Tax bill and school choice: The Republican tax bill contains a mixture of good and bad news for school choice advocates. On the plus side, the bill would allow families to tap up to $10,000 from 529 college savings plans for K-12 expenses, including private school tuition. But the bill does not include a tax credit for donations for private school scholarships. The bill would also cut the deduction for local income and sales taxes, which some advocates believe could have a negative impact on local taxes collected for schools, and the $250 deduction teachers use to cover classroom supplies. Education Week.
Hope Scholarship: A bill that creates a scholarship for bullied students that can be used to change schools will get a hearing before a Florida House subcommittee next week. The Hope Scholarship program would allow victims of bullying or harassment in public schools to transfer to another public school or qualify for a state tax credit scholarship, and also be eligible for transportation scholarships. Students would be eligible for the scholarship within 15 days of reporting “battery; harassment; hazing; bullying; kidnapping; physical attack; robbery; sexual offenses, harassment, assault, or battery; threat or intimidation; or fighting at school.” The bill was filed this week by State Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples. redefinED. News Service of Florida.
Technical school boom: These are boom times for career academies and technical education, with more high schools opening that emphasize career choices over a college education. For the past 10 years, state lawmakers have pushed career academies that offer industry certifications, and continue to consider alternative paths to a diploma. "The workforce is not demanding four-year-college-degreed people," says Jim Stone, director of the National Research Center for Career & Technical Education. "The workforce is demanding people who can do something." Tampa Bay Times.
They’re one of the first things people notice when they walk inside the new Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School in Tampa.
Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School
Windows, everywhere.
Inside the 67,000-square-foot renovated building, light pours in through an expansive curved entryway, between the cafeteria and lush outdoor dining area, inside classrooms and even along the second-floor hallway, where students can peer down into the giant gymnasium.
Compared to the charter school’s first digs, a cramped old Circuit City it leased for five years, “this is such a change of environment,’’ said Principal Kristine Bennett.
For its new home, the school’s foundation spent $15 million outfitting a former church with 20 classrooms, two computer labs and a media center. There’s a cafeteria with a LED-powered vending machine offering gluten-free snacks, and a full-sized gym featuring one wall with a painting of a fiery red and orange Phoenix – the school’s mascot.
The striking makeover is fitting for a student body that has undergone its own metamorphosis.
Three years ago, the state gave Brooks DeBartolo a “D’’ grade for academic performance. The school, which garnered a “C’’ the year before, faced losing its charter.
One of the school’s founders and financial backers, Derrick Brooks, the legendary former linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, vowed his namesake school would work harder. And it did. The next year, it scored six points higher than the state required for an A grade.
Derrick Brooks
Today, students are attending an “A’’ school for – hopefully, say administrators – the third year in a row. (more…)
