Education spending: Senate Republicans are proposing to boost Florida's K-12 education spending by $1.1 billion, an increase of $350 per student, for a total of $22.2 billion. That's 5 percent higher than last year's spending, and $500 million more than Gov. Ron DeSantis has asked for. Among the items in the bill, which cleared the Senate Education Appropriations Committee: $233 million for bonuses for teachers and principals, $68 million for districts to hire security officers for all schools, $50 million in school hardening grants, $2 million for Jewish day school security, $46 million for struggling schools, $31 million for youth mental health issues and $14.2 million for schools that lost enrollment because of Hurricane Michael. The House has yet to release its education budget proposal. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. Florida Politics. WFSU.

Scholarship bill: A Senate subcommittee approves the session's big education bill, S.B. 7070, which would create a state scholarship to eliminate the list of more than 13,000 students waiting to be approved for for Florida Tax Credit Scholarships (FTC). The Family Empowerment Scholarship would be funded through tax dollars and allow about 15,000 low-income students to attend private schools. The House Education has already passed its version of the bill, which would make the new scholarship available for about 28,000 students and also sets a higher income limit for eligibility. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the FTC. redefinED. Florida Politics. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. (more…)