FSBA Session Spotlight — March 12, 2019

The second week of the Legislative Session is underway with several bills of interest scheduled to be considered today, including bills relating to health and safety, government accountability, exceptional students, curriculum, personnel, and term limits for school board members. Today’s schedule is posted in the file below and is updated throughout the day to show…

FSBA Session Spotlight — March 7, 2019

The first week of the Legislative Session is winding down with only a few meetings of interest on the schedule.  Bills that were considered today address teacher preparation, Bible study, and civics education and the outcome on these bills is available in the file below.  There are no meetings of interest scheduled for tomorrow so our…

Florida Supreme Court approves DeSantis’ ask for grand jury on school safety

The Florida Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed to impanel a statewide grand jury to broadly investigate school safety, in an order issued Monday. The decision came after Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a petition on Feb. 13 to ask for the grand jury, which he said should have sweeping powers to oversee both the government failures…

School board term limits moves through second House committee

A proposal to let Florida voters decide whether to impose term limits on school board members (HJR 229) cleared another hurdle in the Florida House on Wednesday, but reservations over the details began to emerge.  Unlike its first stop, where the measure won unanimous bipartisan backing, the bill hit some speed bumps in the Oversight,…

DeSantis: Use Trump tax plan to expand charter schools

Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to leverage a tax incentive championed by President Donald Trump to launch a five-fold expansion of charter schools in the state.  The DeSantis budget proposed linking the state‘s Schools of Hope program to federal “opportunity zones”created by Trump’s $1.5 billion tax plan.  At least 247 Florida communities would be eligible for…

Governor Ron DeSantis Calls for Statewide Grand Jury on School Safety

Today, Governor Ron DeSantis filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a statewide grand jury to examine and review school safety measures throughout the state, as well as the responses of public entities to laws designed to protect schools such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. Read More

Senator “disturbed” by claims of Pinellas County Sheriff in regard to school safety law

The chairman of the state’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission is making some claims about local school districts that one state senator calls “disturbing” if they are true.  Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who chairs the commission, testified before the Senate and House Education committees on Tuesday and accused school districts of…