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.
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3/27/19Both House and Senate Appropriations Committees went through a perfunctory series of approvals on budget documents today, setting the scene for full House and Senate consideration next week. House bills will be filed with bill numbers tomorrow late or Friday morning. The Senate will its official docs out later tomorrow. We will get them to you as they are filed. There were no changes as it pertains to Prek-12 funding. What you have from the weekend still holds for now. The House, on a 18-6 vote, passed HB5101 which is the budget conforming bill for appropriations (I.e., conforms state law to the budgetary intent for one year). Included is a revision of the Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship for which highly effective and effective classroom teachers would be eligible. Members of the FAME legislative committee met this week with numerous legislators to urge inclusion of "other instructional personnel" that includes library/media specialists. President-elect Lorraine Stinson of St. Johns County testified before the House panel urging inclusion noting media specialists are teachers of students, teachers of teachers and are responsible for every student in their school. The group included current President Julie Hiltz, legis chairs Michelle Jarrett and Deb Svec, and members Christine Cyrier, Marie Masferer, past President Andrea Parisi, Ruth Witter, Angela Young and Vange Scivally. They will continue its efforts for throughout the rest of the session and will be urging FAME members to help provide support. (note: the vodcast of Stinson's appearance is on www.thefloridachannel.org, go to video library, click today's House Appropriations Committee and her testimony begins about 3 hrs, 45-50 minutes into the meeting) As part of the appropriations process, the House committee approved HB7075 that establishes the Family Empowerment Scholarship for low income parents initially at a federal poverty level of 300% and moving up to 375% by the '21-22 school year. The program would use state funds in the amount equivalent to a district's basic student FEFP value. It is modeled after the original Opportunity Scholarship in 1999 and is one of both Governor Desantis' and the Senate leadership's priorities for this session. The Senate version is contained in SB7070. The House bill passed along a party-line 16-9 vote. The Senate bill is awaiting action in Appropriations. House Bill 1 is evolving as a ethics/elections bill to watch. Approved unanimously by the Oversight, Transparency & Public Management Subcommittee, the bill is headed to the House floor for action. While it has specifics for higher education, the bill in several areas affects all public officials. The bill's provisions could "grow" in coming weeks. It is linked here. Some of the contents now include:
The Senate today unanimously passed SB74 that requires that any proposals to revise the State Constitution, or any part thereof, filed by the Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) be limited to a single subject. The measure would be a constitutional amendment on the November, 2020 ballot. It goes to the House for consideration. During the CRC process last year, there was much criticism of how proposals were grouped into a single ballot issue. Meanwhile, tomorrow, House Education will consider a number of bills starting at 8:30am. The meeting will be aired over www.thefloridachannel.org. Bills include: HJR 229 Limitation on Terms of Office for Members of a District School Board by Sabatini, Fine CS/HB 349 Students with Disabilities in Public Schools by PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee, DuBose CS/HB 547 Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Program by Higher Education & Career Readiness Subcommittee, Clemons HB 807 Civics Education by Aloupis HB 1027 Office of Early Learning by Aloupis HB 7051 Higher Education by Higher Education & Career Readiness Subcommittee, Byrd We'll have more tomorrow. |
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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