Teachers have been taking a 3 percent cut to their paychecks since July 2011.
Editor’s note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Tasnim Shamma.
The Florida Supreme Court accepted a public pension case last week that challenges a law passed in July that requires public employees to contribute 3 percent of their paychecks toward their retirement.
Since 1974, the state’s retirement system has been noncontributory, so employees were never expected to pay into the system. Though it seems logical for teachers to pitch in to pay for their own retirement, Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for the FEA, says you need to look at the whole picture. Continue Reading →
Port Richey Republican Representative John Legg was moved enough by the tragedy to send a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson. He wrote about 15-year-old Lennon Baldwin, who “committed suicide last week as a result of being harassed at school.”
Legg, a father of five who is also an administrator and teacher, asked Robinson for assistance dealing with what he said is a growing problem everywhere: school bullying and harassment. Continue Reading →
Courtesy of Christine Capozziello / University Press
Gabi Alecksinko, a senior Intercultural Communications major at FAU, posted an eviction notice on a student's door at the Indian River Tower dormitory of the Boca Raton campus last Friday.
Editor’s note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Tasnim Shamma; see response from FAU below.
About 200 students at three residential dormitories of the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University returned home last Friday to find mock eviction notices posted on their doors.
The notice said they had three days to collect their belongings or be arrested.
The group, Students for Justice in Palestine, was trying to bring attention to home demolitions in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Florida Christian College has sued over access to a state grant program for private colleges.
Editor’s note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Tasnim Shamma.
Earlier this month, Florida Christian College in Kissimmee filed a lawsuit against the state for not being allowed to enroll in the Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG) program because of a disagreement with the Florida Department of Education about whether the college has a “secular purpose.”
About half of the 380 undergraduate students at the college are Florida residents who could be eligible for the $2,000 annual grants at private colleges.
Officials at the college assert that it does teach secular subjects. So even if it offers a “biblically based education”, it does prepare students for secular jobs. The federal Constitution allows government benefit programs to include religious organizations as long as the overall purpose of the program is secular.
But the WSJ essay from Nick Gillespie argues that by objective measures, kids are safer and better-behaved than when he was in school. Anti-bullying rules, he argues, can treat minor slights the same as major offenses.
Monroe County schools superintendent Jesus Jara passes along a timely reminder as Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test season approaches: Lower FCAT scores do not mean students are learning less.
The state has raised minimum standards on the FCAT, which means more students are likely to fail to achieve a passing score and require remediation. School grades are likely to fall.
But that’s because the state is raising standards, Jara writes, and schools and students will adjust:
Florida ranks 8th on a charter school advocacy group's ranking of state laws.
Florida ranks eighth in the nation for laws which promote innovation, equal funding and ease of expansion of charter schools, according to a ranking from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform.
That moves Florida up two places from last year’s report as the Sunshine State improved its score slightly.
Among the short-comings in the CER rankings? Florida does not allow enough independent groups to authorize charter schools, most of which must be approved by local school districts. That puts schools districts in the position of approving schools they may see as competition for public funding.
Earlier this week we wrote about a Lumina Foundation study that showed Florida was not producing enough college graduates to meet the projected job market needs by 2018. The report warns that those without college education will likely find it more difficult to find work.
Readers chimed in, with many noting that a college degree is no guarantee for employment either.
Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Tasnim Shamma.
As a new documentary about bullying hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles today, a growing number of South Florida schools are taking on the issue of students abusing and picking on their classmates.
More than 40 Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County have signed up for an anti-discrimination program called “No Place for Hate.”About 35 pre-K schools have joined the program in Palm Beach County.
And Pasadena Lakes Elementary School in Broward County just joined a growing list of South Florida schools certified as “No Place for Hate” Wednesday.
Lily Medina, the Education Project Director with the Florida Anti-Defamation League, says that the outreach has been focused on South Florida based on where they were able to receive grants. But the ADL’s “No Place For Hate” program hopes to expand to North Florida and Central Florida soon.
But Hecht, and his colleagues from the Gators College Access Network, say they have to oppose a bill Machen supports which would allow the University of Florida and Florida State University to set their own tuition at market rates.
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