A Look Ahead to Committee Week #3 – February 1-5, 2021.

Committee Week #3 falls right on the tail of Committee Week #2. There will be more details on the Budget and more bills being heard.

Senator Diaz’s massive voucher expansion bill (SB48) aims to transform Florida’s vouchers to Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs, which are literally publicly funded debit cards, given to families to spend on an array of educational services, which may or may not included private school tuition. The bill, #SB48, was filed last week and already on next week’s agenda, suggesting this bill is on the fast track.

Wednesday, February 3

9-11:30 AM: Senate Education

Public Testimony will be received from Room A3 At The Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, Tallahassee

• SB 48 by Diaz—Educational Scholarship Programs. Read about the bill here. The bill transforms Florida’s 5 voucher programs into 2 ESAs. ESAs are the ultimate goal of the privatizers: the “unbundling” of public education resulting in a “post brick and mortar” era of publicly funded education options where, instead of traditional public school buildings,  education “consumers” pick and choose from an assortment of learning related products and services. While public school students must submit to an overwhelming number of state mandated assessments in the name of “accountability,” ESA recipients will be allowed to skip the assessments entirely, if they like, opting, instead, for the same annual portfolio evaluation required of registered homeschoolers. Needless to say, Accountabaloney is not a fan.
• SB 146 by Brandes—Civic Education. This is the same bill filed last year which passed the Senate but died in messages. The bill creates a nonpartisan civic literacy practicum for high school students and requires the State Board of Education to create criterion designating public schools providing “high-quality civic learning” as “Freedom Schools.”
• SB 282 by Baxley—Moments of Silence in Public Schools. This is the same bill Senator Baxley filed last year, when it passed the House but never was heard on the Senate floor. The bill is simply the next step in the attempt to bring school-mandated prayer back into public schools, something the Supreme Court has repeatedly, since 1962, found to be unconstitutional.
• SB 200 by Berman—Student Retention. This bills is a response to Covid and allows parents to retain their K-12 public school student in the grade level to which the student was assigned at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year for the 2021-2022 school year.

3:30-6PM Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education

Public testimony will be received from room A3 at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, Tallahassee.

• Presentation on Governor’s Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Budget Recommendations from the Department of Education, the Office of Early Learning and the Board of Governors.

4:30-6PM: House Secondary Education & Career Development Subcommittee

• Presentations on “prioritizing, incentivizing, and promoting the attainment of credentials and non-degree credentials, such as industry certifications, apprenticeship, and associates and bachelors of science degrees that lead to future employment or further education.”

Thursday, February 4th

12:00-1:30 pm: Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee

Regarding public testimony, the agenda says: “Audience seating will be socially distanced and limited to the press and those persons wishing to provide substantive testimony on the filed bills or draft legislation. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Persons who wish to attend must register at www.myfloridahouse.gov, and pick up a pass at the Legislative Welcome Center on the 4th Floor of the Capitol beginning two hours before the start of the meeting. Registration closes three hours before the meeting starts.”

• HB 3 by Trabulsy – Home Book Delivery for Elementary Students. The bill creates Florida’s first statewide book distribution program, to provide at-home literacy supports for elementary school students reading below grade level. Books would be delivered monthly to eligible K-5 students enrolled in a participating school district. Implementation of the initiative is split between a state administrator—either the Department of Education or a contracted, third-party entity—and school districts partnering with one or more nonprofit organizations. According to the Staff Analysis, the bill was inspired by 6 years of stagnant literacy, according to the NAEP, for Florida’s elementary school children, noting that, during that time, Florida’s 4th grade NAEP reading scores have regressed to where they were from 2007-2009.
• Presentation by the Office of Early Learning on financial and academic supports provided to families, students and early learning providers under the CARES Act. 

NOT MEETING: House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee, House Education & Employment Committee, House Post-Secondary Education & Lifelong Learning Subcommittee.

Again, if we want to save public education in Florida, we need everyone to be paying attention. All meetings are live streamed and archived at thefloridachannel.org. Please follow along with us this legislative season (on Facebook and Twitter), stay informed, help us call out the accountabaloney and defend our community’s public schools.