Republican lawmakers won't hear Bright Futures bill

Two Democrats have a plan that would prevent thousands of black and Hispanic students from losing out on Bright Futures scholarships.

There's just one problem: Nobody seems willing to listen.

Starting next year, Florida students will need to post higher scores on the SAT and ACT scores to qualify for the state-funded scholarships. The change will likely cause the number of college freshman receiving Bright Futures awards to drop dramatically, with poor and minority students suffering the most.

In response, Rep. Ricardo Rangel and Sen. Geraldine Thompson filed HB 387 and SB 526, which would maintain the standards as they are. But neither bill has been scheduled for a hearing, and committee meetings are winding down.

Rangel, D-Kissimmee, said he presented the bill to the Hispanic Caucus about three weeks ago in hopes of gaining some support. He was "shocked and surprised," he said, that the caucus members offered virtually no feedback.

"It's going to affect the Miami area pretty heavily," Rangel said. "I would hope that they would open up their eyes a little bit as far as how it would actually affect their community."

High-school 'free agency' bill keeps moving in the House. Is hope alive?

A contentious bill that would limit the power of the Florida High School Athletic Association continues to move in the House -- despite appearing to be dead in the Senate.

The proposal, from Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, would ease some of the restrictions on student transfers, and curtail the FHSAA's ability to investigate potential recruiting violations. It would also revamp the structure of the organization, which represents some 800 different schools in 32 different sports programs.

The FHSAA has fought against the bill, saying it would open the door to "high-school free agency."

The House version won the support of its third and final committee Tuesday, and is now headed for a vote on the House floor. But the Senate version, sponsored by Rep. Kelli Stargel, has yet to receive its first hearing, and many Senate committees have stopped meeting.

Is the House simply trying to make a statement? Or is there some behind-the-scenes maneuvering taking place to get this language heard in the Senate?

Metz wouldn't answer questions after the meeting Tuesday. But his legislative aide said Stargel was working on getting her bill heard in the upper chamber.

Read the backstory here.

Parents push for 'EpiPen' legislation

Tom Bohacek has an EpiPen at his Tampa preschool in case he accidentally eats a peanut product.

Not all Florida children are that lucky.

Thousands of kids with undiagnosed allergies to food and insect bites aren’t able to get a critical epinephrine injection if they have an allergic reaction at school. That’s because state law forbids school nurses from giving the injections to students who don’t have a prescription.

Florida parents are hoping the Legislature will pass a proposal allowing schools to have their own a supply of epinephrine injectors. School employees would be trained to recognize the symptoms of anaphylaxis and administer the shots when necessary, regardless of whether the child has already been diagnosed.

Read more here.

Amendment would free schools from private tutoring requirement

Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, added an unexpected provision to her sweeping education accountability bill Thursday: a pitch to free Florida school districts from having to provide private tutoring services at low-income schools.

Under current law, Florida school districts must spend 15 percent of their federal dollars for low-income students on private tutoring services. Passidomo's pitch: Give school systems the option to spend that money on tutoring, or on other programs for low-income children instead.

"We feel that each school district is in the best position to determine and understand the needs of their students, and the best use of their Title I funding," Passidomo said Thursday.

State Education Commissioner Tony Bennett agreed.

"It will increase choices because it will set up a survival of the fittest," Bennett said. "It will weed out bad providers and allow school districts to chose the best programs for their students."

The committee added the language to the bill and sent it along to the House floor.

Private tutoring programs, also known as Supplemental Education Services, have come under intense fire in recent months. Earlier this year, a Tampa Bay Times investigation found that tutoring providers have operated in Florida with little oversight and no clear track record of producing results, despite having received millions in federal dollars.

Bill to end permanent alimony draws acrimonious debate

Connie Bacher was awarded $1,400 in monthly alimony payments when her 23-year marriage ended in 2009.

At the time, she was living paycheck to paycheck and caring for her two daughters in Key West. But she considers the lifelong payments even more important now, she said.

“If I lose my alimony, I’ll have to cut my health insurance or quit buying my medications,” said Bacher, a bank loan officer who suffers from osteoarthritis in both knees and will likely need surgery later this year. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”

A proposal on its way to the Senate floor could force her to find an additional source of income.

Lawmakers are considering a bill that would put an end to permanent alimony payments, and allow the courts to modify existing arrangements between former spouses. The bill would also require judges to give divorced parents equal custody of their children, unless one parent could make a convincing case otherwise.

Proponents of the proposal say it would not end alimony altogether but make it more fair.

“This is something that has been horrible for people for so many years,” said Alan Frisher, co-founder Family Law Reform, a non-profit organization based in Lake County. “People have been stuck paying an order that ties them to their ex-spouse for the rest of their lives, even through retirement.”

But the idea has met fierce opposition from lawyers and people who stand to lose their alimony benefits.

Read more here.

 

Moraitis says he will strip "space-share" provision from charter school bill

Rep. George Moraitis plans to remove the most controversial provision from his sweeping charter schools bill, he said Tuesday.

Moraitis, a Fort Lauderdale Republican, is planning to amend the proposal so that traditional public schools won't have to share unused space with charter schools, he said.

The bill, HB 7009, would still give additional flexibility to high-performing charter schools, and put some new accountability measures in place. One example: school employees could no longer serve on the governing board.

