Some Florida school district elected officials are joining the push by parent and teacher groups asking Gov. Rick Scott to kill SB 850, which lawmakers sent to him late last week. The bill does many things, such as requiring school districts to create collegiate high schools with their local colleges. But the lines that have riled…
No matter what you’ve read or heard about the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in Florida’s schools, the reality is that it’s been a tough six years for the idea that every Florida K-12 student should be scientifically literate. The science literacy cause reached its highest point on Feb. 19, 2008…
Learning disabled students can get up to $19,829 of taxpayer money each year to attend private school if they choose – but there is no state accountability to ensure the kids’ needs are being met. The law that created the vouchers does not require private schools to have anyone on staff with any sort of…
A sweeping lawsuit that argues Florida failed to adequately fund its public education system should be amended so that the state’s support of voucher programs and charter schools can also be challenged, attorneys for the plaintiffs said today. They have asked the court to allow them to amend the lawsuit, filed in 2009. The lawsuit…
A bill that expands Florida’s Tax-Credit Scholarship program — which provides kids from low-income families scholarship vouchers they use to attend private school — likely will get a vote today in the Florida Senate. A collection of advocacy groups, including the Florida PTA and Orlando-based Fund Education Now, is urging a “no” vote, arguing the program diverts public money to private schools…
Expansion of the student voucher program, which seemed dead shortly after the beginning of the 2014 Florida Legislature, has proved hard to kill. A Senate subcommittee approved an amendment on Tuesday expanding the voucher program, known as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, adding it to a bill that helps parents of disabled children get…
Florida law governing the tax credit scholarship program gives vouchers to low-income families to use as tuition for their children in private schools but does not adequately protect the rights of English Language Learners (ELLs), shortchanging Latino students and other groups learning English as an additional language from receiving proper instruction. This flaw in Florida…
A Senate panel revived the proposed expansion of the school voucher program. But it did not give a second chance to the immigrant tuition proposal. By Kathleen McGrory Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE — A Senate committee used a procedural maneuver Tuesday to put a controversial school voucher bill back in play. But the committee refused…