We followed a number of school choice issues during the course of Florida's 60-day legislative session, and most of them were resolved during the last few days. Here's a look at which choice-related bills and ideas are making their way to Gov. Rick Scott's desk, and which are not.

Passed

Personal learning accounts:  Florida could soon become the second state in the nation (after Arizona) to offer students an account-based school choice option. The state budget sets aside $18.4 million for scholarship accounts, which would be aimed at special needs students and administered by scholarship funding organizations like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog. The accounts could be used to reimburse parents for therapies or other educational needs for their children.

Tax credit scholarships: The same piece of legislation that would create personal learning accounts, SB 850, would expand eligibility for tax credit scholarships by creating new partial scholarships for students with household incomes up to about $62,000 for a family of four. It would also create new accountability requirements for scholarship funding organizations.

Collegiate high schools: SB 850 would also expand collegiate high schools, which allow students to complete up to a year's worth of college credits though dual enrollment. Community colleges would be required to offer a collegiate high school program through each school district in their service area.

Career education: The same legislation would also do away with the $60 million statewide cap on bonuses for schools where students earn industry certifications, increasing the financial incentive for school districts to expand career academies. It also expands industry-certification opportunities for students in elementary and middle school.

Digital learning: This year's education funding legislation would overhaul the way the state plans and pays for school technology. It would require school districts and the state to come up with five-year technology plans, which will be tied to student performance and used to guide their spending of a new $40 million "digital classrooms allocation" - an amount that could increase in future years.

Single-gender schools: Lawmakers approved legislation creating requirements for single-gender school programs, and provided some seed money to help them train teachers and prepare for an expansion around the state.

Did not pass

Charter schools: This wasn't the year for a bill aimed at requiring standard charter-school contracts and bolstering efforts to attract new charter operators from outside the state. It passed the House but not the Senate. The bill foundered in part because some lawmakers in the Senate wanted to give the state more time to implement last year's charter school bill.

Dual enrollment: Last year's push to overhaul the way the state funds dual enrollment courses created a financial dilemma for private schools. Efforts to address that issue by exempting private schools from payment requirements did not make their way into law.

Virtual school: A proposed overhaul of Florida Virtual School's funding model did not make its way into law, and no bill passed this session would address the funding of virtual courses taken by students with McKay scholarships. Virtual schools are expected to receive a slight funding increase in next year's budget.

Extracurricular activities: A House bill opening more school district extracurricular activities to home-school, private school and virtual school students did not pass the Senate.

Early learning: Legislation creating tighter regulations for early learning providers died in the waning hours of the session after volleying between the House and Senate, despite passing both chambers unanimously at different points. Voluntary prekindergarten - the state's largest private school choice program - did receive a slight funding increase, its first in nearly six years.

Alabama: The Alabama Education Association, which opposes a new tax-credit scholarship program, says former Gov. Bob Riley has personally banked up to $1 million from it (he has made $0) (AL.com). The AEA is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to back Republican and Democrat candidates to run against lawmakers that support school choice. (AL.com).

Arizona: A bill to expand the education savings accounts program advances in the Senate (Arizona Capitol Times, Associated Press) but is defeated after nine Republicans vote no (Arizona Republic, Arizona Daily Star, Associated Press). Laurie Roberts, a columnist for the Arizona Republic, describes the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts expansion as a bill designed to weaken public schools. The accounts allow families access to special needs funds in order to customize the learning options for their children (Wall Street Journal, Jay P. Greene Blog). The editorial board for the Daily Courier says school choice should remain limited to public schools, including public charters. The accounts allow parents to save money for use in future education, including higher education, and David Saifer, a columnist for Tucson Weekly, seems to think  saving money is a terrible idea. So do public education officials (Arizona Capitol Times). A Democrat campaign manager says the accounts will destroy public education (Maricopa.com).

Delaware: State officials approve four new charter schools (The News Journal).

