Florida School Boards Association
The Florida Education Association, League of Women Voters and assorted other plaintiffs will continue to challenge the state’s tax credit scholarship program in court, despite the recent withdrawal of the Florida School Boards Association from the case. A judge moved to toss the case last month, saying the program was not funded by the state’s general…
Circuit Judge George S. Reynolds III on Monday dismissed with prejudice the case that the Florida Education Association and others had brought against the state’s tax credit scholarship program. The plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case, Reynolds stated in his order. “In this case, Plaintiffs object to tax credits extended to third…
They are so gosh darned good to us, I don’t know how we stand it. From the moment they arrive in Tallahassee, our state legislators insist on sending back unnecessary gifts. Fancy-sounding laws we neither asked for, nor need. It’s too much. Really. Please, stop. Take this new schools bill (HB 1145) the House passed…
Private schools in Florida are becoming vastly more dependent on state voucher programs that pay all or part of tuition for students with disabilities or from low-income families, an Orlando Sentinel analysis has found. The families of nearly 100,000 Florida students received vouchers worth about $544 million this year as the Legislature has steadily…
A bill to let Florida children attend any public school that has open seats, regardless of where they live, won unanimous support Thursday from the Florida House Education Committee after sponsor Rep. Chris Sprowls modified it to meet school district concerns. Committee chair Rep. Marlene O’Toole recently threatened to kill the bill if it didn’t get fixed…
TALLAHASSEE — A bill that would allow parents more freedom to choose where their children go to school overwhelmingly was approved Tuesday by a House panel, even as some critics and educators worried the legislation is moving too quickly. The measure (HB 1145), sponsored by Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, was approved by the House…
TALLAHASSEE — Kameela Russell’s daughter acted out at her neighborhood school, Madie Ives Elementary in northeast Miami-Dade. But she excelled after transferring to the top-ranked Lakeside Elementary in Broward County. Most parents would not have been able to move their child to a public school in another county. Russell could because she was a teacher…
As Jeb Bush edges closer to a presidential run, no issue may better define him than his efforts to improve education in Florida and the nation. To detractors, including the teachers’ unions, Bush undermined public education by promoting issues using vouchers to send students to private schools, expanding charter schools and emphasizing rigid testing and…
This week is National School Choice Week, self-described as “an unprecedented opportunity to shine a spotlight on the need for effective education options for all children.” Ironically, “opportunity” for America’s schoolchildren is what National School Choice Week places at risk. The further irony is “choice” can mean public tax dollars siphoned away from community schools…
A recent commentary written by William Mattox, a fellow with the right-wing think tank James Madison Institute, provides a glimpse of the strategy pro-voucher forces use to build support for their program. It begins with an anecdote of a student who says he was ill-served in “government schools” — a familiar pejorative used instead of…