Budget agreement: The state's proposed $88.7 billion budget includes $21.1 billion for K-12 schools, an increase of $485 million over last year to boost per-student spending by $101.50, to $7,408. Much of the overall 7.6 percent budget hike is driven by increased spending for school security. “It put everything else we were working on, on a back burner,” says Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. “A lot of projects have fallen out. And money had to be reprioritized. It’s not often that you go into session and have to make a $400 million adjustment midstream.” The earliest a budget vote can be taken is Sunday, since state law requires a 72-hour "cooling off" period after a budget agreement is reached. News Service of Florida. Tampa Bay Times. GateHouse. The budget deal boosts the amount of construction money for charter schools, and the way the money is raised and distributed could ease tensions between charters and their local districts. redefinED. A $500,000 grant for a famed Miami arts high school was cut from the state budget by legislative leaders. New World School of the Arts was the home of Tarell Alvin McCraney, who won the 2017 Academy Award for his screenplay for Moonlight, which won the award for best picture. Politico Florida.
School shooting developments: According to law enforcement communications during the Parkland school shooting, released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resource officer Scot Peterson radioed that gunfire was happening inside Building 12, and he warned other officers to stay away. Peterson, who was called a coward by President Trump, has insisted publicly that he believed the gunfire was happening outside. Miami Herald. Sun-Sentinel. Listen to some of the 911 calls. Miami Herald. Sun-Sentinel. A judge will review the video from outside the shooting scene before deciding if it will be made public. Sun-Sentinel. Accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz withdraws his not guilty plea to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder and is instead "standing mute," his lawyers say. Sun-Sentinel. Student activists from Stoneman Douglas High lease office space as they prepare to launch their #Never Again movement nationwide. CBS News.
School safety bill: Lawmakers from both parties say they expect Gov. Rick Scott to sign the $400 million school safety bill that would, among other things, allow some employees to carry guns in schools. Scott has said he doesn't want to arm teachers, but the final bill calls for school personnel other than fulltime teachers to be armed voluntarily, and most of the rest of the bill is in line with what he has advocated. Scott meets with families of the school shooting today. The bill also increases the legal age to buy long guns to 21, imposes a three-day waiting period to buy weapons, bans bump stocks and allows police to take guns from people judged to be mentally defective or in danger of harming themselves or others. Politico Florida. Miami Herald. The Florida Education Association urges Scott to veto funds for arming school personnel. Orlando Sentinel. Putting an armed resource officer into all the state's schools would cost about $116 million, according to a recent Florida Department of Education survey. Gradebook. Legal experts say a school employee carrying a gun could be sued in civil court in an accidental shooting or if the gun is lost or stolen and later used in a crime. Reuters. Is the 132 hours of gun training for school employees detailed in the school safety bill enough? USA Today. Flagler County School Superintendent James Tager says his district won't be arming any school workers other than law enforcement officers. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Bay County School Superintendent Bill Husfelt says he would consider arming school employees. Panama City News Herald. (more…)
Yesterday, the New York Times published a profile of an illustrious public arts academy in Miami-Dade County.
It suggests magnet schools like New World School of the Arts can unify different camps in the often-fraught school choice debate.
Though Democrats and Republicans are at sharp odds over the direction, funding and effectiveness of public education and school choice, schools of the arts often bridge the partisan divide.
Many of them are magnet schools, which grew out of a hard-fought battle: desegregation. The hope was that by removing geographic barriers to admission, magnet schools would attract students with a special interest, be it science and technology or the arts, from both high-performing and underperforming schools.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools have long pushed to expand options. Their superintendent once memorably declared his intent to ride the "tsunami of choice," rather than fight it. And there's some oft-overlooked overlap between school choice advocates and advocates for arts education. (more…)
H.B. 7069 lawsuit: The Sarasota County School Board votes against joining other districts in a proposed lawsuit against the state over the new education law, H.B. 7069. Board member Bridget Ziegler proposed a motion to “suspend all consideration or further allocation of resources toward the support of any potential litigation challenging House Bill 7069,” which was adopted. She said the vote gave the district an “opportunity to send a message that we are above the political theater” of wasting “time, money, and intellectual capital” on legal fees. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Sunshine State News. Duval County School Board chairwoman Paula Wright says a proposed audit is unlikely to explain how the district overspent its budget by $21 million last year, and criticizes state Rep. Jason Fischer, R-Jacksonville, for requesting it. Fischer also condemned the board for considering joining a lawsuit against the new state education law. Wright's reply: “We are not going to be pushed or bullied … to do things quickly for the benefit of others.” Florida Times-Union. A review of text messages details the last-minute fighting in the Legislature over H.B. 7069. Politico Florida.
