Governor's budget: Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing a $91.3 billion budget that includes $21.7 billion for the K-12 public school funding formula, with a spending boost of $224 per student. DeSantis wants to allocate $582.8 million for the Bright Futures scholarship program for high-achieving students and use state funds to replace cuts in local school property taxes. He's asking for $500 million for the Best and Brightest teacher bonuses program, and wants to scrap the use of teachers' college entrance exams as a factor in determining bonuses. He's also asking for $99 million for school safety grants for hardening buildings and wants to carry forward the $57 million in unspent money for school guardians from last year. House and Senate committees will review the request as they prepare a final spending plan. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. Orlando Sentinel. Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. GateHouse. Politico Florida.
Common Core caution: Much of the reaction to Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision to eliminate the use of Common Core standards in Florida schools has been positive. But the issue isn't as simple as just signing an order, and some educators say it could be years before the state fully eliminates the Common Core standards. "Now you have curriculum materials that will be not aligned, probably, to the new standards,” says Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning. “How do teachers teach? ... I think we need to be very, very cautious and careful about how we go about doing this.” WTSP. WTVT. WJAX. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. WLRN.
Behind the graduation rates: The impressive high school graduation rates reported last month by the Florida Department of Education are bolstered by the subtraction of about 60,000 students who were recategorized as "withdrawing" from their schools. That's about 22 percent of the number of students who began 9th grade four years ago. Some of those 60,000 transferred, some moved, some enrolled in private schools, some are home-schooled, some have died. But no one knows if any of those students graduated. Florida Phoenix. Legislators are considering expanding the paths to high school graduation. Here's what some students think should, and shouldn't, be done. Tampa Bay Times.
New court, new hope: The new, more conservative Florida Supreme Court has Republicans hopeful that the idea of private school vouchers can be reconsidered. The court struck down the "opportunity scholarship" proposal of then-Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006, ruling that it "diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools that are the sole means set out in the Constitution for the state to provide for the education of Florida’s children.” Tampa Bay Times. (more…)
