Sparking the evolution of education choice
A bill that would expand a K-12 state scholarship program originally intended to offer safer educational options for bullied district school students passed its first hurdle Tuesday. Members of the Senate Education committee voted 6-4 along party lines, with Republican supporting and Democrats opposing, to approve Senate Bill 506, which[Read More…]
More military families will be able to qualify for state K-12 education choice scholarships due to a rule change approved today by the Florida Board of Education. The rule was made in response to the passage of HB 7045, which expanded scholarship eligibility to dependents of active duty military families.[Read More…]
Florida Senate bill 48, filed by Senator Manny Diaz, Jr., will be heard in the Senate Education Committee tomorrow. The bill is over 155 pages and at times difficult to understand. Below is a list of the bill’s key features. Some of these features may get modified as the bill[Read More…]
Editor’s note: To hear Tamara Arrington and her son, Parker, tell the story in their own words, watch the video at the end of this post. The other student was older and bigger. But Parker, a 35-pound “runt” of a first grader, as his mom described him, didn’t hesitate. When[Read More…]
Americans donated more than $450 billion to charities last year. Of that amount, $49.5 billion went to the top 100 charities, according to Forbes Magazine’s America’s Top Charities rankings. Step Up for Students, a scholarship granting nonprofit that administers five school choice scholarship programs in Florida, ranked as the 21st[Read More…]
Manhattan Institute senior fellow Max Eden recently authored a report on the legislative origins and history of the first education choice program for students who have experienced bullying in public schools. In the report, Eden wrote: “Education reformers have long lamented America’s persistent racial and socioeconomic achievement gap and framed[Read More…]
Beginning this school year, Florida public school districts will be required to report to the Florida Department of Education how many families they have informed of the availability of a scholarship for victims of bullying. The Florida Board of Education approved the changes earlier today as part of its consent[Read More…]
A conservative education group wants state education officials to penalize public school districts that fail to inform parents about the availability of a state scholarship for bullying victims. Two members of Florida Citizens Alliance told Florida Board of Education members earlier today that rules governing the Hope Scholarship need to[Read More…]