Florida School Boards Association
Florida School Boards Association
Perhaps it is fitting that in the same week that school districts must tell the Department of Education how many teachers qualified for the state’s very controversial Best and Brightest bonus, the Florida House Education Committee will consider legislation to make the one-time measure permanent. Senate Education Committee chairman John Legg, meanwhile, filed his own…
DetailsHow best to set proposed “cut scores,” or passing rates, for the new Florida Standards Assessments continues to divide state Board of Education members and state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart. The board plans to set the cut scores in January and continues to debate whether the scores should be set higher than what Stewart recommends…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE The chairman in charge of crafting the Senate’s education budget proposal signaled again Thursday that Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to increase K-12 education dollars primarily off the checkbooks of local taxpayers isn’t going to fly. Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is preparing his fellow senators to consider other options including ones that would require…
DetailsGov. Rick Scott took his campaign for a billion dollar tax cut in 2016 directly to lawmakers last week, making a rare appearance at a House committee meeting when his budget director Cynthia Kelly briefed lawmakers on his budget recommendation. The $79.3 billion spending plan represents a 1-percent increase over the current state budget. It sparked…
DetailsElsa of Arendelle, from Disney’s “Frozen” movie, runs straight 100 pixels, turns right 90 degrees, and then repeats steps one and two three more times. The outcome? The princess ice skates in the shape of a square. These are the very basics of computer science in block-based coding form that students are starting to learn…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — A growing faction of Florida Republicans are supporting the move to make the state education commissioner an elected position, a proposal designed to reverse the state’s adoption of Common Core standards. The plan, offered by Republican Rep. Debbie Mayfield of Vero Beach, clashes with GOP legislative leaders who support the role of presidential…
DetailsAt a media event in Jacksonville on Monday morning, Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his $79.3 billion proposed budget. With $29.8 billion in general revenue coming in, Scott’s “Florida First” budget proposal is higher than the current $78.4 billion budget and the $77 billion he proposed for the 2015-2016 year back in January. Read full article
DetailsIt’s 5:40 a.m. A band of high-schoolers stand outside a row of mobile homes framed by statuesque mossy oaks along the corner of Brittany Boulevard, not far off Capital Circle in northwest Tallahassee. They await their hour-long bus ride to school. Sunrise is more than an hour away. More likely than not, they’ve had less than…
DetailsIs eight years enough? For Hialeah Sen. Rene Garcia, a Republican, and West Palm Beach Rep. Mark Pafford, a Democrat, the answer is “no” — if Floridians want to diminish the influence of special interests in the Legislature. “We are a representative democracy and we should be making sure that it is the elected officials…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — When Gov. Rick Scott rolls out his budget proposal Monday, he’ll talk about spending more money on schools, but some fellow Republicans say he’s not telling taxpayers the whole truth. A spike in school spending will have to come from higher property taxes on businesses and homeowners in Florida, and that has Republican…
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