Chancellor pool goes from four to three

The Indianapolis Star is reporting tonight that Thomas Snyder, head of the state's large community college system, Ivy Tech Community Colleges, no longer is interested in becoming Florida's next chancellor. That leaves former lieutenant governor Frank Brogan still the frontrunner in a finalist field that now includes just him plus two others.

Snyder was one of three candidates search consultant William Funk recommended to the Board of Governors on Monday. He also suggested FAU President Brogan and former Ohio universities chancellor Roderick Chu. Board members also decided to include FSU associate professor and Capitol veteran Steve MacNamara among the finalists to be interviewed at the end of this week.

The three remaining will be interviewed Friday in Tampa, and the BOG will choose a chancellor that afternoon.

Florida schools to lose 10,000 more kids this year

The Legislature's Economic and Demographic Research has just released its projections on 2009-10 school enrollment, based on school district data and the results are in: Florida schools will lose 10,000 more kids to enrollment declines.

This will be the third year in a row that enrollment is expected to drop at Florida's schools and economists predict another 2,677 will drop from the rolls in the 2010-11 budget year. The declines began in the 2007-08 budget year, when schools lost 7,054 students. The decline continued in 2008-09 with 13,279 fewer students than the year before and in the 2009-10 year the drop is expected to be 9,999. More here.

Crist visits Broward to sign education bill

He had already quietly signed the bill, but that didn't stop Gov. Charlie Crist from going to a North Lauderdale charter school Friday for a ceremonial signing of HB 991, a new "differential accountability" system that rates Florida schools.

The new system combines the state's school-grading standards with the federal rating standards under No Child Left Behind. It pushes for more intervention for failing schools, including turning them into charter schools if they don't pass muster.

"Basically, more choice, and that's what we should do in education," said Crist, speaking at the North Broward Academy of Excellence.

Rep. Tom Grady, the Naples Republican who sponsored the bill, praised the President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for pushing for more accountability and transparency in schools.

"This bill walks that talk," Grady said -- after making a quip about standing behind the podium prepared for Crist.

"I've never been able to speak with Charlie's fan blowing on me," Grady said.

Dudley Goodlette not a candidate for chancellor

Former state Rep. Dudley Goodlette said today that he is not a candidate for the state university chancellor job and he doesn't intend to be.

"I think having more of an academic involvement in the academic community than I have had as a lawyer for 30 some years would be a prerequisite for that job that I would think would be important," Goodlette said. "So for that reason and just because I’ve been so busy with my full-time job as the chief of staff of the Florida House, I just really haven’t had an opportunity to apply and I don’t anticipate it."

Goodlette, a Naples Republican who is serving as House Speaker Larry Cretul's chief of staff, had expressed interest in the job several weeks back, but said he was too busy to apply. Now he says he owes a phone call to the Texas search firm helping the Board of Governors find candidates to let them know he's not interested.

Jeb's $5 billion wish list for education

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, and former Gov. James Hunt of North Carolina, a Democrat, co-wrote a column in today's Chicago Tribune that poses the question: What should Secretary of Education Arne Duncan do with his $5 billion in stimulus funds?

Bush has called Duncan "a reformer at heart." Column here.

Budget talks break for night with library funding likely restored

Budget talks wrapped up for the night about an hour ago. Would have updated you sooner, but we got kicked out of the Capitol's Knott building! Curfew, what curfew?

House and Senate leaders pretty much agreed to restore money for public libraries, though they still are negotiating the source of the replacement $21 million. But a stalemate lingers on House proposals to outlaw stem-cell research at state universities and research-related travel to Cuba and to make first-time drivers take a four-hour driver improvement course before receiving a license. The course costs at least $15.

Those issues carry over in talks to start at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, with House and Senate budget chairmen facing a noon deadline before unresolved issues are handed to House Speaker Larry Cretul and Senate President Jeff Atwater. A final budget is due on lawmakers’ desks by noon Tuesday to allow for a mandatory 72-hour cooling off period before a final vote Friday.

House signs off on Alexander's $5M request

Negotiations continue in the Capitol's Knott Building, but the House just gave in to Senate budget chief JD Alexander’s final-hour request for $5 million in recurring funding for the University of South Florida Polytechnic campus in Lakeland, in Alexander’s home county of Polk.

Alexander’s surprise request for USF Polytechnic stands out in a state universities budget with millions in cuts and was not part of USF's legislative budget request this session. USF Lakeland also figures in a separate funding issue between the chambers. From the college construction program known as PECO, the Senate wants to give the campus $11 million, while the House has offered $3.7 million. The lower amount was recommended by the Board of Governors.

The Lake Wales Republican denied it was a “member project,” something House Speaker Larry Cretul specifically outlawed from the budget process. So why wasn’t it requested sooner?

“I neglected it, I hadn’t thought about it or we would have done it earlier,” Alexander said.

The House's latest offer also includes restored funding for public libraries. The Senate will respond later tonight when the budget chairs meet again. 

Lose a book, pay the price bill heads to Crist

Students who lose or damage instructional materials will have to pay schools 100 percent replacement costs under a bill that made it through under the wire Friday, stripped of a House add-on to require civics for all middle schoolers.

SB 1248, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, changes current law, which requires students to repay costs for lost or damaged books at a rate of 50 to 75 percent if more than a year old.

For students having trouble paying back the costs, there's a provision that allows for a penalty or in-kind activity in lieu of payment, such as scraping gum off the bottom of desks.

Also in the bill, a provision pushed for years by Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, to encourage service-learning programs in K-12 schools.

Haitian American history money eliminated

The Senate just backed off its push to put $50,000 toward Haitian American history in the preK-12 budget, which had House members asking Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, whether that means the Task Force on African American history is restored to $100,000 funding.

No, Flores said. The money goes back into school recognition funding, where it started, and African American history funding stays at $50,000.

"That's awful," said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Pembroke Park.

On Friday, Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, denied the move was a member project, saying that "some of the members wanted to be able to, if we had African American history, then Haitian American history ought to be included." 

No last-minute resuscitation for MDC tax bill

It's official: An effort to let Miami-Dade residents vote on whether to raise for Miami Dade College has died in the Florida Legislature, as expected.

The House adjourned its last, non-budget session shortly before 8 p.m. Friday, with no last-ditch theatrics to bring the MDC measure to a floor vote.