Florida: Steve Knellinger, an administrator at St. Petersburg Christian School, says tax-credit scholarships create more options and help improve student achievement (Tampa Bay Times). A mother of two tax-credit scholarship students is mad the PTA is fighting thel scholarships (Florida Times-Union). James Herzog, director of education for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, says there is good evidence to prove school choice expansion is needed (Palm Beach Post). Gov. Rick Scott is noncommittal on whether private schools accepting scholarship students should take the same state assessment as public schools (State Impact). The Florida Citizens for Science want private schools that accept tax-credit scholarships and vouchers to teach evolution by state standards (Tallahassee Democrat). A former Republican lawmaker says public schools should be fully funded before allowing voucher programs to expand (The Ledger).  Frank Cerabino, a columnist with the Palm Beach Post, says school choice has been around for a long time for those who can afford it. The Florida Times-Union editorial board says education achievement is getting better and solving poverty is a better solution to improving schools than attempting school choice. Eileen Roy, a school board member in Alachua County, thinks vouchers will destroy public schools (Gainesville Sun). Former state Senator Al Lawson says tax-credit scholarships serve some of the most disadvantaged students in the state and the program deserves to be expanded (Florida Today).

Democratic lawmakers blame charter schools for a decrease in state appropriated capital funding for public schools (Creative Loafing). Charter school critics claim charters get the lion's share of capital funds but the critics disregard local revenue sources (redefinED). Six single-gender charter schools will open over the next few years in the Jacksonville area (Florida Times-Union). (more…)

Alabama: The National School Choice Week nationwide whistle stop tour is making a trip to Alabama (AL.com).

Arizona: The state superintendent of public instruction urges the state supreme court to uphold the constitutionality of education savings accounts (Arizona Daily Sun). District officials in Prescott worry a new charter school will take away its best and brightest students (Daily Courier).

California: Parents in Los Angeles are getting more active in education issues, thanks to the help of civil rights groups, and they are helping decide school budgets and make leadership choices (LA Times).

Connecticut: The Stamford area school district is looking to build a new magnet school to solve overcrowding issues (Stamford Advocate).

Delaware: The Indian River School District will be initiating an advertising campaign aimed at retaining students in the district (Sussex Countian).

Florida: Julie Young, the CEO of Florida Virtual School, says FLVS does not "flunk" in its job to teach kids (Tallahassee Democrat). Miami-area magnet schools don't provide a lot of information about themselves, frustrating some parents looking at school choices (Miami Herald). Florida's budget is going to get sandwiched by a growing number of students and retirees unless the education system can improve enough to produce a more productive workforce (redefinED). The city of West Palm Beach is looking to start and run its own charter school to attract residents but one journalist doesn't think that is fair (Palm Beach Post). The Hillsborough County School District recommends an initial "no vote" on a proposed charter school at MacDill Air Force Basel but the school board will make the final call this week (redefinED, redefinED, Tampa Tribune, Tampa Bay Times). Reporting news from across the pond can be tough, but the British newspaper reports "right wing" groups plan to push for vouchers in Florida (the state already has tuition tax-credits and vouchers for pre-kindergarten and special needs kids (The Guardian).

Georgia: The superintendent in Fulton County endorses public school choice for parents (Heartlander).

Indiana: Gov. Mike Pence wants pre-k vouchers (Indianapolis Star). (more…)

Arizona: A charter school must repay $4.7 million in fees due to an inflated full-time enrollment count (Arizona Daily Sun). Charter schools are seeking $135 million in additional funding because they receive $1,100 per pupil less than traditional district schools (Arizona Daily Sun).

Florida: A state senator wants to restrict charter schools to specialized areas not currently served by district schools (The Florida Current). Charter schools learn to work with new transparency and open records rules (Daytona Beach News Journal). Homeschool students registered with private schools face fewer regulations ( WFSU). Florida has the third highest number of for-profit charter schools in the U.S. (Tampa Bay Times).

Georgia: Parents in Fulton County want school choice (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). The state isn't monitoring how charter schools spend public funds (Associated Press).

Louisiana: The state and U.S. Department of Justice must come up with an agreement to monitor the voucher program within 60 days (Heartlander). School choice wins, sort of, after DOJ changes its lawsuit to ask the court to approve transparency policies over the program (Huffington Post, Washington Times, The Christian Post, The Advocate). Forty-five percent of the students in Louisiana's voucher program attend a private school that is rated D or F (Times-Picayune).

