Florida school district leaders are faced with a school security dilemma. Lawmakers are requiring them to add armed safety officers or “guardians” to every elementary, middle and high school campus, and they set aside $170 million for the task. But that won’t come close to projected costs. The gap — as little as $500,000 in…
Gov. Rick Scott heaped praise on lawmakers for approving what he called “historic” school safety changes only three weeks after the slaughter of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But the fast-tracked measure has hit roadblocks since Scott signed it into law earlier this month. Lawsuits and a swirl of questions about…
Just days after Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida’s new school safety rules into law, one of the state’s largest charter schools made a big ask of the 13 districts where it operates. “In keeping with the spirit of the Act, we request that a full time School Resource Officer be provided to each of the…
Sarasota County voters on Tuesday resoundingly approved a four-year extension of an optional local property tax for the school district, passing the measure by the most lopsided margin ever. With all precincts reporting, nearly 79 percent of the 62,896 votes tabulated were in favor of continuing the tax, according to unofficial results posted by the…
Voters in Manatee County narrowly approved a property tax increase that will generate an estimated $33 million annually in new revenue for the school district and give teachers an average pay supplement of close to $6,000, according to unofficial results Tuesday night. With all 70 districts reporting, the referendum question on the tax received just…
After spending months discussing more than a hundred possible changes to the Florida Constitution, a state commission on Monday will head into its homestretch and begin the task of narrowing the list of proposed amendments to be placed on the November for voters to decide on. The Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC), appointed once every…
The 2018 Legislative Session adjourned, sine die, on Sunday evening with the passage of the $88.7 billion state budget, budget implementing bill, and a tax relief bill. On the same day, Governor Scott signed Senate President Joe Negron’s priority legislation relating to post-secondary education ( SB 4) and House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s priority legislation relating to…
The legislature has extended the 2018 Session through Sunday, March 11 in order to allow for the 72-hour cooling off period before a final vote can be taken on the budget. The chambers also agreed that they will consider ONLY the Conference Reports budget bills and a tax relief bill – HB 7087 — after…
After extensive discussions with the families of victims, Gov. Rick Scott signed new gun restrictions Friday in response to last month’s massacre that took 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Scott, a Republican who has long enjoyed the political support of the National Rifle Association, approved a three-day waiting period for…
Tallahassee, FL – Watch this edition of the FSBA Legislative Weekly Update to hear details as Florida’s Legislature approaches Sine Die.