While the Easter Bunny is delivering festive eggs this week, the Florida Education Association said lawmakers are trying to take a chunk out of teachers’ nest eggs. The teacher’s union held a news conference in Tallahassee blasting state leaders for trying to impose “changes to the pension system that guarantee retirement insecurity.” The Florida Legislature […]
Depending on your viewpoint, the American Legislative Exchange Council is either a forum for lawmakers to discuss conservative-minded legislation or a secretive organization leading the charge to privatize public education. But the group is a little less secretive Friday after posting hundreds of pieces of “model legislation” online. The bills are templates lawmakers can adapt […]
Teachers and other state workers will have to continue contributing 3 percent of their salary to their retirement. The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the pension law passed by the Legislature in 2011 will stand. Now, the state teachers union is blasting lawmakers for imposing what it calls a tax on working families. The […]
In 2011 lawmakers approved a law requiring public employees — including teachers — pay 3 percent of their salary into their retirement account. Public employee unions challenged the law, arguing it unconstitutionally changes a contract with workers and violates workers’ right to collectively bargain pay and benefits. A circuit court overturned the law, but Thursday […]
California-based StudentsFirst has released a report card grading states on their education policy. Florida earned the second-highest grade in the country, a B-, behind only Louisiana. No state earned an A. The biggest reason Florida scored well? The 2011 Students Success Act, which requires teacher evaluations partially based on test scores, eliminates long-term contracts for […]
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 […]
Students will find out in June if they’ll be required to take an extra hour of reading instruction next school year because of low Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. But we didn’t have to wait long to get your reaction to the new law. Jose likes the idea, citing the benefits of additional class time in […]
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. The Florida Education Association says this is unconstitutional and has been fighting […]
The Florida Education Association sends a helpful reminder that two lawsuits they filed are heading to Circuit Court in Tallahassee this week. The first case challenges a new state law which requires state employees take a 3 percent pay cut in order to pay a portion of their pension benefits. The suit argues the law […]
First grade teacher Elton Wright feels powerless. He and his wife, also a teacher, are absorbing a 3 percent cut in pay required earlier this year by the Florida Legislature. “People are angry,” said Wright, who teaches at Eagle’s Nest Elementary School in Orange County. “They feel as though this was forced on them. There […]
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