The Senate Education Postsecondary Committee unanimously advanced legislation changing rules regarding members of the State University System Board of Governors, presidential search committees and more.

Miami Republican Sen. Alexis Calatayud presented the bill (SB 1726), saying it would streamline appointments for college or university leadership, ensure compliance with financial disclosure rules and provide students with low- or no-cost learning materials.

“Senate Bill 1726 is designed to strengthen government transparency and empowers students within Florida’s higher education system,” Calatayud said. “The bill directly addresses key areas identified as needing reform, ensuring greater transparency in university leadership selection, increase financial disclosures for board members, and improve access to vital course and textbook information for students.”

The bill would require members of the Board of Governors to comply with the financial disclosure requirements of Section 8, Article 2, of the state constitution beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

It would also establish term limits for members of the State Board of Education. Members would only be able to serve only two four-year terms, and a Chair may serve only a single term.

The Florida College System Board of Trustee members would be authorized to be reappointed by the Governor for one additional four-year term, not to exceed eight consecutive years of service. The bill also authorizes the Board of Trustee Chair to serve a single two-year term.

“This bill also specifies that appointed members of the Board of Governors may serve only a single seven-year term and that each member appointed by the Governor must be a resident of the state,” Calatayud said. “Current law already requires State Board of Education members to be state residents.”

Calatayud noted that the state constitution requires Florida College System Board of Trustee members to be residents of the area that they serve regionally. She further pointed out that the bill specifies that appointed members of a state university Board of Trustees may be reappointed for one additional five-year term, not to exceed 10 consecutive years of service.

“We have focused on the regionality of Board of Trustee members as essential to representing the local community,” Calatayud said. “In appointing an interim or permanent President, the Chair of the institution’s Board of Trustees shall appoint a Presidential Search Committee.”

The committee would be required to consist of at least two members of the Board of Trustees, and may include persons from the institution’s faculty, the student body, the institution’s foundation board, and the institution’s financing cooperation board. If applicable, members could also include alumni, donors and members from the community the institution serves.

The legislation would prohibit persons appointed in the committee from holding positions that report directly to the President, and the Commissioner of Education or a member of the State Board of Education would be restricted from serving on the committee. The interim or permanent President appointed by the Board of Trustees would be required to be recommended by the committee.

“The bill also eliminates the public records exemption for applicants seeking a presidency at a state university or Florida College System institution, thereby making application information subject to public disclosure under Florida’s Open Records laws,” Calatayud said. “This measure ensures that the search, screening, and selection process will be subject to the full scrutiny of Florida’s Sunshine laws.”

If passed into law, the measure would also allow students to gain access to free or low-cost textbooks and instructional materials to reduce the financial strain of studying.

“This bill also empowers students through informed choices, by requiring the Florida College System and state university institutions to post information on supplemental textbooks, including those that are open access or free of cost for at least 95% of all courses and course sections offered during the upcoming term,” Calatayud said.

The syllabi would be required to include specific learning goals, objectives, student expectations including grading scale methodology and the actual syllabus for the course being taught, rather than a generic version.

It would also mandate that students be provided with a detailed itemization of the cost of each textbook and instructional materials, including those bundles in bulk pricing packages and the lowest cost option available for each. This includes readily available no-cost learning materials.

The bill will now move to the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee.

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U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is resigning from the House Freedom Caucus, citing betrayal from some of its members over her efforts to pass legislation allowing proxy voting for new parents.

“My goal has always been to work alongside like-minded individuals committed to fighting for the American people and delivering on the promises President Trump campaigned on,” Luna wrote in her letter announcing her departure from the Freedom Caucus, first shared by Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman on X.

“I have consistently supported each of you, even in the moments of disagreement, honoring the mutual respect that has guided our caucus.”

But she said that respect “was shattered last week” when some members of the caucus worked to block her effort to bring forward legislation allowing new mothers and fathers in Congress to vote by proxy for 12 weeks.

“This was a modest, family-centered proposal,” Luna wrote. “Yet, a small group among us threatened the Speaker, vowing to halt floor proceedings indefinitely — regardless of the legislation at stake, including President Trump’s agenda — unless he altered the rules to block my discharge petition.”

Multiple reports highlighted the infighting. Luna gathered enough member signatures to force a vote on her discharge petition, which are used to circumvent issues blocked by the majority party to get a vote on a bill. But House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that proxy voting violates the Constitution.

