The Republican-led Florida House and Senate released competing budget proposals on Friday. The budgets differ from each other and also differ in many ways from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposals. The House’s total budget is $89.9 billion, while the Senate’s total is $90.3 billion. Both proposals are higher overall than current state government spending levels. Debates…
by Betty Castor, published by the Tampa Bay Times Betty Castor, former teacher, Hillsborough County commissioner and state senator, served as Florida’s commissioner of education and later as president of the University of South Florida. Castor has been president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She currently chairs the board at…
Florida school voucher proponents overwhelmingly won their elections in November. Avid supporters like Governor-elect DeSantis, likely Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran and leadership in the Florida Legislature are poised to usher in an expansion of the controversial voucher programs that funnel tax money to private schools with little to no accountability. The award winning Orlando…
The Tampa Bay Times has endorsed the school referendum on the ballot in Hillsborough County in November. They followed up with a column on why voters should pass the referendum: The Hillsborough County school tax on the Nov. 6 ballot is a smart, necessary investment in the nation’s eighth-largest school system. The 10-year, half-penny sales…
The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the Tampa Bay Times have endorsed the Hillsborough school referendum on the ballot on November 6th. On Thursday, the Chamber voted to support Hillsborough’s schools. In a statement, they acknowledged the alignment between a strong education system and a healthy economy: “This tax would help to provide our…
At the August 24th school board meeting, Hillsborough School Board members decided to ask voters to approve a half-cent, 10-year local sales tax increase on the November 6th ballot. The vote, opposed by April Griffin and Melissa Snively, was 5-2 and will pit schools against a local group advocating for a one penny sales tax…
Amendment 5 puts school funding, Florida’s future in jeopardy Florida’s current per-pupil, school funding is below the pre-recession level, when accounting for inflation, and could be made even worse if voters approve a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution in November according to a new policy brief by the nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute. Amendment 5 would require a…
Florida has the opportunity to improve children’s health and educational outcomes while drawing down millions in additional federal funds for school-based Medicaid services by making a series of statutory and regulatory changes, according to a new brief by the Florida Policy Institute. Of the 2.7 million students enrolled in public schools, over 1 million are covered…
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was passed by Congress in the fall of 2015. It was a rare piece of major federal legislation that was truly a bipartisan effort- co-authored by a Republican and a Democrat. This law replaced No Child Left Behind and governs the federal role in public education primarily for elementary…
This year, the nation watched as teachers in numerous states began to walk out of schools and storm state capitals demanding better working conditions for themselves and better learning conditions for their students. Many of these states offered no collective bargaining rights yet educators were organized and angry. West Virginia teachers ended their strike after…