Ohio voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide the future of public worker unions. The vote may be a sign of things to come in Florida.
Ohio voters head to the polls Tuesday to vote on a law limiting public employees’ collective bargaining rights, including teachers. Florida residents might want to keep their eyes on that decision.
Gov. Rick Scott and allies such as Patricia Levesque of the Foundation for Florida’s Future have made no secret of the fact that they would like to strip teachers’ unions of their collective bargaining rights.
Republicans have the political muscle in Tallahassee, but there’s a rub: The state constitution guarantees the right to collectively bargain for pay and benefits.
A hug is as popular as a handshake in the South. We greet friends and family with a hug. We bid farewell with a hug. Just tell your kids not to do it in school.
Two Brevard County middle school students received a day long, in-school suspension last week after the principal saw them hugging. There was no other public display of affection between the boy and girl who say they are best friends.
Even the principal at Southwest Middle School in Palm Bay said it seemed innocent. But the school’s no-hugging policy doesn’t differentiate between innocent and less appropriate forms of touching in the hallways. So these teenagers now have suspensions on their records. A spokeswoman for the district said the school’s zero tolerance policy doesn’t allow for opinions about whether a hug is appropriate.
A woman protests against Ohio's Senate Bill 5. A referendum called Issue 2 would ratify those changes to public employee pay and collective bargaining rights.
A lot of money and attention is flowing into Ohio’s Issue 2 election Tuesday. If it passes, it would allow Ohio to do a lot of things Florida has already done.
Our friends at StateImpact Ohio have laid out the pros and cons of the referendum, which places limits on how public employees can collectively bargain and makes huge changes in how teachers are paid.
Florida made a lot of these same changes earlier this year with Senate Bill 736. Florida’s reform package and Ohio’s share a family resemblance. Continue Reading →
A parent is asking Gov. Rick Scott to reconsider a new state law requiring Bright Futures recipients submit a federal financial aid application.
Why should a student need a parent to fill out a financial aid application to renew a merit-based scholarship if the student pays for his or her education?
And why should a parent put their personal information at risk if they receive no benefit from the scholarship?
That’s what Palm Beach County resident John Loeffler is asking in a letter he wrote to Gov. Rick Scott last week.
“It’s kind of crazy, it doesn’t make sense,” Loeffler said.
Teachers are paid 52 percent more than their market value, according to a new study.
Teachers, did you know you are overpaid by 52%?
That’s the conclusion of a new study by conservative-leaning think tanks The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
Taxpayers, they conclude, are “overcharged” $120 billion each year from the difference in teacher salaries and compensation compared to similarly credentialed private sector workers. Teacher benefits are often far more generous than the private sector, the study notes.
Shamir Ali, 25, with his mother Shamim Sultana of Bangladesh. She was deported in Feb. 2009 for driving without a license.
Days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told StateImpact Florida that DREAM Act student Shamir Ali was a “fugitive alien,” Ali was released from detention.
We got in touch with Ali, who is now making new college plans. Ali says he shouldn’t have been facing deportation and is thankful to be out. Here’s Ali, in his own words:
“I am still in disbelief! The back and forth was such a psychological roller coaster. They first denied me prosecutorial discretion but then approved it after all the media attention. Pretty much, it was all the support I received from people… Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!
I was given an order of supervision for one year which lets me work, drive, and etc. I have to visit with an ICE officer every month and if I’m doing well, they will renew it after that year expires. I am VERY grateful for that … [and] I do appreciate ICE granting me that. I just wish they accepted it automatically since I qualify for everything under the Morton Memo released by ICE. All the media attention, petitions, and protests is what really pushed ICE to release me. Continue Reading →
Florida's black and Hispanic students are closing the difference with white classmates faster than the national average.
Florida’s black and Hispanic students trail their white classmates by smaller margins than the national average, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress results released Tuesday.
And Florida has been closing difference in reading and math scores between white and black and Hispanic students faster than the national average over the past decade.
Eliminating the so-called achievement gap is a major goal of the federal No Child Left Behind education law. Tests such as NAEP allow states and researchers to break down test scores by most demographic possibilities.
2011 NAEP results show testing gains have stalled and Florida ranks in the bottom half of states on everything except 4th grade reading scores. But Florida’s ability to reduce the achievement gap is a silver lining.
President Barack Obama (left), U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (middle) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (right) at a Miami rally in March.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush has weighed in on Tuesday’s National Assessment of Educational Progress results. His solution to stalled progress: Raise the standards.
But Bush may have buried the lead in his statement, advocating against further budget cuts. Florida cut the sixth-most from the K-12 budget since 2008, according to one survey.
“And investing in education is also important,” Bush’s statement says. “We urge the Florida Legislature to protect funding for public education, particularly policies and programs that support, incentivize and reward student achievement.”
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