Hurricane Michael: Hurricane Michael blasted ashore near Mexico Beach on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, making it the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in nearly 50 years and the most powerful to hit the Panhandle since records have been kept. Schools in 21 Florida counties are closed again today while officials assess the damage, and five of those districts will be closed again Friday. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. GateHouse Media. Panama City News Herald. Pensacola News Journal. Northwest Florida Daily News. Citrus County Chronicle. Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee Democrat. Miami Herald. Tampa Bay Times. Orlando Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. WJCT. The Sarasota County School District cancels a digital town hall meeting because of the hurricane. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Hair policies protested: The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is asking the Florida Department of Education to review what it calls "racist" hair policies at private schools that receive money from state scholarship programs. Several students have been banned from schools recently for wearing dreadlocks, braids and other traditionally African-American hairstyles. “The forms of racial discrimination most commonly seen in education have evolved. It is now rare to find a policy that explicitly excludes potential students based on skin color,” says the letter. “However, subtle rules and restrictions based on racial stereotypes and proxies have the same force and effect.” Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer four state scholarship programs. Huffington Post. (more…)

Desegregation case: The NAACP Legal Defense Fund says the Pinellas County School District is not complying with the 1964 court order governing the district's anti-discrimination efforts. So the plaintiffs in Bradley vs. Pinellas County School Board are asking a federal court to intervene to force the district to give more help to struggling black students. Another plaintiff, in the case of Crowley vs. the Pinellas County School Board, made a similar decision in April. Tampa Bay Times.

School choice debate: School choice has turned traditional civil rights allies into opponents in Florida. On one side are ministers who say the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program gives students a chance at a better education. On the other side are the Florida NAACP and teachers unions who call the program unconstitutional because it takes money from public schools. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, administers the program. Miami Times.

Teacher bonuses: Amendments continue to be added to the teacher bonuses section of one of the two big education bills in the Senate. So the vote, which was expected Wednesday, is being put off while senators sort through the proposed changes. Miami Herald.

District grades: How can a school district get an A grade when it has so many C schools? That, and other questions about the state's grading formula, are explained. Tallahassee Democrat. (more…)