Florida had the second-largest per pupil increase in education spending for the 2013-2014 budget year, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But Florida still spends 3.9 percent less — $157 per student — on education now than it did in 2008 prior to the Great Recession. At least 34 […]
Two education technology stories caught our eye today, touching on questions of the cost and support needed when schools provide laptop or tablet computers for their students. The questions are important in Florida because lawmakers have required schools to deliver half of their classroom instruction digitally by 2015. Schools are also preparing for new online […]
Port Richey Republican Sen. John Legg has founded a charter school and is chairman of the Senate Education committee. So people listened when Legg raised some of the first warnings about whether Florida would be ready for new English, literacy and math standards — and the accompanying tests — by the start of the 2014 […]
A New Jersey Congressman has proposed a bill that would allow states to bypass the strings which come with federal money. During a Common Core briefing at the Cato Institute this week, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) said he would introduce the LEARN Act – Local Education Authority Returns Now. The proposal would keep education funding at the […]
Few districts faced as many issues during the past school year as Manatee County. Superintendent Tim McGonegal resigned in September, shortly after the school district learned accounting problems meant a multi-million budget shortfall. Since then the school district and its board have tried to figure out what happened, how the problem grew so large and […]
UPDATE: We’ve added Senate President Don Gaetz’ response at the end. Florida TaxWatch has released its annual list of “turkeys” found in the proposed state budget. TaxWatch bills itself as an “independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy research institute and government watchdog.” The group targets 107 items for veto, including some education-related projects. Gov. Rick Scott […]
Lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott reached a compromise on $480 million in raises for teachers and other school workers. The raises are part of a $74 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Districts will have flexibility in how the money is awarded based on local collective bargaining agreements. The Governor’s Office […]
Florida Department of Education staff told the State Board of Education the agency overestimated the amount of money needed to upgrade school technology next year by $342 million. The agency based its request on a dated school district survey from 2011, and districts have upgraded their bandwidth and available computers since then. In addition, the […]
Sara LaBarbera is teaching 6th graders at Walker Middle School near Tampa how to research poets using an online library. One student, working on a series of questions about a Lewis Carroll poem, asks LaBarbera for help. He has the pieces, but doesn’t quite know how to put them together. LaBarbera knows how to ask […]
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 […]
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »