{"id":3843,"date":"2011-12-27T11:16:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T16:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2012-01-11T15:08:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T20:08:25","slug":"six-education-bills-to-watch-in-the-florida-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/12\/27\/six-education-bills-to-watch-in-the-florida-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Education Bills To Watch In The Florida Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OpenClipArt.com<\/p>

Here's six bills to watch in the upcoming legislative session.<\/p><\/div>\n

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is something of a slow news week for education reporters.<\/p>\n

But lawmakers return to Tallahassee next month, so we’ll spend a few days getting you up to speed on what to expect this legislative session and who the key players are.<\/p>\n

Here’s six bills that could set the tone on education for the Legislative session.<\/p>\n

1) The budget<\/strong> — Florida has cut 18.1 percent from its school budget<\/a> since the Great Recession began in 2008, sixth-most in the country. Gov. Rick Scott has proposed a budget adding $1 billion <\/a>to K-12 schools.<\/p>\n

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The additional money would stop the bleeding from three years of budget cuts, but Florida Democrats note the money plugs the cuts that Scott pushed last year.<\/p>\n

Legislative leadership has sounded lukewarm about Scott’s proposal<\/a>, but the governor has threatened to veto any budget that does not add money to schools.<\/p>\n

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2) Charter School funding<\/strong> — HB 903<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0SB 1852<\/a>\u00a0— This is the only priority<\/a> of the Florida Charter School Alliance, a new industry group with ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush’s education foundations.<\/p>\n

The bill would require school districts to distribute local school levies on a per student basis for both district schools and charter schools.<\/p>\n

Right now school boards decide how much of those local tax levies charter schools receive — which is very little in most counties.<\/p>\n

Florida charter schools received an average of $2,700 less per student<\/a> than district schools in 2009, according to a study by Ball State University researchers. More than $2,000 of that difference was because few local school districts give local levy money to charter schools.<\/p>\n

The state would adjust its portion of funding to compensate for the difference if any districts do not comply.<\/p>\n

The bill also changes the high-performing charter law approved last year. The law allows schools that have received a grade no lower than a B once in the past three years an expedited application and appeal process to expand\u00a0 or open a new charter mimicking the original.<\/p>\n

The changes would allow charter school operators to open up to three charters — it’s now one — mimicking a high-performing charter in a county each year.<\/p>\n

School boards in Polk and Seminole county are challenging the law in court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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3) McKay Scholarships<\/strong> — No bill yet — A Miami New Times<\/em> investigation<\/a> showed woeful oversight of the McKay Scholarship for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

The McKay Scholarships provides tuition vouchers for students with disabilities to attend private schools. The program serves more than 22,000 students at a cost of $150 million a year.<\/p>\n

But some operators were using substandard facilities — or no facilities at all, teaching classes in public parks.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Rick Kriseman took notice and has recommended changes to the program.<\/p>\n

No bill has been filed yet, and any proposal sponsored by a Democrat could have a difficult time in the Republican-controlled Legislature.<\/p>\n

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