Luna had already accused GOP leaders in Congress of making threats to convince members to vote against the proxy voting measure, even bribing some to go along with efforts to block Luna’s discharge petition, according to NPR.

Luna was the 12th lawmaker to give birth while serving in the U.S. House. And in 2023, after the birth of her child, she had sought rule changes to allow new parents to vote remotely. But her efforts were rejected by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and now-Speaker Johnson.

Luna is reaching across the aisle on the issue, working with Democratic U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, who was the 13th member of Congress to have a baby while in office.

In her letter, Luna called efforts to block her petition more than just “a betrayal of trust,” dubbing it “a descent into the very behavior we have long condemned — a practice that we, as a group, have repeatedly criticized leadership for allowing.”

Luna closed the letter by noting that the discharge petition process will continue to be used, and it “will not dismantle our system — whether it’s for this measure, term limits, election integrity, or anything else.”

“What does threaten our institution, however, is succumbing to the very corruption we pledged to uproot,” Luna wrote. “Sadly, that is what some among us have become. The Constitution entrusts us with a sacred duty to serve, not to manipulate rules for power and to silence dissent. When we abandon that duty, we erode the very foundation we claim to defend.”

While Luna had harsh words for members of her caucus who went against her on the proxy voting issue, she was careful in her letter not to direct her ire at Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris.

“Your gentlemanly approach throughout this process has been a model of integrity, and I thank you for it,” she wrote, noting it was “with a heavy heart” that she steps down from the caucus. She also thanked those “who have remained my friends and treated me with respect.”

The House Freedom Caucus is a group of about 40 highly conservative members of the U.S. House. The group has, at times, drawn criticism for being obstructionist. Many of its members were behind opposition to choosing McCarthy as Speaker, which led to his election only after a record-breaking 15 rounds of voting in 2023. Some members were also behind McCarthy’s eventual ouster as Speaker. And the group has put up roadblocks during government spending showdowns.

McCarthy himself has accused the group of being “the ones who have stopped the Republicans from being able to govern,” according to the Hill.

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A Florida Farm Bill backed by Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is moving through the House and is wading directly into the debate over water fluoridation.

The Agriculture & Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee is the latest panel to advance Rep. Kaylee Tuck’s legislation (HB 651). And this time around, the public showed up in favor of a provision that would ban Florida cities from fluoridating water.

While the legislation covers a lot of ground, the issue of “additives” in municipal water supplies took center stage yet again, with Democrats pressing the issue.

Rep. Michelle Rayner wondered why fluoride required a “preemption.”

Tuck noted that the bill covers all additives, and rejected the premise that banning fluoride in the water supply would lead to more cavities.

As opposed to the bill’s previous stop, people showed up to speak out against forced fluoridation.

Susan Clark, a former research assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health, made the scientific case against fluoridation, saying it creates “neurologic problems.”

“It’s the primary ingredient in rat poison,” Clark said.

Lyn Hartman, a Melbourne Beach resident who has dual German-American citizenship, also spoke in favor of the bill’s fluoride preemption and the “yearning” Floridians have to “remove toxins” from water.

“Nobody’s woker than Germans. And Germans don’t have fluoride in the water,” Hartman said.

Mya Hahn, the Vice President of React Research and a speech-language pathologist, also spoke on behalf of the “MAHA Florida” Coalition in advocating for clean drinking water without “forced additives,” and “informed consent” for families.

“This bill restores our choice. It demands oversight and transparency, ensuring water hydrates, not medicates,” Hahn said. “As a mom, I fear for my kids’ brains. As a specialist, I see neurodivergent children suffer from environmental harms. We deserve a way to say no to this risk, and we have a right to clean and safe drinking water.”

This bill is supported by Heritage Action, the Heartland Institute, the National Rifle Association, the Florida Agritourism Association, the Florida Poultry Association, the Florida Farm Bureau Federation and the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. It has one committee stop ahead. The package is also moving in the Senate

The bill covers a lot of other ground, including banning psychedelic mushrooms and the representation of a plant product as milk or meat.

It would offer a ballot initiative where voters could choose to exempt agricultural lands from property taxes. The measure would provide grants for fiscally constrained counties to get electric vehicle charging stations.

It would also allow schools to maintain agricultural spaces for the Future Farmers of America and the 4H Club by exempting the schools from local zoning that would otherwise ban it.

The bill also would ban drones on agricultural lands. Tuck said the language adds “ag operations” to criminal statute.

Mail theft is already a federally banned activity, but the bill would give the state enforcement ability.

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