Education bills: The Florida Senate Budget Committee passes two broadly drawn Senate education bills. SB 524 deals with teacher bonuses, charter facilities financing, competency-based pilot programs and giving principals greater authority to make changes at struggling schools. SB 1166 would allow open enrollment for any student to attend any school with an opening, allow athletes to transfer and play immediately, and more closely define charter school accountability. An attempt to add an amendment requiring recess every day in elementary schools was withdrawn. Miami Herald. Politico Florida. News Service of Florida. WFSU.

Help for deaf: A Senate committee passes a bill that would help mainstream children who are deaf or hard of hearing into regular education. The bill would increase state funds for school programs that use hearing devices to aid spoken communication. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

District, police split: The Pasco County School District and the Zephyrhills Police Department are ending their contract for resource officers at two schools. The relationship deteriorated when Zephyrhills High School fired football coach Reggie Roberts, who is a police sergeant. Pasco County deputies will take over the contract. Tampa Tribune. Gradebook.

Success story: Lake Wales High School has doubled students' college acceptance rate in five years, cut chronic absenteeism and has the highest graduation rate in Polk County. Much of the credit goes to Principal Donna Dunson, who has instituted new rules since starting at the school in 2010. Among them: An 8:30 a.m. start time, extending lunches from 23 minutes to an hour, requiring teachers to let students retake tests, and more. Lakeland Ledger. (more…)

Referendum change: A House committee has approved a bill that would require school districts to win 60 percent approval from voters on any local tax increase requests. The bill now moves to the House floor. Its Senate companion has yet to get a committee hearing. Gradebook.

Education budgets: Democrats and Republicans spar over budget details in both the House and Senate. In the House, the focus is on giving money to charter schools for construction costs and upkeep. In the Senate, the debate centers on a plan to open after-school programs to more organizations. Politico Florida.

Teacher evaluations: Many Orange County teachers are angry that the state's teacher evaluation report shows fewer top-notch teachers than in other large Florida districts. Only 2.4 percent of Orange teachers were judged to be highly effective in the 2014-2015 school year, compared with 80 percent the year before. The state average is 37.5 percent. Orlando Sentinel.

School grades: Palm Beach school officials are expecting fewer county schools to receive an A grade and more to receive an F. The projections were discussed at Wednesday's school board meeting. Grades should be released soon by the Department of Education. Sun-Sentinel.

Chamber on education: A report by the Florida Chamber Foundation praises the state's educational progress over the past 20 years. But "Florida’s education system is not yet good enough to meet the challenges of global competition and doesn’t yet provide the level of talent needed by job creators and future employers," according to the report. Florida Chamber Foundation. (more…)

K-12 budgets: The Florida House Education Appropriations Committee proposes raising the K-12 education budget by $601 million, to $20.3 billion, which is about $150 million more than Gov. Rick Scott requested. The proposal would increase per-student funding from $7,107 to $7,231. About 85 percent of the increase would come from increasing local property taxes, which aligns with Scott's plan. A Senate committee pushed forward a similar bill earlier in the week, but its reliance on local property taxes is unclear. Politico Florida. Florida Politics.

Medicaid for charters: The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services is considering a bill that would give $10 million in Medicaid funds to charter and private schools. Politico Florida.

Teacher bonuses: The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee passes a bill that would renew the program paying $10,000 bonuses for high-performing teachers who scored in the top 20 percent on their SAT or ACT tests. But there are significant differences between the House and Senate bills. Politico Florida. Tallahassee Democrat.

Gender gap: New research based on data collected from Florida middle schools shows that the academic achievement gap between boys and girls widens at lower-performing schools. It also shows a similar trend between boys and girls in suspensions and absences. Washington Post. (more…)