Update, 6:30 p.m.: The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday approved the legislation on a 7-4, party-line vote.
Out-of-state charter school networks could be able to gain a greater foothold in Florida, and charter school boards would have to show their members are "independent of any management company" under a proposed rewrite of school choice legislation a state Senate panel is set to take up later today.
The measure would merge many of the charter school and parental rights provisions proposed this legislative session into a single bill, SB 1552 by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers.
Among other things, the proposed rewrite would:
Sen. John Legg
Draw up a detailed plan for using technology in the classroom, and get a funding boost in return.
That was the bargain offered to Florida public schools under digital learning legislation passed last year — one that many school districts found valuable. Charter schools, however, were less likely to take part.
Next year, with more funding expected to be on the table, charter schools would be required to join districts in the technology planning process under a bill filed this week by the chair of the state Senate's education committee.
Sen. John Legg, R-Trinity, has proposed an update to the "digital classrooms" legislation he authored last year. The new measure would require districts to get input from state technology experts on their digital classroom plans.
Charter schools were included in last year's legislation. The majority of them did submit technology plans to their local districts, allowing them to receive added technology funding. The updated legislation would clarify that they're required to do so.
They're expected to have more reason to participate. Gov. Rick Scott has proposed doubling the current $40 million in digital classrooms funding in next year's state budget, and Legg and other lawmakers have also said they plan to increase funding for classroom technology now that schools have plans in place to help them use it wisely.
The new legislation would also make it easier for charters to fill out their technology plans, by requiring the state Department of Education to create a streamlined form they could submit online.
Charter schools. Two South Florida charter schools are poised to shut down. Sun-Sentinel.
Tax credit scholarships. A scholarship student makes the case for the program on WFSU and to Super Bowl viewers. A Palm Beach Post columnist likens the program to "money laundering."
Testing. State Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, files major testing legislation. Times/Herald. Sun-Sentinel. Tampa Tribune. Fort Myers News-Press. Saint Petersblog. Sunshine State News. A teacher likens the state's testing transition to a drug trial. Palm Beach Post.
Bills. The Palm Beach school district may soon be able to send bill collectors after parents for things like school lunches and field trip fees. Sun-Sentinel.
Advanced Placement. An Alachua County student receives a rare perfect score on an AP test. Gainesville Sun.
Some things for school choice will be different after Tuesday, when the Florida Legislature holds its annual organizational session and sets the tone for the next two years. In the wake of the Nov. 4 elections, there will be more Republicans, more school choice supporters and more potential for a new coalition to take Florida’s already ahead-of-the-curve education policy into uncharted territory.
Of the 22 new members expected to be sworn in to the Florida House, six are GOP members who ousted Democratic incumbents. Four of the defeated Democrats sat on education committees and were vocal opponents of parental choice legislation. They were elected in swing districts in 2012, a year in which the statewide teachers union and its allies claimed a series of electoral victories. According to media reports, they were targeted this year by outside groups that supported school choice.
Rep. Karen Castor Dentel
“It would make sense that they would go after their biggest critic,” Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, D-Maitland, one of three public school teachers in that group, told the Miami Herald. Earlier this year, she was a leading opponent of wide-ranging legislation that created or expanded school choice programs, including tax credit scholarships and new education savings accounts for students with special needs. (Both programs are administered by nonprofits such as Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.)
Castor Dentel was defeated by Bob Cortes, a businessman and city commissioner in Longwood. He said Democrats paid for ads and mail pieces portraying him as "this big bad wolf" who was "going to try to take money away from public schools" to fund charter schools and private school vouchers. Voters, he said, "didn't buy that."
"They went after me for my stance on school choice and I think it backfired," he said.
Lawsuits. School choice advocates are stepping up their advocacy against a lawsuit challenging Florida's tax credit scholarships. Palm Beach Post. The program is administered by organizations like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.
Charter schools. A Mantee charter honors Veterans Day. Bradenton Herald. An astronaut visits autistic students at a Palm Beach charter school. Extra Credit.
