Florida Senate prepares its answer to wide-ranging House education bill

Last week, just hours before news reports began to emerge about a teenager's murderous rampage through a Broward County high school, a bipartisan group of Florida Senators was preparing to tackle mental health funding.

They advanced SB 1434. Among other things, the bill would create a new mental health funding allocation for public schools. That proposal could take on new importance after the mass shooting, as questions emerge about gaps in the state's mental health system for students.

And it could soon be part of a much bigger legislative debate.

The same legislation would also change the state's rules governing public school facilities and charter school real estate transactions. And it appears poised to enter a larger fray over this legislative session's most far-reaching education bill.

The Senate Education Committee tomorrow will hear House Bill 7055. A strike-everything amendment filed by Senate Education Chairwoman Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, would add the provisions from SB 1434. It would also make a number of tweaks to the bill the House has already approved.

Among them:

• Instead of a House proposal that would allow school districts to create networks of "autonomous schools," the bill would adopt the Senate's "franchise school" approach. Districts could place principals who run high-performing schools in charge of low-performing turnaround schools at the same time. They could share resources between campuses.
• The Senate would keep its approach to Hope Scholarship eligibility. School administrators would have to find a reported incident of bullying or violence was "substantiated" before the victim could qualify for a scholarship to a private school or a transfer to a new public school.
• A House proposal to create a new education savings account program that parents could use to support struggling readers who attend public schools would be eliminated.
• An overhaul of private school choice oversight would take the Senate's approach. Among other things, it would require newly hired private school teachers in grades 2 and higher to hold at least a bachelor's degree.

A proposal increasing regulation of teachers unions would remain intact and could draw outsize focus as Senators debate the bill.

As for the mental health allocation, Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton and a future Senate President, has said he intends to push for $100 million in funding for student mental health services, as part of a six-point response to Wednesday's shooting. The current version of the Senate's budget includes $40 million.