Florida School Boards Association
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor who for decades has pushed to expand charter schools in her home state of Michigan, to be his secretary of education. Read full article
The Florida Legislature entered a strange new world Tuesday as the incoming House speaker condemned the power of lobbyists and demanded changes in spending that will face resistance from the Senate and Gov. Rick Scott. In his inaugural speech as speaker, Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, railed against a Capitol dominated by lobbyists and politically wired…
Unhappy with the “world of mess” school her son was assigned to attend, Morna Atkins was thrilled when he won a spot in a magnet program at another campus. But the Orlando mother, who sent her son to private school for a time, too, doesn’t think parents unhappy with their local school should have to…
Republican President-elect Donald Trump spoke about education only in broad terms on the campaign trail, leaving plenty of uncertainty about how his administration now intends to handle policy questions ranging from standardized testing and school accountability to the treatment of transgender students. But Trump’s stunning election is likely to mean a clear contrast with some key…
Florida needs to invest more money in schools that offer students longer school days and years. And the state should ease regulations on public schools that perform well. Those are two provocative ideas raised by incoming state House Speaker Richard Corcoran in a recent interview with the head of a South Florida law firm. Corcoran, who is set to lead…
One of Florida’s largest for-profit charter school management companies, Academica, has long enjoyed considerable influence in the state Legislature. Until last year, two Academica employees served as state lawmakers — and the brother-in-law of the company’s founder also held the education purse strings in the House. Read full article
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is officially calling for a ban on new charter schools. During its national meeting in Cincinnati Saturday, the NAACP’s national board ratified a proposal which was put forward by its members this summer. Members cited concerns over discipline and segregation within charter schools, among many other…
They’re in demand among parents who say traditional public schools have failed — but they’re not always successful. Their intense rate of growth has fueled an equally intense debate about the role they’ll play in the future of U.S. education. Advocates see their expansion as evidence that parents have a huge appetite for school choice.…
Miami Beach city leaders have turned to Florida’s superintendents for help in trying to close loopholes in the state’s class size reduction rules. The City Commission recently sent district leaders a copy of its September resolution that asks lawmakers to reverse the “weakening” of the 2002 constitutional amendment that occurred. Those include examples such as a…
The U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term Oct. 3 still feeling the effects of the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia. With the nomination of Merrick B. Garland stuck in political limbo, the eight members of the court have adopted a cautious approach to their docket for the new term, many legal experts say. …