Bills advance: A bill that would offer bullied students a state scholarship to attend private schools is approved by a Senate subcommittee. The bill for the Hope Scholarship program, filed by state Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, was approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Pre-K-12 Education Appropriations Subcommittee. It would become the fourth state scholarship program. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer two of them. Orlando Sentinel. News Service of Florida. redefinED. Politico Florida. A bill that would require high school students to pass a financial literacy course as a graduation requirement has been approved by a Senate subcommittee. The bill, which was filed for the fifth straight year by state Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, got unanimous support from the Senate Pre-K-12 Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Prospects for the bill are uncertain. Some legislators say it would further cut into time needed for other requirements. News Service of Florida. Gradebook.
Teachers save student: Two Palm Beach County teachers are credited with saving the life of a 3rd-grader who accidentally stabbed himself in the arm with a pencil and punctured an artery Nov. 1. Kolston Moradi was waiting to be picked up from Equestrian Trails Elementary School in Wellington when the accident happened. Blood began gushing when Kolston removed the pencil. Reading teacher Mandi Kapopoulos used her shirt sleeve as a tourniquet, and ESE coordinator Elizabeth Richards grabbed gloves and pressed on the boy’s wound with her hands. The emergency medical technician said Kolston could have died if the teachers hadn't acted quickly. Sun-Sentinel.
School flexibility: A Miami-Dade County lawyer who sits on the state Constitution Revision Commission is proposing that high-performing traditional public school districts get the same exemptions from state statutes that charter schools are given. "I'm a big believer in choice," says Roberto Martinez, a former Florida Board of Education chairman. "And choice works both ways." Martinez's amendment defines high-performing districts as those that maintain a B grade or higher from the state in two years out of a three-year period, not drop below a C, and keep financial reserves above the state-required minimum. The commission will decide by May what amendments are placed on the ballot. Gradebook.
