This Video Update features FSBA Executive Director Andrea Messina providing a final wrap-up on the 2016 Legislative Session. Ms. Messina discusses some of the key elements in the education portion of the state budget and the related implementing and FRS contribution rate bills. She also provides an overview of HB 7029 — a bill that includes…
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 24, 2016……….Ion Sancho has long been one of the most-outspoken elections officials in Florida. But after overseeing this fall’s voting in Leon County, he will step down after nearly three decades as an elections supervisor. A familiar figure to those who have followed Florida’s frequent election controversies, Sancho often was quoted…
Thousands of children of legal immigrants will be closer to obtaining subsidized health insurance this summer, after the Legislature passed a long-debated expansion of the state’s KidCare program. Until this year, children of legal immigrants were technically eligible for KidCare — the low-cost federal-state health insurance program — but had to wait five years to…
FSBA is please to announce that we have completed our FSBA 2016 Legislative Session Summary. Our Summary provides in-depth information on the education related portions of the state budget, implementing bill, and Florida Retirement System employer contribution rates as well as detailed summaries of the education related bills that passed during the 2016 Legislative Session.…
Florida Education Association president Joanne McCall has big ambitions for the state’s 2016 legislative elections. Many lawmakers who have been unfriendly to the teacher union’s view of public education will depart, while others face more realistic challenges than they have in the past. It’s a chance, McCall said, to begin changing the complexion of Tallahassee…
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…
TALLAHASSEE – How Florida gives state money to organizations that provide after-school care, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Boys & Girls Clubs, won’t change anytime soon. The 2016-17 budget that Gov. Rick Scott signed Thursday maintains a decades-old funding structure that designates money to a handful of prominent organizations — which means an…
Education funding trial began this week: http://www.chron.com/news/article/Failing-grade-Trial-over-Florida-s-schools-6889498.php Prayer at School Board Meetings issue now in U.S. District Court of Appeals: http://www.dailybulletin.com/social-affairs/20160304/chino-valley-unified-to-appeal-ruling-on-praying Concerns raised about school mock elections this year: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/farina-worried-bullying-schools-hold-mock-election-article-1.2567081 John B. King confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Education: http://time.com/4258604/senate-confirm-education-secretary/ Teen inventors from Intel’s Science Talent Search: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/03/16/meet-the-teen-who-just-won-150000-for-inventing-a-device-to-diagnose-lung-disease/
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.…
PENSACOLA — State higher education officials on Wednesday afternoon debated whether public university students should be required to learn about U.S. history, government and politics, as some members lamented what they saw as a disheartening lack of civic understanding among young adults. The day after Florida’s presidential primary, Alan Levine, a member of the State…