Teachers get a top focus in Florida governor’s budget

To better recruit and retain quality teachers for Florida’s K-12 public schools, Gov. Rick Scott wants the state to spend $58 million in the next budget year on a handful of initiatives — and those don’t include a controversial teacher bonus plan that lawmakers, with Scott’s support, have advanced in recent years. Read More

More Florida teachers qualify for smaller Best and Brightest bonus

A growing number of Florida teachers has qualified for the controversial Best and Brightest bonus that’s based, in part, on their college entry exam scores.   Districts deemed 7,188 educators as eligible for the state-funded award, which boosts the pay of teachers who earned a “highly effective” evaluation rating and also scored in the top 20…

Florida Lawmakers Look For Answers On Workers’ Comp

With businesses bracing for rate increases, Florida House members this week began grappling with the tricky political and legal challenge of revamping the workers’ compensation insurance system.  Staff members held briefings Tuesday and Wednesday to try to help lawmakers understand the complicated system, which is likely to be one of the highest-profile issues of the…

Key senators to push for less testing, more support for public schools in 2017 session

Florida education funding could face tight times in the coming legislative session, with revenue low and competition for resources high.  But key state senators told the state’s school board members this week that they remained staunch supporters of public schools, and they would work to direct as much money as possible into the system, while…

Still no alternative plan to Florida’s Best and Brightest bonus from state

Florida education commissioner Pam Stewart has yet to present her ideas to replace the state’s controversial teacher bonus plan that’s based in part on educators’ college entry exams, well after she told the State Board of Education she’d give them a plan.  Stewart told the board at its September meeting that she was working on details…

5 Things You Should Know – FSBA #FridayFive

FSBA #FridayFive – 5 Things You Should Know – Week of Thanksgiving 2016 Each week, Executive Director, Andrea Messina, picks five of the top education news pieces to share with members. Read. Learn. Share. Retweet. Bandwidth tool for districts available Vocational students build tiny houses for flood victims Florida Chamber of Commerce’s business agenda for…

With contrasting styles and priorities, Negron, Corcoran take over leadership of Florida Legislature

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…