Indiana: Charter schools in Indianapolis, thanks to the help of the mayor, will expand and grow next year (Chalk Beat). Indiana experienced a five-fold increase in vouchers and some schools now enroll a majority of voucher students (WNDU). A school board member in New Castle asks "who is profiting from vilifying" public schools (Courier Times)?

Massachusetts: A Catholic private school must raise $500,000 by June 2014 or the school will be shut down due to dwindling enrollment and rising costs (CBS Boston). (more…)

Arizona: A school board member in Gilbert proposes a district-wide voucher program (East Valley Tribune).

California: Charter schools now enroll 8.4 percent of the state's student population (Ed Source).

Colorado: Big bucks back education reformers in school board races (Denver Post, Daily Sentinel, Politico). Education reformers in Douglas County and Denver win re-election (Denver Post, Education Week, Our Colorado News). Voters turned down a tax increase that would have allowed non-profit charter schools to share in capital funds (New York Times). Could the Douglas County School Board move school choice mainstream (Daily Caller)?

D.C.: School choice is changing one life at a time (Daily Caller). D.C. charter school rankings have been released, showing 12 percent are low-performing with more than a third scoring as top performers (Washington Post).

Florida: Education reform and school choice may have played a role in Florida's continuing improvement on the NAEP test (redefinED, redefinED). Low-income children attending Florida's charter schools outperformed the statewide public school average for their peer group (Jaypgreene.com, Edfly). 10 lessons from Florida Virtual School (Education Week). Online courses with unlimited enrollment, called MOOCs (massive open online courses), are becoming popular in Florida (Tampa Bay Times). The state run Florida Virtual School is suing Florida Virtual Academy, arguing the similar name will confuse parents and students (WFTV).

Hawaii: An audit revealed the Department of Education was wasting millions on the food service program so the state told charter schools to find their own source to provide nutrition programs for low-income students (Huffington Post).

Kansas: The Friedman Foundation and Kansas Policy Institute testified before the state board of education on the need for school choice and education reform (Topeka Capital Journal). (more…)

District app: The Broward County school district redesigns its website to make it more parent-friendly, adding a mobile app and translating into more than 40 languages. Sun Sentinel.

California: 1,000 charter school parents and administrators rally to protest a proposed moratorium on charter schools (Los Angeles Times). The school board subsequently votes down a measure aimed at more oversight (Los Angeles Times). The school board at the center of the parent trigger fight could see turnover (Education Week).

Florida: Charter school supporters make a pitch for equitable funding and independent authorizers (redefinED). Charter school enrollment now tops 10 percent of total public school enrollment in eight Florida districts, a new report shows (redefineED). In the wake of Tony Bennett's defeat in Indiana, Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education pushes back against Common Core critics (redefinED).

Tennessee: Gov. Bill Haslam's task force finalizes its recommendations for a statewide voucher program, agreeing it should be limited to poorer students (timesfreepress.com). More from The Tennessean and the Memphis  Commercial Appeal.

Washington: The Seattle Times says the charter school ballot initiative has passed, even though opponents have yet to concede. Spokane Public Schools officials say they want to open a charter school (Huffington Post).

Illinois: Public school officials in Chicago plan to shut down poor-performing charters (Chicago Tribune).

Georgia: One of the state's bigger school districts considers creation of a full-time virtual school (Gainesville Times).

Colorado: Douglas County's voucher program heads back to court today, with both sides battling over a lower court ruling that it's unconstitutional (Denver Post).

Promise of online learning. Pinellas math and statistics teacher Rob Tarrou puts his lessons online, a la Khan Academy, and wins fans around the world, reports the Tampa Bay Times. My favorite graph: “A reporter recently asked students in that statistics class how many had other teachers post educational videos online. No one raised a hand. Next, students were asked how many wished their other teachers would post videos online. Nearly all raised their hands.” See a “Tarrou’s Chalk Talk” video here.

Valerie Strauss on Tony Bennett coming to Florida: Column here.

Rick Scott’s ed plan falls short. Especially on charter schools, editorializes the Tampa Bay Times.

