Once again, the Florida Legislature has failed to pass a budget in 60 days due in no small part to their “win at any cost” high-stakes Game of Thrones process. Now it appears that the session will be extended to accommodate the required 72 hour cooling off period prior to the final Budget vote. Legislators…
by Fred Grimm | Miami Herald | May 4, 2017 Nine years. Nine consecutive years of neglecting a legal obligation as easy to ignore as a neon light flashing “Taxes! Taxes! Taxes!” Sure, a few segments of society shrug off April 15 as just another day. The poor, the homeless, prostitutes, drug dealers, grifters, gamblers,…
Legislators are at it again! With just days left in session, Sen. Flores and her friends at Jeb’s Foundation are still pushing the unfair transfer of public assets into the hands of corporate charter chains. HB 549 and the Flores amendment gives unprecedented power to charter schools, allowing them to acquire public facilities without local…
Legislators constantly say that “charter schools are public schools!” SB 1362 makes a lie out of that statement. Take action now! Tell the Senate NO on SB 1362 which makes Charter & District Schools separate and unequal It formally eliminates the requirement for the Florida Department of Education to compare…
Details on “Schools of Hope” budget deal remain secret by Julie Delegal | Folio Weekly…
Continuing the theme of secrecy, House and Senate members, according to the Miami Herald, have allegedly struck a compromise deal on the controversial “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charters” concept that would lessen the strong bias toward corporate charter chains. No details are available, making it hard to know whether public education advocates will view this…
by Jessica Bakeman | Politico | 4/26/17 …
In a curious turn, Florida politicians announced late Tuesday that they had come to an agreement on budget issues for a tentative $83 billion dollars. Predictably, Speaker Corcoran’s controversial priority “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charters” will get $200 million to entice charter school operators in other states to compete with chronically failing schools, according to…
This dangerous concept is a pet project of House Speaker Corcoran and has worked its way into at least a dozen bills, making it intentionally harder to track. All of this activity feeds the goal of making it easier to slip this bad public policy into one of several massive “train” bills far removed from public…
By Lola Duffort |April 17, 2017 |Politifact New Hampshire|Concord Monitor “When public schools face increased competition,…