Florida School Boards Association
At the insistence of House Speaker Richard Corcoran, numerous major changes to education policy for Florida’s K-12 public schools — from teacher bonuses and daily recess, to testing reforms and expansions for charter schools — were crammed into a single mammoth bill on Friday, with $414 million in spending attached. All of the policies in the…
With two days left for lawmakers to enact policy this session, two Republican senators late Wednesday released what’s essentially a brand new bill that salvages myriad stalled education proposals while also preserving one of the Legislature’s top K-12 priorities: reforms addressing excessive standardized testing in Florida public schools. Sens. Anitere Flores of Miami and Kelli…
A sweeping plan to reduce standardized testing in Florida’s K-12 schools cleared its first state Senate committee on Monday, after lawmakers struck a compromise to blend competing reform proposals. Despite political drama last week that delayed the policy discussion, senators breezed through vetting SB 926 and passed it unanimously after considering most of the amendments…
Since Florida lawmakers eliminated annual contracts for public school teachers, a majority of the state’s school districts including Pinellas have guaranteed yearly renewals to those educators who earned an “effective” or “highly effective” evaluation rating. Read More
The House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee voted Tuesday narrowly against requiring workers to pay their own attorney fees in disputes over benefits. The tally went 8-7 against an amendment by Republican Jay Fant to scrap most of a proposed committee bill addressing escalating workers’ compensation premiums. Read More
Back at the end of January, Gov. Rick Scott made teachers a top priority in his budget recommendations to the Legislature for next year. But his proposals aren’t getting much traction, now that lawmakers are delving into the nitty-gritty of their own ideas. Read More
More top educators in Florida would have a crack at an annual state bonus in the 2017-18 school year, under initial legislative proposals to expand a controversial, 2-year-old teacher incentive program. While there’s more room for compromise this year, House and Senate plans, unveiled this week, likely won’t appease all critics . . . Read More
After two closely watched Florida Supreme Court rulings and a 14.5 percent rate increase for businesses, a key Senate Republican filed a proposal Friday that would revamp the state’s workers’ compensation insurance system. The proposal (SB 1582), filed by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, addresses major issues such as attorney fees and rate filings with…
Nearly all of Florida’s evaluated public school teachers continued to receive strong reviews in 2015-16, according to newly released data from the state Department of Education. As in previous years, about 98 percent of teachers statewide rated either “highly effective” (42.9%) or “effective” (52.0%), with a tiny 0.2 percent receiving “unsatisfactory” marks, 0.7 percent as…
How much Florida spends to recruit and keep quality teachers for its K-12 public schools could potentially quadruple next year — and maybe even reach as high as a quarter of a billion dollars — under tentative plans being crafted in private by Republican House and Senate leaders ahead of the 2017 session. Read More