Florida lawmakers have a cooling off period to review their proposed 2015-16 spending plan before voting on it. The details are many, tucked away in pages of text. To get a good understanding of the education budget, it’s best to look at three key documents — the FEFP conference report, the implementing bill and the budget bill conference report,…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE – Sarasota County School Board member Caroline Zucker has been elected president of the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA), the statewide organization representing school boards across the state. Zucker joins three other board members who were elected to FSBA offices during the association’s recent conference in Tampa. They include: Tim Harris, Polk County, president-elect;…
DetailsAs the U.S. Senate braces for debate on a bipartisan reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—which could get underway as early as Thursday—we thought it would be a good idea to freshen up on what’s in the bill. The compromise bill, which was brokered by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., and…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE | Florida’s contentious and messy budget stalemate that divided the state’s Republicans and threatened to force the shutdown of state government is finally over. With just days left, the Florida Legislature has reached a deal on a nearly $79 billion budget. The final budget was delivered to legislators late Tuesday afternoon. The budget has…
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The Budget Conference Committee has completed its work and has delivered its Conference Committee Report on SB 2500-A (aka the state budget). FSBA has begun working on our summary and highlights of the education budget and we will make these documents available to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have posted the full FEFP…
DetailsThe 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…
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Legislative leaders have stated that they will finalize negotiations on the remaining differences between the House and Senate budget proposals tonight and tomorrow and expect to be able to produce the final state budget – which will be called the Conference Committee Report on SB 2500 — sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. When the budget…
DetailsIn their effort to tie teachers’ job evaluations to student performance, Florida lawmakers acknowledge they initially went too far. “We were trying to prove a point, and we became overprescriptive,” said Senate Education Committee Chairman John Legg, who began pressing the issue five years ago. This spring, comfortable that the idea of increased accountability for…
DetailsNot everything labeled a ‘school voucher’ in the news and on social media is technically a voucher, and it seems every time news breaks about another private school choice law passing or getting challenged in court, the same argument pops up. A recent exchange on Twitter between the Washington Post’s Emma Brown and the Cato…
DetailsHave you been wondering how the U.S. Department of Education would respond if a state passed a law that made opting out of state tests easier, both for parents and schools? Oregon may be about to provide a test case. The state’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill in April that would inform parents…
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