Editor’s note: Trevor Aaronson is with the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Florida’s Department of Education has launched an investigation of K12, the nation’s largest online educator, over allegations the company uses uncertified teachers and asked employees to help cover up the practice. K12 officials told certified teachers to sign class rosters that included students […]
Do you have a right to pension benefits in a right-to-work state? That’s one big question the state Supreme Court is facing in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of changing Florida’s pension requirements. In 2011, lawmakers needed to plug a multi-billion budget hole and saw a chance to save the state almost a billion dollars […]
Florida had the fifth-largest increase in per-student school funding this year, according to a new ranking from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Florida added $1 billion in additional K-12 funding in the current budget, moving the state to the middle of the pack for percentage of education funding cut since 2008. Last year […]
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will attend a screening of a new movie dramatizing the national debate over so-called parent trigger legislation during the Republican National Convention. The screening of “Won’t Back Down” is sponsored by StudentsFirst, a national advocacy group which has pushed states — including Florida — to adopt parent trigger laws. The […]
Editor’s note: We’ve followed up this post answering some questions about the data raised by readers. Florida keeps two sets of seclusion data. State officials say school districts should record incidents of seclusion in both sets of data, but admit that it does not happen. As a result, Florida Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters […]
A judge has handed parents in a California desert town a major victory in their efforts to force changes at a failing elementary school. The parents at Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto are trying to become the first school in the nation to successfully use a ‘parent trigger’ law. The law says parent can choose […]
Florida will have fewer kids enrolled in traditional public schools in the coming years. That’s the consensus of the Education Enrollment Conference. The panel of state economists and legislative staffers is compiling projections for public schools over the next decade. The reason for the enrollment forecast is money. The panel recommends school district renovation and […]
Spanking in school may seem like a relic of the past. But in Florida, students from preschoolers to high school seniors are still being paddled by teachers and principals. In parts of the state, mostly in the rural north, getting spanked at school, on your butt, with a wooden or fiberglass board, is just part […]
Last night comedian — er — conservative talk show host Stephen Colbert took on the story of Dawn Quarles, a teacher at Pace High School in the Panhandle. Quarles faces a $1,000 fine for charges she violated Florida’s new law placing strict limits on who can register voters. Colbert declared Quarles, and other teachers, were […]
A bill seen mostly as an effort to give immigrant families cheaper college tuition rates has died in the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee. The failed SB 106 would have allowed undocumented students and legal Florida residents with undocumented parents to pay in-state tuition rates, which are up to three times less expensive than the out-of-state […]
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