Teacher evaluations: Florida school districts haven’t lived up to the “spirit” of the state’s 2011 teacher evaluation law, according to a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. In most places, the report says, teachers can still get a larger pay bump for having a master’s degree than for receiving a “highly effective” evaluation. National Council on Teacher Quality.
Charter funding: The Broward County School Board agrees to share some of the property tax money it collects with the five-school charter system owned and operated by the city of Pembroke Pines. The city has been asking for money from the district since 2005. The board said its decision to share applies only to the Pembroke Pines schools and not schools owned and operated by charter companies. A new state law calls for districts to share local property taxes collected with charter schools, but Broward and several other districts say they will be filing a suit challenging the constitutionality of it. Sun Sentinel.
School budgets: The Hillsborough County School Board gives tentative approval to a $2.9 billion budget. Tampa Bay Times. The Bay County School Board tentatively approves a $376 million budget, an increase of $18 million over last year despite a slightly lower proposed millage rate. Panama City News Herald.
Education budget: Leaders in the Florida Senate and House agree over the weekend to an increase of about 1.2 percent in K-12 per-student funding, from $7,196 to $7,220. They also agreed to provide $200 million to recruit charter school networks - the "schools of hope" plan - and $214 million for the teacher bonuses program. Legislators are expected to decide today what schools will get for construction projects. A tentative agreement would give about $69 million each to traditional public schools and charters for construction and maintenance. Universities would get $116.6 million for construction projects. Naples Daily News. Politico Florida. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. Miami Herald. Florida Politics. Legislators are considering adding money for social services at struggling traditional public schools to the "schools of hope" bill. Politico Florida. The Legislature begins its final week with such high-profile education issues as mandatory daily recess and standardized testing still on the list of things to do. Orlando Sentinel. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Miami arts high school that produced the creators of the Oscar-winning movie Moonlight and the Broadway hit Hamilton gets a reprieve when the Legislature reverses a decision to withhold state grant money. Originally, funding for the New World School of the Arts was slashed from the budget. After news of the cut was made public, $500,000 for the school was put back into the budget. That's still $150,000 less than the school received this year. Miami Herald. House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, tweets that the problem getting mandatory daily recess in the state's elementary schools rests with Gov. Rick Scott, not the Legislature. He did not elaborate, and a spokeswoman for Scott said she has “no idea what that tweet means. We have continued to say that we will review it if it passes.” Miami Herald.
Drug-testing students: The Monroe County School Board agrees to drug-test athletes and other students involved in extracurricular activities for a year. After the test, results will be reported to the board, which will decide if it wants to continue. Drug-testing of athletes was halted in 2014 after a parent complained that her daughter was pulled from class, taken to a drug-court facility and tested without her knowledge. Keynoter.
K-12 sexual assaults: There were about 17,000 reports of sexual assault in K-12 schools in the United States between 2011 and 2015, according to state education records and federal crime data. And that number is considered low because many students don't report sexual assaults and some states don't track them. Associated Press.
Teaching acceptance: Chris Ulmer, a special education teacher at Mainspring Academy in Jacksonville, is traveling the country filming interviews with children who have conditions such as autism and Down syndrome. He says each interview teaches an appreciation and acceptance for the differences in people. "No matter their level of communication, some are verbal, some are nonverbal, that doesn't matter," Ulmer says. "That's not indicative of intelligence. Everybody is understanding the world in their own way and through these videos ... You can see that in each one." ABC News. (more…)