Republican hubris and Amendment 8: In its roundup of election winners and losers, the Tampa Bay Times suggests Amendment 8 had a lot to do with vouchers – and that it fits into the narrative about GOP overreach.

Contracting complaints. At the Division of Blind Services, which falls under the Florida Department of Education, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Trying to compete with teachers unions for influence. The Miami Herald looks at growing political contributions from charter and virtual school interests, and frames the story this way: “Some observers say the big dollars foreshadow the next chapter of a fierce fight in Tallahassee: the privatization of public education.” Last Friday on redefinED, Doug Tuthill argued that the term “privatization,” as typically used in ed debates, is misleading.

Florida Supreme Court and vouchers. Two separate columns in recent days cited the Florida Supreme Court’s 2006 decision to overturn vouchers as a reason behind efforts to convince voters to deny the retention of three justices. South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo here. UF law professor Joe Little in the Tallahassee Democrat here.

State Board of Education is wrong. So says the Tampa Bay Times, in this editorial about the board’s decision to set race-based achievement goals that include steeper rates of progress for low-income and minority students. More coverage in the Orlando Sentinel here.

Complaints about private school in Pasco. WTSP-Ch. 10 talks to parents who say officials are doctoring tests and report cards at Zephyrhills Christian Academy, a private school that accepts McKay vouchers for disabled students.

Superintendents and tax-credit scholarships. St. Johns County Superintendent Joe Joyner relays his concerns to the Florida Times Union.

New teacher evals cause angst in Pinellas. Tampa Bay Times story here.

Voucher tsunami. (This story from the Topeka Capital-Journal is a couple weeks old, but I didn’t see it until this weekend.) A leading state lawmaker in Kansas, Rep. Marc Rhoades, says vouchers are on their way to the Sunflower State, and he references programs in Milwaukee and Florida: “In my opinion, it’s like a tidal wave that’s coming, and I don’t know that the education establishment can withstand it forever.”

It’s one thing to hear school choice stalwart Jeb Bush or a think tank researcher state the obvious about school choice in Florida – that it’s now a fundamental part of the education landscape. It’s quite another to hear it from the likes of Alberto Carvalho, the well-respected superintendent of the Miami-Dade school district.

A news video shows him saying this to a reporter after a recent education summit (his remarks start at about the 4:30 mark):

Change is going to accelerate. And you need to learn about what the change is, impose your own change just to survive. We are now working in an educational environment that is driven by choice. I believe that is a good thing. We need to actually be engaged in that choice movement. So if you do not ride that wave, you will succumb to it. I choose not to.

It would be noteworthy if any big-district superintendent in Florida – where school choice is both nearly mainstream and perpetually hot button - spoke as refreshingly as Carvalho. But it’s especially significant coming from the Miami-Dade schools chief because 1) no district in Florida has made bigger gains with its students over the past decade, and 2) among the state’s biggest districts, it has among the highest concentrations of enrollment in magnet schools, career academies, charter schools and in private schools via tax credit scholarships.

In other words, the parents in Miami-Dade are seeking out school choice options more than most; the proliferation of options hasn’t hurt student achievement; and the superintendent, rather than feeling besieged, is being proactive.

It would be wrong to suggest Carvalho is alone. Other school leaders in Florida have positively responded to change; sometimes, it even makes headlines. “We have never had to compete before,” Walt Griffin, the new superintendent in Seminole County, Fla., said in a recent story about expanded learning options – public options – in that district. “People who home-school or send their children to private or charter school might not know what we have to offer.”

Without a doubt, there are myriad areas where superintendents and school choice supporters disagree (just like there are plenty of areas where supporters themselves butt heads.) But Carvalho’s comments acknowledge that expanded parental choice is a dynamic that isn’t going away. Indeed, when hundreds of thousands of Florida parents have collectively selected magnet schools, career academies, charter schools, vouchers, virtual schools, etc., how can it? The most pressing debate is how the players involved, including school districts, can continue to expand options in the most efficient and effective ways.

Maybe I'm reading too much into a sound bite, but I think Carvalho’s comments also suggest he doesn’t see the “either/or” that has seeped into so much of the school choice debate. At its core, despite the boilerplate story line, this is really just about giving parents more options.

(Image from asiapac.com.au)