This week we expect budget conferencing to kick off. This means the budget allocations would be released and the conference committees would be announced.
HERE you will find the legislative bill tracker supplied to us by our team at GrayRobinson. All of the bills we are tracking are listed on the report in numerical order. Bills that align to our platform are highlighted in yellow. A few of the bills to highlight:
- HB 1259 Education by Rep. Canady was heard in its second committee. A proposed committee substitute was presented and adopted that added a significant amount to the bill around higher education funding. It also made changes to the capital outlay sharing to charter schools where the sharing would be phased in (similar to the Senate version) but it would not be limited to just the large districts. It is on the calendar to be heard in its final committee this morning with a delete all amendment being considered. This will make additional changes to the bill as the two chambers continue to hash out an agreement on this bill.
- As your districts have discussions and meetings around the proposed FEFP, please be sure to include the proposed changes to FRS (SB 7024) and charter school capital outlay (HB 1259/SB 1328) in your conversations. These three areas should be discussed together as they will impact budgets.
Upon the signing of HB 1, temporary teaching certificates were extended from 3 years to 5 years. This means that teachers who are currently teaching on a temporary certificate would have the additional two years to complete all requirements. DOE intends to start notifying teachers who this impacts.
