Florida School Boards Association
After a tough legislative session, in which school districts received little new funding without strings attached, the Florida School Boards Association is looking to ask lawmakers for increased support in the coming year. School board members are holding out hope that new leadership will be more receptive to increased funding with fewer restrictions. The Florida…
Four former lawmakers stood in front of the Great Seal of the State of Florida Tuesday and called on voters to reject the Constitution Revision Commission’s eight proposed amendments, including six that bundle disparate issues. Read More
At Governor Scott’s direction, the Florida Department of Education submitted a proposal today to the Florida Legislature to redirect $58 million of unused funding from the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to school districts for additional school security. Read More
Hours after a Leon County judge tossed proposed constitutional Amendment 8 off the November ballot, calling it misleading, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a 47-page document asking the Supreme Court to leave the measure and five others on the ballot. Hers was a response to a separate challenge, filed a week earlier by former chief justice…
We are in a hidden battle in Florida, and in Sarasota County, to save our public schools. It’s one reason this primary election is so important. Public schools in Sarasota remain a source of pride and hope in our community. The Sarasota County School District has received an A rating for the 15th consecutive year…
A Leon county judge ordered that Amendment 8, the amendment that would have created a pathway for the state to oversee charter schools and bypass local school boards, be removed from the ballot. Judge John Cooper wrote in a summary judgement Monday morning that the amendment should be removed “because its ballot title and summary…
A question about mental health service referrals on new student registration forms is raising concerns about privacy and worsening the stigma of mental illness. The new question is part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, passed by the Legislature in the wake of the mass shooting earlier this year. Read More
It’s hard to imagine how toxic Florida’s political landscape might be today, had its legislature and governor been free to act over the past decade without the oversight of the judicial. Certainly Democrats tested their limits back when they were in power. But the GOP has pushed legislative trickery to all new levels. Read More
The Leon County Courthouse was the scene Friday for the first of what looks to be several showdowns over the fate of Amendment 8, a Constitution Revision Commission proposal to change portions of the state constitution’s education article. The proposal aims to do three things — set school board term limits, embed civics education in…
Retired Florida chief justice Harry Lee Anstead has asked his former panel to require justification for why six proposed constitutional amendments including Amendment 8 should remain on the November ballot, or to toss them out. Anstead, joined by former Florida Elections commissioner Robert Barnas, contend in their filing to the state Supreme Court that the six…