FL Senate “Train bills” confuse & distract until it’s too late

Once again, the Florida Senate is resorting to the deliberate distraction of shoving 30+ different ideas into “train bills” which lack transparency making the whole enterprise grossly unfair to the public.  Appropriations chair Sen. Tom Lee conceded to the Palm Beach Post, “It confuses the members. People don’t know what’s in the legislation. … I…

Details

Legislators robbing public schools to pay privately run charters

by: Paula Dockery, 2.25.16|Tampa Tribune The Florida Legislature, particularly the House, is hell-bent on pushing its charter school facility funding and expansion agenda at the expense of the state’s traditional public schools. Let me be perfectly clear. I don’t oppose charter schools. In fact, I’ve been very supportive of them. While in the Legislature I…

Details

Best & Brightest rides into Senate Approps aboard SB 524

After much Senate posturing, the Best & Brightest, sporting recently passed House language, is now stuffed into SB 524 by Sen. Gaetz in a “train.” It is in this form that the $44M teacher bonus program once called “stupid” by Sen. Detert will be heard in Thursday’s Senate Appropriations Committee. Take action today & say…

Details

The charter war on school board authority

Something nasty is going on in the 2016 Florida Legislature.  “Reform” minded politicians; aided by wealthy charter lobbyists, the Koch Brothers, voucher proponents and Jeb’s Foundations have declared war on the constitutional authority of school Boards. Unable to stomach any opposing view, they’d rather write and pass legislation to rig the game than play within the parameters…

Details

SB 468: Coding is not a foreign language

Take action today!  Computer Coding is not a foreign language!  SB 468 by former Yahoo! executive, Senator Jeremy Ring makes computer coding equal to foreign language studies.   This bill  does one thing: it sets up a lucrative market for vendors eager to sell coding courses. Florida already allows computer science to count toward high school science…

Details

7 reasons FL push to make coding a foreign language is a bad idea

   By: Rosa Castro Feinberg, Ph.D The issue: SB 468/HB 887 – awarding foreign language credit for coding classes. To urge lawmakers to oppose this effort click here. 1. Should Florida mislead students, parents, employers, institutions of higher education and the general public by awarding foreign language credit for completion of coding classes?  No. Coding “languages”…

Details

SB 468: Coding is not a foreign language

Take action today!  Computer Coding is not a foreign language!  SB 468 by former Yahoo! executive, Senator Jeremy Ring makes computer coding equal to foreign language studies.   This bill  does one thing: it sets up a lucrative market for vendors eager to sell coding courses. Florida already allows computer science to count toward high school science…

Details