FlaglerLive | March 16, 2019
The House Education Committee on Thursday approved a bill (PCB EDC 19-01) that would create a new voucher program, known as the Family Empowerment Scholarship program, which would be open to many middle-class families.
FlaglerLive | May 23, 2018
To ward off a new state law potentially allowing private property owners to fence off beach sands, the Flagler County Commission is enacting an ordinance to preserve public use and forbid fencing.
FlaglerLive | April 20, 2018
The controversy highlights continuing tensions between local school districts and the state about oversight and expansion of charter schools, which are public schools but are often run by private operators.
FlaglerLive | February 20, 2018
The Florida Senate rejected a House proposal to dissolve teacher unions if membership falls below a certain point, but also approved a version of a school voucher program funding private school students.
FlaglerLive | February 5, 2018
Three years ago then-Flagler Commissioner Barbara Revels saved the jobs, arguing they were more important than outsourcing’s modest savings. This time, the commission voted 5-0 to outsource.
FlaglerLive | June 14, 2017
The bill’s passage infuriated school boards, superintendents, the state’s main teachers and other education advocates. Scott hinted that he was considering a veto at the time.
FlaglerLive | April 28, 2016
Time to take a good look at whether the changes we’ve endured — mass privatization, real-dollar funding decreases, high-stakes testing, and loss of local school board authority — gets us closer to carrying out our constitutional duty to our children.
FlaglerLive | September 11, 2015
The Flgler Beach City Commission Thursday voted 4-0 to approve a new policy regulating how the Flagler Beach pier may be rented out for private parties–and closed to the general public–up to six times a year.
FlaglerLive | March 7, 2015
Blaming deficits created by a bogus retirement-fund requirement, the USPS is closing distribution centers, cutting worker hours, eliminating delivery routes, and slashing jobs. It needn’t be that way, argues Katherine McFate.
FlaglerLive | December 31, 2014
A judge rebuffed claims by a teacher and two parents who joined the new lawsuit that the expansion of the Tax Credit Scholarship Program hurt them because it could lead to reduced funding for their schools.
FlaglerLive | September 24, 2014
The judge gave opponents of the law 15 days to try to amend their complaint and come up with another way to challenge the legislation after ruling that the plaintiff in the challenge, teacher Tom Faasse, doesn’t have the legal right to file suit.
FlaglerLive | May 6, 2014
We’re decades into a war waged by shadowy business interests and religious groups, working through “cooperative” legislators and governors to gradually undermine most of the state’s public schools and ultimately privatize them, argues Daniel Tilson.
FlaglerLive | March 29, 2014
The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee voted 8-4 to introduce the measure, which would bind together a program aimed at students with disabilities and the voucher expansion. Senate leaders last week pulled their counterpart to the House voucher bill, but the measure for students with disabilities remains alive.
FlaglerLive | March 24, 2014
Step Up For Children CEO Doug Tuthill is shameless about the way his organization–the administrative agent for Florida’s school voucher program–spends lavishly on political races, which may explain why a Senate proposal to vastly expand the voucher program this year foundered.
FlaglerLive | March 22, 2014
The decision represents a defeat for the GOP’s Will Weatherford, who was home schooled as a child and strongly pushed the expansion of the system, which gives companies tax credits for donating to scholarship funds that help children attend private schools. Under the bills, retailers would have been allowed to divert sales-tax payments to the system.
FlaglerLive | July 8, 2013
Under the program, corporations are allowed to take tax credits for money that they contribute to Step Up for Students, which then uses those funds to essentially provide private-school vouchers.
FlaglerLive | May 1, 2013
In a stunning vote Tuesday, the Senate rejected on a tie vote a controversial bill that would have given parents the ability to register their wishes with a district that’s choosing how to turn around failing schools.
FlaglerLive | April 5, 2013
Rep. Travis Hutson was among the Republicans crossing party lines to oppose the bill, favered by the charter-school movement, as it would let parents petition their school district to consider a turnaround option for a school that receives an “F” on the state report card for two consecutive years.
FlaglerLive | March 20, 2013
The so-called parent-trigger bill does not empower parents. Rather, it empowers out-of-state corporate interests and their lobbyists to siphon Florida tax dollars away from our already underfunded public school system, argues Paula Dockery.
FlaglerLive | March 20, 2013
The measure would allow parents to petition their school board to adopt a specific turnaround option for any school that draws an “F” on state report cards for two straight years.
FlaglerLive | March 8, 2013
Supporters say the proposal will improve chances for children trapped in failing schools.Opponents worry that politically savvy for-profit corporations could encourage parents to back the charter school option.
FlaglerLive | February 10, 2013
The measure passed the House Government Operations Subcommittee after a contentious and at times emotional three-and-a-half-hour meeting. The bill would require all employees who begin working for the state on or after Jan. 1 to join a “defined contribution” plan.
FlaglerLive | November 26, 2012
The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is asking Floridians to vote on one of four choices, online, starting today and until Dec. 14. The redesigned plate with the most votes replaces existing plates beginning in 2014.
FlaglerLive | October 9, 2012
Citing a likely drop in customer service and an eventual increase in costs, Flagler County Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston joined tax collectors across the state to criticize parts of Florida’s plans to redesign the state’s license plates and end local residents’ ability to get their plates locally and immediately.
FlaglerLive | August 31, 2012
GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said the nation must rethink Medicare as he and Mitt Romney propose changing the health-insurance program for 65-and-over Americans to a “fixed-amount” voucher that would essentially privatize the benefit.
FlaglerLive | August 27, 2012
Florida under the leadership of Republican icons like Bush, Scott and Rubio, and supported by proud and unthinking GOP legislatures for the last 15 years, has happily served as the grow house for Republican policies. The results are stunning, writes former lawmaker Dan Gelber.
FlaglerLive | July 25, 2012
In a victory for police unions, an appeals court ruled against Attorney General Pam Bondi in a long-running battle about the Legislature’s attempt last year to privatize prisons across southern Florida.
FlaglerLive | July 22, 2012
Florida and other states, in an attempt to cut costs, are increasingly outsourcing health care for inmates to for-profit companies, but the trend is raising concerns among unions and prisoners’ rights groups.
Pierre Tristam | July 8, 2012
Thomas Lopez was fired by Jeff Ellis and Associates, the private company to whom Hallandale Beach outsourced its lifeguard services, when Lopez tried to save a drowning man beyond his jurisdiction. It’s an example of privatization’s immoral priorities.
FlaglerLive | March 9, 2012
The Senate on a tie vote defeated a bill that would have let parents turn failing schools into charters, the latest and perhaps final victory for a dissident faction of the GOP caucus as the curtain came down on the 2012 legislative session.
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