"There are some great things in the bill having to do with accountability and transparency," Moraitis told The Herald/Times after Tuesday's floor session. "Those are the most important provisions."

Moraitis said the Senate wants to take a different approach to sharing unused space in public facilities, and that he's willing to listen.

The charter schools bill will likely be up for a final vote in the House this week. Its companion in the Senate, which does not include the space-sharing provision, is moving more slowly.

Students lobby lawmakers to support charter schools

The charter school movement has former Sens. Jim Horne and Al Lawson making the rounds in the Capitol.

But its most effective lobbyists may be the 300 or so students in Tallahassee on Tuesday.

"We are here because we want equitable funding," said Sallie Haney, 17, who attends North Bay Haven Charter Academy in Panama City. "Charter schools are technically public schools. The fact that some public schools get more money than others isn't fair."

Charter schools, which are run by private governing boards, do get public dollars for things like teacher salaries and educational materials. But unlike traditional public schools, they cannot levy tax dollars for building and maintenance.

In the past, charter schools have gotten one-time allocations from the Public Education Capital Outlay fund. Advocates, however, are hoping to secure recurring revenue from the state general fund that can support charter schools' capital needs.

The idea has met resistance from school districts, teachers' unions and parent organizations, who say the money should be left for traditional public schools. They take issue with public dollars being used to build and enhance private facilities. They also point out that charter schools were first allowed in Florida because they promised to do more with less.

But Sallie has a different take. "We should have the same opportunities that other students have," she said, after a morning meeting with Senate President Don Gaetz.

The students are scheduled to meet with Reps. David Richardson, Shevrin Jones, Jake Raburn, Erik Fresen and Jose Javier Rodriguez, among others.

They'll be there "to spread the word about successful charter schools and to urge legislators to continue funding high-quality public charter school programs," Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools spokeswoman Lynn Norman-Teck said.

Opponents: Bill would turn high-school athletes into free agents

When the Florida High School Athletic Association disqualified the top-ranked Krop High School boys’ basketball team from the state playoffs in 2011, it had uncovered that several players, including a Bahamian-born guard, were ineligible to play for the northeast Miami-Dade high school team.

The scandal led to the ouster of legendary coach Shakey Rodriguez, the demotion of the school’s principal, a three-year probation for the basketball program and fines that topped $20,000.

This year, a state lawmaker wants to scale back the FHSAA’s power by easing some of the restrictions on transferring schools and weakening the association’s ability to conduct investigations. Roger Dearing, the FHSAA’s executive director, argues that the legislation would turn local high schools into pro sports franchises by unleashing “recruiting-frenzied sports giants” as top schools bid for top athletes.

Not so, says state Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, in support of her bill. It would “help combat [the FHSAA’s] predisposition to consider students as guilty until proven innocent, and would establish true due process and rights for student athletes, which the current system of conducting investigations clearly lacks,” she says.

Read more here. 

Parent trigger moves forward in Senate

The contentious parent trigger bill got its first hearing in the Senate Education Committee on Monday. Not surprisingly, it passed along party lines.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kelli Stargel, would allow parents to petition for sweeping changes at failing traditional schools. One possible change: having the school converted into a charter school.

SB 862 is different from its companion in the House. The House version prevents students at struggling schools from having ineffective or out-of-field teachers for two years in a row; the Senate bill has no such prohibitions, though it does require schools to notify parents when their children are assigned to poor-performing instructors. 

Most parents in the audience on Monday spoke out against the proposal. A handful expressed their support, including Nicolas Gutierrez, a Miami-Dade County attorney and father of three. "Is this [bill] perfect? Of course not," Gutierrez. "But it's a step in the right direction."

(Gutierrez was appointed to the South Florida Water Management Board by former Jeb Bush, who has championed the parent-trigger proposal. Gutierrez later told The Miami Herald his relationship with Bush had nothing to do with his testimony.)

Stargel said it was too soon to say if there would be enough votes for the measure to pass on the Senate floor. It failed on the last day of session last year.

"I think we have much more support [than last year]," Stargel said. "What happened last year was more political than about policy."

The House version heads to the floor of the lower chamber later this week.

Social justice groups: Don't arm schoolteachers

Four social justice organizations are speaking out against proposed legislation that would allow some classroom teachers to carry weapons on campus.

The NAACP, the Advancement Project, the Dream Defenders and the Miami-based Power U Center for Social Change also oppose any bills calling for zero-tolerance policies in public schools. They believe the overly punitive policies would cause more students to drop out.

"These measures ultimately will not keep children safe," said Dr. Shirley Johnson, of the Florida State Conference on the NAACP. "Instead, they will lead to unintended consequences."

Alana Greer, of the Advancement Project, urged lawmakers and schools to take "a long-term holistic approach" to school security. That could include hiring more psychologists and counselors, promoting non-violent activities, and considering research-based alternatives to traditional methods of student discipline.

Allowing teachers to carry weapons, Greer said, would erode the trust between students and schools employees, and stifle the "flow of information that can prevent violence on campus."

Last week, a House committee passed a proposal by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, that would let principals designate certain teachers and school employees to carry concealed weapons on campus. Principals choosing not to arm an employee would have to hire a separate safety officer. Read the story here.