More students and less tax money means Gov. Rick Scott's proposed $1 billion for school won't go quite as far replacing budget cuts.
Gov. Rick Scott insists lawmakers add $1 billion for K-12 education this year, but that money won’t go as far replenishing cuts as first thought according to a Legislative budget update this morning.
Scott Kittel, Scott’s education policy adviser, told a House budget subcommittee this morning that the state now expects more students than initially expected. Property tax revenues are also expected to decline more than first projected, he said.
The net result is an additional $20 million of that proposed $1 billion is needed just to cover current costs and won’t replace any of the money cut from schools since 2008.
As PoltiFact noted after Scott’s speech yesterday, more than 40 percent of that proposed new money will cover rising costs or declining tax revenues. The remaining $590 million in Scott’s proposal would help replenish the $1.35 billion lawmakers cut from K-12 education in the current budget year (much of it was expiring one-time federal money the state did not replace).
House Speaker Dean Cannon said House members have muddied the mission of state universities.
Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon said state lawmakers trying to benefit their own parochial interests have muddied the mission of the state’s higher education system.
Cannon, R-Winter Park, said the House will study how to improve the system because the state’s economy is tied to a “strong and dynamic” higher education system, according to prepared remarks sent to the media.
Cannon did not promise a bill — in fact he said it’s up to the Board of Governors and not the Legislature to set the university system’s priorities. But Cannon said both the House and the Senate would have a conversation about overhauling higher education.
He looks a little stern here, but Gov. Rick Scott made a funny in his State of the State speech Tuesday.
The one truly funny moment during Gov. Rick Scott’s State of the State speech came when he referenced his much-publicized spat with anthropologists earlier this year.
In arguing for the need to better match college graduates with open jobs, Scott cited anthropologists as a degree Florida probably didn’t need any more of.
In Tuesday’s speech Scott had a little fun.
“Our efforts on education cannot end here,” Scott said, according to the prepared version of his speech. “Florida has a rich cultural history surrounding its colleges and universities.
“Don’t take my word for it. Ask any anthropologist.”
Gov. Rick Scott’s speech is scheduled to start at 11:30. We’re keeping an eye on education issues, including the budget, higher education, school choice and legislative issues.
Education should play a lesser role this year, but there's still plenty of bills before lawmakers.
The biggest issues affecting education debate in Tallahassee this year may have nothing to do with classrooms.
The once-every-ten-years redistricting, South Florida casinos and overhauling state insurance rules should provoke contentious debate, lawmakers and education advocates said. Those bills could squeeze out education as the session’s marquee issue.
Last year the Legislature approved a sweeping bill requiring teacher evaluations and performance-based pay. The law also eliminated long-term teacher contracts.
But that doesn’t mean education will be forgotten when the legislature resumes today. Lawmakers are considering bills that would expand access to online courses, allow students to graduate high school early and give parents more control over restructuring low-performing schools.
Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, is chairman of the House education committee.
Last year’s big legislative education debate could also be this year’s big issue, according to the chairman of the Florida House education committee.
Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, told the Florida Times-Union that a top priority was to make sure districts were making progress on a law that requires teacher evaluations, implements performance-based pay and eliminates long-term contracts, among other changes.
A controversial bill that, among other things, tethered teacher pay to student performance and put an end to tenure passed last session after former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill in 2010.
In an interview this week, St. Augustine Republican Bill Proctor, chairman of the House Education Committee, wants to make sure the 43-page law is implemented correctly. That and tackling higher education reforms will be his committee’s top two priorities.
“We just want to make sure things go smoothly,” Proctor said of the law. “There is just so much there that I think it is incumbent upon us to make sure things go well.”
Florida teachers at A-rated schools still have a few more weeks before they see their bonus.
Florida educators at high-performing schools will have to wait until at least early February for their state bonuses, according to the Department of Education.
But Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters said the agency still must wait for any appeals to be heard.
Etters expected the bonuses would be sent out in early February.
The bonuses will pay about $70 per student enrolled at the school, and staff decide how to split the bonuses.The state will pay a total of $129.9 million in bonuses.
Because the anniversary is looming, I am getting lots of statements on the law and its impact, most offering a mixed review of its effectiveness. I listened Tuesday to a panel by RAND Corporation education experts. I will write about the panel later this week, but the consensus was that the law was effective in directing attention to previously ignored students, but that it was too proscriptive and overly reliant on multiple choice testing that narrowed instruction.
But one group that sees little benefit from No Child is FairTest, which has issued a report maintaining the controversial law “failed badly both in terms of its own goals and more broadly” and led to a decade of “educational stagnation.”
What do you think? Did the benefits of NCLB — such as the focus on subgroup performance — outweigh the negatives of the law? How will NCLB be remembered? Should it be renewed?
“Five of seven Manatee District High Schools scored enough points to qualify for an A grade from the state,” a press release read.
What the carefully worded release did not say is that five of seven Manatee high school actually earned an A — and it’s worth asking why.
The Florida Department of Education includes a lot of factors when calculating school grades: Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores; high-level college prep courses such as Advanced Placement; graduation rates and performance on SAT or other college entrance exams.
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