A Review of Committee Week #2 and a First Look at the Governor’s Budget

This week, on Thursday, all eyes were on Governor DeSantis who held a press conference releasing his Budget recommendations, announcing a $22.8 Billion Education budget containing a $233/student increase, a $132 increase in the Base Student Allocation, $10 Million increase in the Mental Health allocation and a $50 million increase in the Teacher Salary Allocation. He also announced $43.5M for a new “Title I School Recognition Program.” You can watch his press conference here and see the accompanying documents here. Remember, the Governor’s budget recommendation is really just a suggestion. The Legislature is responsible for creating the budget.

What else is happening with Education in Tallahassee? Here’s a look back on Committee Week #2:

Review of Committee Week #2

Senate Education 1/26/21

This week, scheduled presentations on “the alignment between postsecondary education and labor market demand” were temporarily postponed. The committee did hear several interesting bills:

• SB52: There were a lot of questions regarding the Dual Enrollment Scholarship portion of this bill. The bill was presented by its sponsor, Senator Ray Rodrigues, as requiring public postsecondary institutions to enter in to a dual enrollment articulation agreement with
  private schools where they would negotiate a tuition agreement. This is something that is already being done.  What the bill actually does is establish a dedicated funding source, at the state level, to help defray the costs of dual enrollment for postsecondary institutions and private high schools. The bill’s Staff Analysis estimates the cost of the new Dual Enrollment Scholarship Program, for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, to be $28.5 million. The estimate is based on tuition and instructional materials costs for the estimated number of private school and home education program students participating in dual enrollment in the fall and spring terms, and all dual enrollment students in the summer term.” The analysis also clarified that private schools will save money, since they are no longer required to pay costs associated with their dual enrollment students. After some great questions from Senators Berman and Thurston, Rodrigues admitted he didn’t understand his bill, saying “the bill analysis doesn’t match the briefing I received from education staff” and agreed to sit down with the senators and the staff to clear up the confusion. Good idea. Currently, public schools are required to pay public postsecondary institutions the standard tuition rate out of the school’s state FEFP funding. If this bill passes, private schools will receive those services for free, they will not need to share their tuition dollars. Not surprising, representatives from the private school industry support SB52. The bill moved forward on a 7-3 vote, with Vice Chair Jones joining the majority, saying he wanted to work with the sponsor on the portion of the bill addressing bonus schemes at the college and university level.
• SB 264: Another bill by Sen. Rodrigues. This one proposes that institutions of higher education in Florida annually measure intellectual freedom on campuses to determine if diversity of ideas are encouraged or stifled. The discussion is well described here.  Rodrigues suggested that free speech might be stifled on college campuses, citing a 2017 national survey that showed only 50% of college students felt their college supported diverse political views. He seems to be concerned that conservative voices might be squelched. He said, “without objective data we cannot know if these disturbing trends that have been seen nationally” occur on our (Florida) campuses. The bill moved forward on a 6-4 party line vote.
• SB220: This bill by Senator Brandes exempts searches for new leadership of state universities or Florida College System institutions from many public record laws, removing many portions of such searches from the public eye. The bill moved forward on a 6-4 party line vote.