Black suspensions: An investigation of more than 600,000 punishments in Pinellas County schools from 2010-2015 shows that black children are suspended at a much higher rate than in the other six large Florida districts, and four times the rate of other children based on their share of the school population. And more than half of those suspensions are for loosely defined offenses such as "not cooperating" and "class disruption." Tampa Bay Times.

Homeless students: More than 71,000 students in Florida public schools were homeless in the 2013-2014 school year, or 3.74 percent of the total. Orange County has about 7,000 homeless students, and Brevard, Seminole and Volusia each have about 2,000. Florida Today.

K-12 funding: State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, wants fellow legislators to consider other options to boost spending for K-12. Gaetz has been critical of Gov. Rick Scott's education budget, which puts most of the burden of raising additional dollars on Florida residents through property taxes. Miami Herald.

Vouchers in courts: Several school voucher advocate groups are lobbying the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a Colorado case to determine the constitutionality of spending public dollars for tuition at private, religious schools. Many states, including Florida, have so-called Blaine Amendment prohibitions in their constitutions against spending state tax revenue on religious institutions. Education Week. (more…)