Interim Committee Week #4: What will they have in store for us this week?

Governor DeSantis has had a busy week. He announced plans to expand career and technical training programs (on Wednesday), issued an executive order calling for new standards, ceremoniously ditching Common Core and “streamlining” standardized testing (on Thursday) and (on Friday) announced his budget and his intention to overhaul the Best and Brightest Teacher’s Bonus program, eliminating the use of a teacher’s high school SAT scores because that “doesn’t make sense.” He also hinted that he has lots more to announce regarding education policy changes next week.

In the meantime, Interim Committee Week #4 is next week (Feb 4-8). Here’s what the legislature has scheduled for us:

Tuesday, February 5

10:00 am: Senate Education

• Presentation on K-12 Scholarship Programs, which means vouchers.
• Considering of several bills including SB 114 (High School Graduation Requirements/Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act) and SB120 (Early Childhood Music Education Incentive Pilot Program)
• Two proposed bills: SPB 7018  and SPB 7020 which appear to exempt Sunshine/Open Government laws for certain research organizations… (sounds fishy)

1:30 pm: House Education

All about Career and Technical Education, with presentation by the Department of Education AND by Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and a panel discussion on “career pathways.”

Wednesday, February 6

10:30 AM: PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee

• HJR 229: School Board term limits… this would place school board term limits on the 2020 ballot. Expect Erika Donalds and the rest of her “8 is Great” crew to testify in favor of this proposed Constitutional Amendment.
• PKQ 19-01 — Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children with a discussion by the Department of Education on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children

4:00 pm: Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education

• Review of the Governor’s Budget Recommendations

Thursday, February 7

10:30 AM House PreK-12 Innovation

Presentation and panel on Community Partnership Schools by: 

• University of Central Florida 
• Children’s Home Society 
• Orange County Public Schools

Community Partnership Schools are an EXCELLENT alternative to privatizing schools in struggling neighborhoods. This is an “Innovation” that has shown great promise.

Once again, if you value public schools, this year will be an especially good year to speak out in their support. As always, if you can’t be there in person, you can watch these meetings live streamed on The Florida Channel.

Stay informed and call out the accountabaloney when you smell it.