Testing. The New York Times airs parents' complaints about testing. State Sen. John Legg says school board members with concerns about testing and other issues should pick up the phone and talk to their legislators. Gradebook.
Teachers unions. One union pickets another in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Post.
Reading instruction. A Miami-Dade teacher challenges his students to read one million words a year. StateImpact.
Moms. Half a dozen nursing mothers defend the right to breastfeed in public at an Okaloosa County School Board meeting. Northwest Florida Daily News.
Charter schools. A proposed charter school at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base is expected not to be considered Tuesday as originally planned. Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Tribune. Some Lee charter applicants have ties to schools that failed in the past. Naples Daily News. Lawmakers say changes to charter laws will be on the table in the spring legislative session. Daily News.
Campaigns. Education Week looks at the education policy implications of Florida's governor's race, including Charlie Crist's shifting position on tax credit scholarships. The Tampa Bay Times lambastes Gov. Rick Scott's education record in an editorial. Floridians, including teachers and students, receive official messages from the governor that are criticized as "politicking." Miami Herald.
Digital learning. It's on the rise in Flagler and Volusia. Daytona Beach News-Journal. A Catholic school switches to electronic textbooks. Ocala Star-Banner.
Lawsuits. FEA's legal setback prompts the Tampa Bay Times to dub the union "loser of the week" in Florida politics.
Special needs. When other methods fail, parents sometimes resort to social media to demand services for their special needs children. Tampa Bay Times. A Miami-Dade family sues in the wake of the death of a child with autism. Miami Herald. A student with Down Syndrome is crowned homecoming king. Palm Beach Post.
Testing. Political scientists offer differing views on what impact anti-testing fervor will have on policy. Florida Today. Senate Education Chairman John Legg says duplicative assessments should be "put out to pasture." Miami Herald. Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho talks testing on PBS Newshour.
School choice. Palm Beach school officials consider converting some campuses to K-8 to draw more students. Palm Beach Post.
Lawsuits. Writers in the Tampa Tribune and National Review Online sharply criticize the lawsuit challenging Florida tax credit scholarships. A Tampa Bay Times columnist criticizes Gov. Rick Scott for opposing the lawsuit. State Sen. John Legg declines an award from one of the groups suing. Gradebook. redefinED.
Tax credit scholarships. My Fox Tampa Bay highlights a student attending a military-oriented private school his family feared would be out of reach.
Testing. The Lee County School Board may be poised to reverse its decision to "opt out" of standardized assessments. Fort Myers News-Press. More from the Orlando Sentinel and Miami Herald. The Palm Beach Post editorial board weighs in. The News-Press has live coverage of the school board's meeting this morning. New state tests will change the way students are asked to write. Florida Times-Union.
Campaigns. School choice, Common Core, and partisan politics converged in Indian River school board campaigns that ousted incumbents. Indian River Press Journal.
Private schools. A private school adds a STEM center with the help of some high-profile donors. Bradenton Herald.
Charter schools. Bay County charter schools are preparing to set up their own shared busing system. Panama City News Herald. A rare charter conversion comes to Manatee. Bradenton Herald.
Advanced Placement. More Pasco students are taking AP classes, and their performance is improving. Gradebook.
Advocacy. StudentsFirst is winding down in a total of five states. Education Week.
Acceleration. State Sen. John Legg talks up the benefits of collegiate high schools in the Lakeland Ledger.
Testing. A Collier County teacher is fired, accused of helping students cheat. Naples Daily News. An Orange County elementary school student strings together a series of perfect FCATs. Orlando Sentinel.
Tax credit scholarships. The St. Augustine Record corrects falsehoods printed in a recent guest column.
Safety. A private school teacher is arrested for child pornography. Daytona Beach News-Journal. The Okaloosa school board votes to put resource deputies in all schools. Northwest Florida Daily News.
Administration. A Lee County principal resigns amid turmoil. Fort Myers News-Press. The principal at a struggling Collier County school is moving on. Naples Daily News. Manatee schools train administrators in data-driven decision making. Bradenton Herald.
