The following legislative updates are courtesy of FAME's lobbyist Vern Pickup-Crawford. Vern is the president and consultant of Schoolhouse Consulting Group, Inc.
2/7/19
Governor Ron Desantis announced his proposed revisions to the Best and Brightest scholarship for teachers and principals today at a Tampa high school press conference. The press release is at the end of this email. It is a general release without too much detail. Among the changes:
Of interest to secondary and postsecondary schools and institutions was this morning's House Higher Education and Workforce Committee hearing by state Dept/Economic Opportunity, CareerSource, FCAN and Florida Chamber representatives on Florida's current and future career/job market and talent needs. I would highly recommend appropriate staff and interested individuals take time to watch the vodcast of the meeting and download the back-up material which contains much relevant data at a state level, found here. It reinforces the trend showing a majority of growing occupations do not require a four-year traditional college degree, but do require specialized training. Fastest growing field is allied health.
Both the House (today) and Senate (yesterday) heard an identical presentation by Governor DeSantis' budget director, Cynthia Kelly, on education funding for public schools. The House packet is linked here. Of note was discussion on the Required Local Effort (RLE) on the House side. Freshman Susan Valdez (Hillsborough) questioned by the continuation in not using full taxroll value. Kelly responded the policy is the same as last year with allowing new growth, but reducing the millage to remove any increase in current homeownership (or commercial) property reassessments, hence the .157 mill reduction. Chair Chris Latvala reiterated that would be the House position going into the budget season.
Also of note in House Prek-12 Quality Education subcommittee, HJR229, was approved 14-0. This is the joint resolution, requiring a 60% vote from both the House and Senate, to place on the 2020 general ballot the question of whether to impose an 8-year term limit on school board members, effective as of that date. Members of the democratic caucus in committee discussed making that a 12-year limit (implying to change legislative limits also from 8 to 12 years, possibly), but no action was taken. The measure goes next to the Oversight, Transparency and Public Management subcommittee. Its Senate version, SB274, has not been heard yet.
District financial and budget staff (and any state revenue-o-philes) need to mark March 14th. That will be THE state General Revenue Estimating Conference when economists from the House, Senate and governor's office will meet to issue their last FY20 and beyond forecast for this year's legislative session. Historically, the last March/April conference has found some increase in non-recurring dollars and perhaps a slight bump in recurring funds. This year could continue that trend or be different. The conference will convene about 9am and the final report issued later that afternoon.
Over the weekend, we will provide updated bill tracking information. Filing is in full gear at this point.
---
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Reform to Best and Brightest Teachers Program
Tampa, Fla. - Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced bold steps to reform the Best and Brightest Teachers program with a renewed investment to recruit and retain the best, most dedicated educators for Florida schools. This includes more than $422 million for compensation increases to the most effective teachers and principals in our public schools throughout Florida.
"I'm proud to announce these steps we are taking to ensure our state recruits and retains the very best educators for Florida schools," said Governor DeSantis. "This renewed investment will reward highly effective teachers and principals across our state who are making a positive impact in our students lives. We are also proposing a new recruitment program to bolster the educational ranks of our schools and ensure our students are receiving the best education possible."
Under this new program, nearly 45,000 highly effective teachers would be eligible for bonuses exceeding $9,000. It would also include bonuses of up to $6,500 for principals at schools throughout Florida to reward those who are creating classroom environments to help students thrive. In addition, the new program would remove the SAT/ACT requirements for teachers to be eligible for a bonus.
Also, the new plan would implement an innovative, first of its kind investment in teacher recruitment by establishing the Teacher Talent Pipeline in Florida. This new program would include $10 million per year for the next five years to launch a loan and tuition forgiveness program for as many as 1,700 new teachers per year who commit to working as a teacher in Florida for five years.
The DeSantis Administration will also work in conjunction with the Florida Legislature to develop a Bad Actor List to prevent school operators who have been sanctioned or shut down by the state from working with Florida schools in the future. These individuals would be banned from engaging with schools in our state in any capacity for life.
