Ideas to cut education: If Florida has to cut its PreK-12 education budget, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says it should end the teacher bonuses and student uniform programs, public broadcasting and many local programs. Stewart was participating in a "what-if" scenario in which the education budget is cut 10 percent. She said one recommendation to cut per pupil spending from $7,204 to $6,943 would have a direct impact on students through staff layoffs and fewer services at schools. The House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee meets again Feb. 9. Gradebook.

School choice: School choice advocates in the Florida House say 2017 is their year to make "transformational" gains in choice for the state. "What you're seeing right now is an opportunity for us to really blow open some of those school choice opportunities, blow open some of those opportunities that may be outside the box that everyone is always trying to block," House Pre-K-12 education budget chairman Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, said. He was speaking at an event marking National School Choice Week. Miami Herald. While it is National School Choice Week, at least one Gainesville teacher is pushing back by calling on the mayor to instead declare it Gainesville Public Schools Week. “The recognition of school choice is a recognition of a system that is attempting to dismantle our public school system,” says Jennifer Kelly, a fourth-grade teacher at Littlewood Elementary. WUFT.

Employees honored: Rudolfo Diaz, a TV production teacher at South Miami High School, is named teacher of the year in Miami-Dade County. Miami Herald. Holly Hill School principal Jeff Reaves is named Florida's 2017 Innovative Principal of the Year by the Florida Council of Instructional Technology Leaders. He won for his work as principal at Edgewater Public School, where he started coding and robotics clubs, computer and programming courses. Daytona Beach News-Journal.

School threat averted: Two teens are arrested and accused of planning a Columbine-like attack for today on the Villages Charter Middle School. The boys, 13 and 14, are charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Sumter County sheriff's deputies say the boys admitted planning an attack, and guns were found at their homes. Orlando Sentinel. WKMG. Daily Commercial. WTSP. Villages-News. Two students are arrested with a stun gun on the campus of First Coast High School in Duval County, according to school police. WJAX. (more…)