Gov. Scott
Florida continues its national pace setting on parental choice under a bill signed into law today by Gov. Rick Scott.
SB 850 allows more students to qualify for the nation's largest publicly funded private school choice program, which is expected to serve more than 67,000 low-income students this fall. It makes Florida the second state in the nation to offer new personalized learning scholarship accounts for special needs students.
Those changes helped make the bill one of the most contentious of the state's 2014 legislative session.
The bill mandates more state oversight of organizations that administer the scholarship program. (Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog, is the only organization doing so at the moment).
The bill also increases the financial incentives for schools to expand career academies. And a provision backed by Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz will push the state's community colleges to offer at least one "collegiate high school" program in every school district in the state, which would allow students to finish a year's worth of college credits before graduating high school.
"Finally, every student in each of Florida’s 67 school districts is afforded the opportunity for advancement through a collegiate high school, and is more adequately prepared for their future careers," Legg said in a statement.
The portion of the bill dealing with tax credit scholarships increases the scholarship amount; removes the requirement that in order to qualify, students in grades 6-12 must have been in public school the year prior; and, beginning in 2016, offers partial scholarships to working-class families with incomes up to 260 percent of the federal poverty level.
The scholarship program is funded by corporations that get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for their contributions. The original legislation included a modest increase in the state-imposed spending cap, which will be $357.8 million next year. The final bill included no change.
Critics of the scholarship program, including the statewide teachers union, seized on the fact that participating students do not take the same assessments as their counterparts in public schools. They are required to take standardized tests, and schools are required to report the results to an independent researcher for analysis.
"Public schools face a strict accountability regimen that includes frequent testing, school grades and punitive actions for not meeting state mandates,” Joanne McCall, vice president of the Florida Education Association, said in a statement, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “But taxpayer dollars flowing to voucher schools require very little accountability and can in no way be compared to what is required for public schools.
The personal learning scholarship accounts will allow parents of certain special-needs students to access 90 percent of the funding a school district would have received for that student, and to direct it to a wide range of uses, including private school tuition, tutoring programs and therapy sessions. The Legislature set aside $18.4 million for the program for the 2014-15 school year.
Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, is among the new program's key backers. He is the father of a child with Down syndrome and is set to take over as Senate President after the November elections. He has said he intends to support policies that allow children with disabilities to graduate high school ready to enter the workforce.
In a statement, he said the accounts will allow parents to "make certain our students receive an education tailored to their unique abilities."
Other coverage: Orlando Sentinel. Gradebook. Education Week. Associated Press, News Service of Florida, SaintPetersBlog, Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times, WFSU.
Florida school districts will have to come up with a detailed strategy for using technology in their classrooms under a bill Gov. Rick Scott approved today alongside the state budget.
The governor approved the $77 billion spending plan that sets aside additional funding for "digital classrooms," as well as legislation that could set the stage for increases in the coming years.
Requests for money to help school districts upgrade their technology infrastructure and train their teachers to use the devices has varied widely in recent years, from a request of more than $400 million last year to the $40 million the state Board of Education sought this year.
Key lawmakers, including Senate Education Chairman John Legg, R-Trinity, said one reason for the variation is state officials often don't have reliable information on school districts' digital learning needs.
For that reason, Legg sponsored a bill requiring districts to set specific digital learning goals tied to improving student achievement, and allowing them to receive dedicated funding tied to those goals. That legislation made its way into a larger education funding package Scott signed today. In a statement responding to Scott's signing of HB 5101, Legg said the governor "understands the vital need for a continued focus in digital education in the classroom."
The first round of district digital learning plans is due to the state Department of Education in October. Those plans will then be tied to funding in the budget. The amount is $40 million in the spending plan that takes effect July 1, but it could increase in future years once the plans are in place. The legislation sets an annual funding target of about $100 million.
Scott took a light touch with line-item vetoes, approving most of the education-related projects in the budget. However, he rejected $300,000 in funding that would have gone to help train teachers at single-gender schools in Duval and Broward counties.
