers overhauled public-school testing following the botched rollout of the new Florida Standards Assessments, the debate over how to measure student learning is far from over. A leading senator on education issues is working on legislation that would allow schools to use tests other than the statewide standardized exams, which…
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Six years after a group of parents and education advocacy groups first filed a lawsuit that charged the Florida Legislature with shortchanging schools they had their first major moment in court on Monday. During a day-long hearing, Circuit Judge George Reynolds rejected a request by those who filed suit to shut…
TALLAHASSEE — A controversial plan from a Broward County Democrat to require high schools to offer computer coding courses and let students count them toward foreign language requirements was heralded Thursday as “novel,” “innovative” and “forward-thinking.” But some members of the Florida Senate, as well as some local school district administrators, question how costly the…
TALLAHASSEE — A growing faction of Florida Republicans are supporting the move to make the state education commissioner an elected position, a proposal designed to reverse the state’s adoption of Common Core standards. The plan, offered by Republican Rep. Debbie Mayfield of Vero Beach, clashes with GOP legislative leaders who support the role of presidential…
At a media event in Jacksonville on Monday morning, Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his $79.3 billion proposed budget. With $29.8 billion in general revenue coming in, Scott’s “Florida First” budget proposal is higher than the current $78.4 billion budget and the $77 billion he proposed for the 2015-2016 year back in January. Read full article
TALLAHASSEE — When Gov. Rick Scott rolls out his budget proposal Monday, he’ll talk about spending more money on schools, but some fellow Republicans say he’s not telling taxpayers the whole truth. A spike in school spending will have to come from higher property taxes on businesses and homeowners in Florida, and that has Republican…
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Republicans once again are taking aim at the Florida Retirement System, arguing taxpayers can save billions of dollars by closing the huge public employee pension program to new members and offering them a 401k-style investment plan. The proposal, which is expected to be offered by House members in the coming legislative session,…
Here in the tiny town of Vardaman, everything moves slowly. Especially the Internet at the local high school. The trouble begins early each morning. Teachers sweet-talk their computers while trying to load the school’s online attendance system. A few get lucky. The rest shake their heads, write the names of absent children on a sheet…
TALLAHASSEE — A Senate panel Thursday approved a measure aimed at improving and expanding the Early Steps program, which serves infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and delays. The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee backed the bill, part of a series of efforts by Senate President Andy Gardiner to help people with what…