Education savings accounts. Bills filed Friday and Saturday would create a new mechanism for funding school choice options. Tallahassee Democrat.

Charter schools. Some 1,200 students apply for 650 slots at a new charter in Viera, reports Florida Today. An overwhelming majority of parents and teachers vote against the proposed conversion of a Key Biscayne school into a charter, reports Miami Herald. The Palm Beach school district is recommending that its board shut down three charters, reports the Palm Beach Post. The Pepin Academies, a charter that serves disabled students in Tampa, wants to open a campus in Pasco, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

School choice. Pasco Superintendent Kurt Browning is merging the district's choice programs - open enrollment, charters, career academies, etc. - in one department. Gradebook.

Parents. At Jacksonville's first-ever ed summit, Duval Superintendent Nikolai Vitti reiterates that he wants to transform how the district views parents. Florida Times Union.

Common Core. Tampa Bay Times overview of what's coming - and whether it can happen according to schedule. Part one here. Part two here.

Legislative preview. "Reforming school reform." Tampa Bay Times.

New faces. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Laurene Powell Jobs have joined the board of directors for the Foundation for Excellence in Education. EdFly Blog. (more…)

The school district in Pasco County, Fla. is as good a place as any to check in for quick, local snapshot of the education transformation underway in the Sunshine State.

Student enrollment ticked up a tad this year for the district’s traditional public schools, but it jumped markedly for charter schools and private schools accepting tax credit scholarships.

According to the Tampa Bay Times this week, Florida’s 11th biggest school district counts 64,023 students at this point in the school year, up 178 from last year. Meanwhile, the number of charter school students reached 2,215 – up 253 from last year.

For one private learning option, the trend line is even steeper (in part because the overall numbers are much smaller). In 2010-11, 311 students in Pasco used tax-credit scholarships to attend private schools, according to Step Up For Students data. Last year, there was 484. As of yesterday, there was 607.

Statewide, the number of tax-credit scholarships has topped 48,000 so far this year, up from 40,249 last year. Among the state’s 12 biggest districts, Pasco’s year-to-year increase of 25 percent ranks third, behind Polk (30 percent) and Palm Beach (29 percent) and ahead of Miami-Dade (22 percent).