- eliminate the tie-in to SAT test scores
- add funds to the program bringing the total appropriation from $233 million current year to about $422 million and transfer the program from outside the FEFP into inside the FEFP for calculation purposes (has the impact of raising the total potential by about $100/FTE);
- would apply only to "highly effective" teachers...keeps the same definition of "teacher" limited to regular classroom teacher and does not apply to other instructional personnel as defined in law;
- requires the school grade where the teacher works must have risen by at least .1% from the prior year in terms of points;
- remains a bonus program, not subject to retirement calculation, and increases the value of the bonus to upwards of $9,000 for each year awarded; principals would receive $6,500;
- provides a threshold increase from 1% to 9.8% for the number of scholarships to be awarded to African-American teachers;
- provides loan forgiveness or tuition waivers for teachers provided they commit to teaching at least five years;
- provides $10 million for teacher recruitment focusing on high needs areas;
- separately provides a "bad actor" list of failed charter schools to prevent them from operating elsewhere in Florida.
Of interest to secondary and postsecondary schools and institutions was this morning's House Higher Education and Workforce Committee hearing by state Dept/Economic Opportunity, CareerSource, FCAN and Florida Chamber representatives on Florida's current and future career/job market and talent needs. I would highly recommend appropriate staff and interested individuals take time to watch the vodcast of the meeting and download the back-up material which contains much relevant data at a state level, found here. It reinforces the trend showing a majority of growing occupations do not require a four-year traditional college degree, but do require specialized training. Fastest growing field is allied health.
Both the House (today) and Senate (yesterday) heard an identical presentation by Governor DeSantis' budget director, Cynthia Kelly, on education funding for public schools. The House packet is linked here. Of note was discussion on the Required Local Effort (RLE) on the House side. Freshman Susan Valdez (Hillsborough) questioned by the continuation in not using full taxroll value. Kelly responded the policy is the same as last year with allowing new growth, but reducing the millage to remove any increase in current homeownership (or commercial) property reassessments, hence the .157 mill reduction. Chair Chris Latvala reiterated that would be the House position going into the budget season.
Also of note in House Prek-12 Quality Education subcommittee, HJR229, was approved 14-0. This is the joint resolution, requiring a 60% vote from both the House and Senate, to place on the 2020 general ballot the question of whether to impose an 8-year term limit on school board members, effective as of that date. Members of the democratic caucus in committee discussed making that a 12-year limit (implying to change legislative limits also from 8 to 12 years, possibly), but no action was taken. The measure goes next to the Oversight, Transparency and Public Management subcommittee. Its Senate version, SB274, has not been heard yet.
District financial and budget staff (and any state revenue-o-philes) need to mark March 14th. That will be THE state General Revenue Estimating Conference when economists from the House, Senate and governor's office will meet to issue their last FY20 and beyond forecast for this year's legislative session. Historically, the last March/April conference has found some increase in non-recurring dollars and perhaps a slight bump in recurring funds. This year could continue that trend or be different. The conference will convene about 9am and the final report issued later that afternoon.
Over the weekend, we will provide updated bill tracking information. Filing is in full gear at this point.
---
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Reform to Best and Brightest Teachers Program
Tampa, Fla. - Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced bold steps to reform the Best and Brightest Teachers program with a renewed investment to recruit and retain the best, most dedicated educators for Florida schools. This includes more than $422 million for compensation increases to the most effective teachers and principals in our public schools throughout Florida.
"I'm proud to announce these steps we are taking to ensure our state recruits and retains the very best educators for Florida schools," said Governor DeSantis. "This renewed investment will reward highly effective teachers and principals across our state who are making a positive impact in our students lives. We are also proposing a new recruitment program to bolster the educational ranks of our schools and ensure our students are receiving the best education possible."
Under this new program, nearly 45,000 highly effective teachers would be eligible for bonuses exceeding $9,000. It would also include bonuses of up to $6,500 for principals at schools throughout Florida to reward those who are creating classroom environments to help students thrive. In addition, the new program would remove the SAT/ACT requirements for teachers to be eligible for a bonus.
Also, the new plan would implement an innovative, first of its kind investment in teacher recruitment by establishing the Teacher Talent Pipeline in Florida. This new program would include $10 million per year for the next five years to launch a loan and tuition forgiveness program for as many as 1,700 new teachers per year who commit to working as a teacher in Florida for five years.
The DeSantis Administration will also work in conjunction with the Florida Legislature to develop a Bad Actor List to prevent school operators who have been sanctioned or shut down by the state from working with Florida schools in the future. These individuals would be banned from engaging with schools in our state in any capacity for life.