Politics
Senate only wants to cover 70% of costs for AP, IB and AICE courses
The Senate is warming to a new funding means for advanced courses allowing high school students to earn college credits. But the upper chamber has still only offered 70% of the funding calculated under a model in use for decades.
A Senate PreK-12 Education Appropriations Committee offer Thursday provides $418 million in the form of a categorical grant to school districts. That’s more than $175 million less than the House wants to fund.
Sen. Danny Burgess, the Senate PreK-12 Appropriations Committee Chair, said the Senate offered approximately 80% of the funding to school districts that would have been generated under the current structure for all accelerated academic programs.
That includes funding for Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) credits.
He gave lengthy remarks at a joint meeting with House and Senate appropriators on his committee’s proposal.
“At this time, we are simply trying to align this new categorical with the requirements that are in current statute, and that was the Senate rationale in that approach,” the Zephyrhills Republican said.
In a lengthy social media post, Burgess further explained the rationale.
“To be clear, the budget originally passed by the Senate did not reduce or eliminate funding for these important courses,” Burgess posted.
“To the contrary, it continued to provide significantly enhanced funding to cover class and testing costs, as well as bonuses for teachers whose students pass course exams. We drafted our original proposal to respond to district requests by providing flexibility schools have repeatedly asked for, and under that proposal, 54 of 67 counties would have actually received increased funding.”
But the Senate remains on the short end of offers for the courses. The House on Wednesday proposed fully funding the programs $596 million in the form of an Academic Acceleration Options Supplement. That would preserve spending but structurally change how the number is developed.
The House plan effectively would end an add-on weighted model that ties funding to enrollment and student performance and has been in place for decades. But to assuage fears of monetary threats to the advanced programs, the House budgeted the same number of total dollars to be spent this year.
“We heard from concerned parents across the state, met with numerous Superintendents and School Board members, and we listened,” Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, a Fort Myers Republican chairing the House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee, told Florida Politics.
Importantly, one significant difference is that the Senate does not intend to include dual enrollment courses in its budget. Those are courses taken at colleges by high school students and covered by public funding. “Those courses are mainly covered by postsecondary institutions,” Burgess posted.
Burgess said the Senate will go along with shifting to a Florida Education Finance Program grant as well to avoid confusion.
“This aligns the new categorical with current statute, which only requires districts to spend 80% of the funds earned from these accelerated programs on the programs that generated the funding.”
As of Thursday at 5 p.m., haggling between the House and Senate committee ceased and was kicked to the next level, leaving the significant difference between the chambers unresolved. Now, that must be negotiated between Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper, a Clearwater Republican, and House Budget Chair Lawrence McClure, a Dover Republican.
Post Views: 0
The Senate wants to spend $300,000 on a controversial intellectual freedom survey of higher ed students and faculty that has seen low participation previously.
That line item was one of the projects listed in the Senate’s sprinkle list. The sprinkle list, as its name suggests, is an assortment of supplemental funding initiatives the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near closure to provide typically small apportionments (compared to other earmarks) to regional projects.
The Senate is proposing spending $150,000 for the survey for Florida’s public university system and another $150,000 for the Florida state college system.
In 2021, lawmakers passed legislation to start doing annual voluntary questionnaires to understand students’ and employees’ viewpoints via the 20-plus question survey. In 2024, the survey doubled to 52 questions.
Some faculty groups protested the surveys and urged professors not to fill them out.
“Of the more than 1.36 million individuals who received the student survey, 7,213 responded, representing a total response rate of 0.5 percent,” read a 2022 report by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).
The universities had a better response. A survey emailed to 338,000 students brought in 49,132 responses, or a 14.5% response rate, a 2024 report said.
Some students said they found the questions inappropriate, like when students were asked last year if they would be friends with someone depending on whether they voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
“The fact that they actually named the Presidents — it really rubbed me the wrong way,” said Noah Barguez-Arias, a University of Florida student who called the survey “slimy,” according to a Fresh Take Florida story last year. “I feel like the universities just shouldn’t really worry about that.”
The GOP has targeted higher education and fought back against what Republican lawmakers call “woke” ideology.
“The two survey instruments were designed to assess the extent to which students and employees feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and competing ideas are presented on campus,” FDOE said on its website.
Post Views: 0
Gov. Ron DeSantis has approved legislation to help better deliver behavioral health services.
Lawmakers approved the bill (HB 633) in late April. Tampa Republican Rep. Traci Koster sponsored the measure, with Panama City Republican Sen. Jay Trumbull backing the Senate companion (SB 1354).
Under the legislation, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will contract for operational and financial audits of managing entities and would analyze the data provided.
Audits must include a review of business practices, personnel, financial records, compensation, services administered, the method of provider payment, expenditures, outcomes, referral patterns and referral volume, provider referral assignments, and key performance measures.
Provider network participation information for DCF’s available bed platform, the Opioid Management System, and the Agency for Health Care Administration Event Notification Service are required for audits, as well as information on provider network adequacy.
Melanie Brown Woofter, the President and CEO of the Florida Behavioral Health Association, issued a statement following Friday’s signing praising the Governor and bill sponsors for getting the measure across the finish line.
“The Governor’s unwavering commitment to behavioral health has allowed community mental health and substance use treatment providers to offer efficient and effective health care services to all Floridians, regardless of their ability to pay,” Brown Woofter said.
“We are grateful to Representative Traci Koster and Senator Jay Trumbull for their leadership and to the entire Florida Legislature for unanimously passing HB 633. The legislation centralizes reporting for behavioral health stakeholders, creating a unique opportunity for Floridians to better understand how public investments are supporting mental health services across the state. This will ultimately demonstrate the return on investment community providers generate and continue to highlight the good work providers have been doing in their communities across the state for decades.”
Per the measure, managing entities are required to compare administered services with outcomes of expenditures and add them into each audit of the entity’s expenditures and claims, including any Medicaid funding used for behavioral health services.
Claims paid by each managing entity for Medicaid recipients need to be analyzed and include recommendations to improve the transparency of the system’s performance based on metrics and criteria. Performance standards will be established by both DCF and the managing entities.
Managing entities will be required to report the numbers and percentages of high utilizers, individuals who receive outpatient services for behavioral health services, and emergency room visits.
Information on the number of individuals able to schedule an appointment within 24 hours, wait times, the incidence of medication errors in treatment plans, rate of readmission, and the number of adverse incidents such as self-harm in both in-patient and outpatient settings will also be reported.
Following the Governor’s signature, the legislation takes effect July 1.
___
Ryan Nicol and Andrew Powell of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
Post Views: 0
Senate slots $300K for intellectual freedom survey at schools
Deloitte is now offering employees a unique wellness benefit: subsidized Legos
Amelia Gray Flaunts Bikini Bod for Birthday Celebrations!
-
Politics8 years agoCongress rolls out ‘Better Deal,’ new economic agenda
-
Entertainment8 years ago
New Season 8 Walking Dead trailer flashes forward in time
-
Entertainment8 years ago
The final 6 ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes might feel like a full season
-
Entertainment8 years ago
Mod turns ‘Counter-Strike’ into a ‘Tekken’ clone with fighting chickens
-
Politics8 years ago
Illinois’ financial crisis could bring the state to a halt
-
Tech8 years ago
Microsoft Paint is finally dead, and the world Is a better place
-
Tech8 years ago
Hulu hires Google marketing veteran Kelly Campbell as CMO
-
Tech8 years ago
Mobile Google CEO Promises 11 Daydream-compatible phones