Florida School Boards Association
Your religious views matter, and don’t let anyone ever tell you differently. This goes for evangelicals and agnostics, and everyone in between. A lawyer might argue it’s a First Amendment right, but it’s also a courtesy we should all embrace. Even, or especially, when we don’t agree. I mention this because of a story I…
After the Parkland school shooting in February, the state’s mandate was simple and swift: Put an armed officer in every public school by August. But the new state requirement — passed three weeks after the February school massacre in the hopes of deterring future campus shootings — is proving difficult for schools to carry out…
Florida House Republicans are playing mythbusters on claims of stagnant school spending. The House Majority Office, which is overseen by Speaker Richard Corcoran, released a five-minute video May 17 that takes aim at teachers’ unions and state educators (and unnamed “media allies”) who say the 2018-19 education budget isn’t enough to cover the costs of…
Florida teachers’ unions are planning to sue the state over a new law that threatens their long-term survival. Unions’ right to collectively bargain for their members has been enshrined in the state constitution since 1968 and state law since 1974. The legislation followed a massive teacher walkout in 1968 — the first statewide teacher strike…
Donna Berghauser’s office at McLane Middle School is filled with inspirational pictures, quotes and fun posters designed to get students to open up. But the one kids relate to most is a poster that asks “How are you feeling today?” with pictures of faces displaying different emotions. There’s happy, sad, angry and right in the…
Once again, we’re talking about arming teachers as a solution to gun violence. After a student gunned down 10 people Friday at a high school in suburban Houston, some Texas elected officials are resurrecting the idea, which has been floated by President Trump and debated across the country since the Parkland, Florida, school shooting in…
It’s not a secret: Florida’s school districts are struggling to find enough money to place armed security on each campus, as now required by law. What is new lately is many local governments have begun saying they will not help out with their law enforcement departments. In the past few days, both the Pinellas and…
Unwilling to turn school staff into gun-packing “guardians,” some officials across Florida are turning to a controversial alternative to meet the demands of a state law approved after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.The Duval County School Board has became the second in two weeks to approve hiring and training dozens of new,…
A longtime Florida Department of Law Enforcement officer has been named the director of the newly created Office of Safe Schools, the state announced Tuesday evening. Damien Kelly has been an FDLE officer since 2005, most recently as a public corruption inspector, during which Kelly “became an expert in firearms certification and proficiency,” according to…
In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting and the state’s new law that requires armed security on every campus, some superintendents worry districts will now be competing for the same personnel. For the 2016-2017 school year, Florida’s Department of Education counted about 1,500 officers. But there’s more than twice as many public schools — about…