A 10th grader born in Haiti struggles to read in his class at Godby High School in Tallahassee. The student is more comfortable with Haitian Creole than English. Teacher Althea Valle has students of various nationalities trying to master the language. “It’s a challenge,” Valle says. “There’s a lot of gesturing, and you know sometimes I […]
Florida is backing out of its role as a leader on the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessment. The PARCC consortium is made up of 18 states and the District of Columbia. The states are working together to develop a new, multistate assessment test that would measure students’ achievement in […]
A new report finds Florida’s public university system is a good model in affordability for the rest of the country. Florida Rising: An Assessment of Public Universities in the Sunshine State analyzed cost, administrative and academic spending, curriculum, and graduation rates at Florida’s 11 universities. (Florida Polytechnic University – the 12th in the system – […]
Florida spent $8,887 on each public school student in 2011, making it one of the lowest states in the nation for per-pupil spending. The totals from the U.S. Census Bureau – including federal revenue – were compiled before Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature cut about $1.3 billion from education funding. Since then, the state has […]
Gov. Rick Scott has signed a budget that’s very different than the one he’s been paying for since he authorized massive education cuts two years ago. Back then, pundits speculated Scott may have sealed his fate as a one term governor when he proposed a few billion dollars worth of cuts to education. Scott, for […]
Gov. Rick Scott spoke to reporters this afternoon about his decision to cut $368 million out of the $74.5 billion budget sent to him by the Florida Legislature. One of the items he cut would have boosted tuition at state colleges and universities by 3 percent. “In my case and my wife’s case, we didn’t […]
Gov. Rick Scott signed the 2013-14 state budget into law today. He also sent a letter to Secretary of State Ken Detzner explaining his decision to veto a tuition hike. “We are also holding the line on tuition by vetoing the Legislature’s recommended 3 percent tuition increase on our college and university students,” the governor […]
Gov. Rick Scott filled three slots on the State Board of Education Thursday, reappointing John Padget of Key West and appointing Ada Armas of Coral Gables and John Colon of University Park. Colon, an executive with Wells Fargo Advisers, replaces Akshay “A.K.” Desai, who resigned from the board. Desai is a major Republican Party fundraiser, […]
Dozens of candidates have applied for the Commissioner of Education post. Interim Commissioner Pam Stewart is not one of them, although she has suggested she’d be willing to stay in the job. She has support on opposing sides of the aisle in Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Education Association. She was tapped by the […]
Gov. Rick Scott asked seven school district superintendents last September to come up with recommendations for cutting red tape in education. The goal was to save money and give teachers more time to focus on teaching instead of unnecessary paperwork. The committee has provided a list of more than fifty recommendations based on the governor’s […]
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