Florida School Boards Association
The Florida Legislature’s massive education bill is a mishmash of good and bad ideas crammed into one hot mess on the last day of the legislative session. These issues, ranging from suicide prevention to prekindergarten readiness, from school choice to athletic recruiting, from construction money to charter schools, should have each been decided on their…
Gov. Rick Scott vowed to make steep spending cuts upon taking office in 2011. With an assist from state lawmakers, he’s done just that in the past six years. More than 13,000 state positions have been eliminated, which will save $152 million next year. The state has slashed more than $800 million in its mental…
The Florida Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott didn’t see eye-to-eye on much during the 2016 session, but they both acknowledged education spending should go up. Even then, however, they couldn’t agree on how to do it. Scott wanted to pay for it almost entirely by increasing a share of property taxes known as the Required…
Charlotte, Florida — The Florida legislative session is over. Anyone following the Legislature knows it finished on time with the House and Senate working remarkably well together. The Legislature agreed on an $82 billion budget that increased education funding by one percent. It returned $400 million in tax cuts, far short of the $1 billion Gov.…
TALLAHASSEE — A showdown over Florida’s public schools that began Monday in a Tallahassee courtroom is expected to delve into whether the changes pushed by Republican governors and a GOP-controlled Legislature over the past two decades helped or hurt the state’s school children. Education groups and parents from Duval and Pasco counties filed a lawsuit…
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott surprised many observers on Tuesday when he announced plans to veto $256 million in projects, a much smaller list than expected after lawmakers blocked some of his top legislative priorities. While it’s more than $200 million larger than the veto list last year, which sparked anger among many members who…
TALLAHASSEE — Florida voters will be asked to vote on three constitutional amendments dealing with taxes. The Florida Legislature on Wednesday approved three amendments for the ballot. One of the amendments (HJR 1009) would grant a property tax break to any first responders who were disabled in the line of duty. Another one of the…
TALLAHASSEE — A proposed law that cleared the Florida Legislature on Wednesday should give local government entities — such as Miami-Dade Public Schools — faster access to their tax revenue and the ability to more accurately plan their annual budgets. Officials with the Miami-Dade school district have, for years, complained that lengthy delays in tax…
TALLAHASSEE — A wide-ranging education bill with more than a dozen significant policy proposals passed the Florida Senate without any debate Wednesday on the measure’s most consequential components. HB 7029 deals with capital funding for charter and traditional public schools, accountability measures for charter schools, open enrollment in K-12 public schools, high school athletics and…
TALLAHASSEE — The Legislature plans to spend a total of $31.8 billion in state and local funds on education in 2016-17, according to the final state budget introduced on Tuesday. That includes $20.2 billion for K-12 public schools distributed through the state’s funding formula, the Florida Education Finance Program. The sum is made up of…