The 2020 Legislative session officially kicked off this week. Tuesday, January 14 marked day one of the 60-day session and the deadline for filing bills. The FCSA is tracking all bills that impact public education and/or charter schools.
Governor Ron DeSantis delivered his State of the State address to the Florida Legislature on January 14. In his remarks, the Governor spoke about education as one of his top priorities. He also mentioned charter schools and shared some impressive achievement data. “Florida has 658 public charter schools serving 314,000 students, nearly 70% are Hispanic and African-American and 53% are low-income. Based on the 2019 NAEP results, if Florida’s charter school population was its own state, it would rank: #2 in the nation for 4th-grade reading; Tie for #2 in the nation for 4th-grade math; #1 in 8th-grade reading and Tie for #5 in 8th-grade math. When we increase educational choice and provide innovative learning opportunities, we can help students reach their full potential,” said Governor DeSantis.
Click the image below to watch the Governor’s charter school comments.
The FCSA Advocacy Team was also in Tallahassee this week. Ralph Arza, FCSA’s Director of Government Relations, spoke before the House K12 Innovation subcommittee in support of HB 953, a bill that would create a statewide alternate Charter School authorizer. Arza talked about the need for an independent authorizer due to the contentious relationship charter schools have with some districts. One example is the financial reporting requirements and budget rating standards implemented by the Palm Beach CFO office that goes beyond anything that’s required by state statute. Click here watch Arza’s testimony. You can watch the entire subcommittee meeting here.
The FCSA team is tracking education and charter school-related bills including SB 166 (Requiring a charter school, in order to obtain approval, to demonstrate that it meets certain needs that the local school district does not or is unable to provide to students in that district), SB 370 – Safe-school Officers (Requiring district school boards to provide their approval before certain charter schools employ school resource officers and school safety officers), SB 526 (Prohibiting specified individuals and entities from submitting an application to open a charter school for specified periods of time; defining the term “relative” for the purpose of applying the prohibition, etc.). For a complete copy of our bill tracking list, contact Lynn@flcharteralliance.org.
The FCSA is the only charter school support and advocacy organization in Tallahassee during session — speaking up for our member schools and the more than 314,000 public charter school students, their teachers and families. To learn more about the Alliance, please contact a team member.
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