FSBA Session Spotlight — April 19, 2017

In another very full day of consideration of significant bills, one of today’s highlights was action on SB 926 in the Senate Rules Committee. This is the bill that was significantly amended earlier this month to include several improvements to the state assessment and accountability system.  The bill was significantly amended today, mainly by adding…

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Miami lawmaker will seek new path for school recess after it stalls in House

With House Republican leaders holding up a Senate-approved bill to mandate daily recess in public elementary schools, Florida senators will attempt another route to get the proposal enacted this year.  Miami Republican Sen. Anitere Flores, the sponsor of the Senate recess bill (SB 78), filed a sweeping amendment Wednesday morning to her measure aimed at…

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FSBA Session Spotlight — April 18, 2017

Today was a very full day of consideration of significant bills, but one of today’s highlights was action on a bill in the Senate PreK-12 Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Senator Simmons proposed a lengthy amendment to SB 1552 (relating to the Best & Brightest Teacher and Principal Scholarships) that revises and adds components of current school…

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Innovative Textbook Adoption and RFP Evaluation Tool Scores 5 Stars with Educators

For Immediate Release 4-18-2017 The Florida School Boards Association (FSBA), along with its partner, EdCredible announced today a revolutionary new Textbook Adoption and RFP Evaluation System that is automating and simplifying the secure creation, weighting, administration, scoring, analysis and overall management of the onerous textbook adoption and RFP evaluation process. “EdValuate” replaces the time consuming…

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House’s proposed $200M charter school incentive

Administrators at some of Florida’s largest school districts — including Miami-Dade County — are speaking out in opposition to House Republicans’ $200 million “schools of hope” plan that would pit new, specialized charter schools against the districts’ perpetually failing traditional public schools. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is “actively lobbying against” HB 5105, a spokeswoman said,…

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Legislature vows transparency on negotiating education policy. History says otherwise.

Florida lawmakers this week set into motion a budget process that will result in several highly consequential policy reforms affecting public education to become law this year in one form or another.  But if years of precedent are any indication, what exactly those final laws might be will now be determined through deal-making and negotiations…

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