Committee on Legislature
The Legislative committee has the very important job of advocating for Florida school librarians and our profession at the state and national level. Each year, the committee works with our lobbyist, Vern Pickup-Crawford, while the legislature is in session in Tallahassee. FAME members attend Legislative Days in the spring to meet with Senate members and Representatives to state our platform and concerns. The Legislative Committee develops the legislative platform of the association; directs and coordinates legislative efforts initiated and/or supported by the association; and makes recommendations related to legislation to the Executive Board as the need arises.
iT'S TIME FOR ACTION. yOUR HELP IS NEEDED. cLICK THE BANNER TO LEARN WHAT YOU CAN DO!
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5/22/18The U.S. Census Bureau has released its latest comparison of education expenditures among states. The data for FY2016 can be found here. Looking at table 11 of the attached spreadsheet, Florida ranked 44th in revenues and spending at $10,126 in combined federal, state and local sources. US average is $13,814. , The Sunshine State ranked 48th in the level of state funds and 28th in the level of local dollars.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos covered a number of topics at a House Education/Workforce Committee meeting this morning as Republican members provided her support while Democrat members were generally critical of her actions and positions to date. One area of focus on several instances was expansion of career/technical education. There was common agreement on all aides to expand career and apprenticeship programs. DeVos noted that she and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta are working on ways to expand apprenticeships and "learn and earn" programs. DeVos was also supportive of the bipartisan House legislation passed last year to reauthorize the Perkins Career Education Act. The bill remains pending a hearing in the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor, Pensions) Committee. DeVos deflected criticism that her office was approving state ESSA plans that did not meet the law nor that she was not doing enough to enforce existing federal civil rights laws. More on today's hearing and the recorded video can be found here. The almost 4-hour hearing can be viewed here. Last, Below is an email received from US-Ed asking for volunteer districts to apply for an LEA flex program which was authorized by ESSA in 2015. I've including it for your information and review. ------------------ Dear Colleagues, Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced a new pilot to afford local educational agencies (LEAs) flexibility to create equitable, student-centered funding systems. The purpose of this pilot is to provide an LEA with the flexibility to combine state, local, and eligible federal funds that it will allocate to schools using a formula that provides additional funding for students from low-income families, English learners, and other disadvantaged students. In exchange for meeting the requirements of the pilot and using a student-centered funding formula, the LEA receives freedom from many of the federal require-ments for the funds included in the system (e.g., tracking time and attendance; creating schoolwide needs assessments and schoolwide plans for operating a schoolwide program under Title I, Part A; spending funds on particular allowable uses). The Department first accepted applications in March and will accept a second round of applications by July 15, 2018. Please note that the Department recently updated the application, which is available on our website. To support LEAs interested in applying this summer, the Department is hosting a series of two webinars, each of which will be repeated. · The first webinars focus on describing how student-centered funding systems function and how to complete the application. These will take place on Wednesday, May 30 from 2 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time and Thursday, May 31 from 12:30 to 2 PM ET. · The second webinars will go into more detail about the requirements of the pilot, provide plenty of time for Q&A, and address lessons learned during the spring 2018 submission cycle. These will take place on Wednesday, June 20 from 2 to 3:30 PM ET and Thursday, June 21 from 12 to 1:30 PM ET. The intended audience is LEAstaff, though other interested parties are also welcome. To join a webinar, please select the link for the relevant session. The webinars will be recorded, and the recordings as well as slides will be posted with related resources on our website. Please share this message as broadly as possible, especially to your LEA contacts. An LEA applying by July 15, 2018, will be proposing a system that would be implemented in the 2019-2020 school year, which provides time for transition to implementing an approved plan. We are eager to receive applications from interested LEAs who share our enthusiasm about the program, the flexibility it gives local leaders, and its potential impact on equity and transparency in resource allocation. If you have questions about the webinars or the application, please contactWeightedFundingPilot@ed.gov. Best, The Communications and Outreach Team 
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Resources:
Official website for Florida Governor, Rick Scott
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Click the icon to send a tweet to Governor Scott
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The official site of the Florida Legislature
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View live streaming broadcasts of Florida legislative sessions
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ALA's advocacy and legislative page
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ESSA:
On December 10, 2015, President Barak Obama signed into law the new education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). For the first time in over fifty years, school librarians and school library programs are specifically included in this law. This bipartisan measure reauthorizes the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the nation’s national education law and longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students.
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"With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal—that every child, regardless of race, income, background, the zip code where they live, deserves the chance to make of their lives what they will." — President Barack Obama |
Resources:
ESSA resources from ALA and AASL
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ESSA articles from Knowledge Quest, AASL's journal publication
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Excellent article on the bottom line for school libraries
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Documents:
These are recommended initial next steps from ALA Washington Office, and a letter our President, Lucretia Miller, drafted and sent to all school superintendents in Florida.
These are recommended initial next steps from ALA Washington Office, and a letter our President, Lucretia Miller, drafted and sent to all school superintendents in Florida.
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