A new charter school bill gets its first committee hearing today in Tallahassee. This one is different from other charter school proposals for two big reasons: It allows districts to operate their own version of a charter school, instead of the school being operated by an outside entity. A popular Democrat is behind it. The […]
The Florida House has released its proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Speaker Will Weatherford says education was prioritized over everything else. “The big winner is education,” Weatherford said. “We invested over a billion dollars into our K-12 education system from last year.” He said that amounts to a 6.2 percent increase […]
A business advocacy group is running television ads that say Florida might have to cut education funding if the state expands Medicaid health coverage. The National Federation of Independent Business has also set up a website — FloridaCanDoBetter.com. “Washington promises to pay the billions in new costs. But with these endless federal deficits can we […]
Florida lawmakers moved a step closer to requiring teachers only are evaluated based on the performance of students in their classes, according to the Gainesville Sun. Currently, evaluations for teachers in subjects not tested by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test are assigned a score based on the school-wide average. That means an art or music […]
The House Education committee unanimously approved a bill creating three high school diploma options for Florida students. Students could choose from scholar, college and career and industry options. The scholar option requires high-level courses — such as Physics and foreign language — while the industry option lets students opt for professional training classes and certification. […]
House Speaker Will Weatherford says Florida needs to be ready in case the test accompanying new education standards isn’t ready by a spring 2015 deadline. The standards, known as Common Core State Standards, are scheduled to be taught in every Florida grade beginning with the 2014-15 school year. The standards are a new way of […]
House Speaker Will Weatherford met with reporters at the Capitol late Thursday. He answered a variety of questions, including one that has been plaguing him about proposed teacher raises. Weatherford told reporters Thursday that most of the billion or so dollars being added to the House education budget next year will go toward teacher salaries. […]
A Quinnipiac University poll released today finds Florida voters approve of one of Gov. Rick Scott’s top budget priorities. Nearly three-quarters of respondents like his proposal to give $2,500 raises to the state’s public school teachers. Legislative leaders like the idea of more money for teachers — but not necessarily across-the-board raises. The Senate Appropriations […]
Florida House and Senate leaders have set aside less money for education in their initial budget outlines than did Gov. Rick Scott. Both House and Senate leaders have expressed doubts about Scott’s $480 million plan to give teachers a $2,500 across-the-board raise. Scott’s budget would have spent $14.3 billion on education. House Appropriations education committee […]
The fact that the House budget committee approved a charter school bill Thursday isn’t nearly as interesting as the debate that took place. Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale, said his bill is designed to increase accountability for charter schools – since they are using public dollars – and increase flexibility and growth. Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, […]
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »