Jeff Clemens and Lori Berman

Last night, Senator Jeff Clemens said he voted against the Education bill, 7069. First he voted for it on April 13th-- then on May 8th he voted against it. He and Berman said basically it was because of a few things in it. The final vote was 20/18 and among the 18 who voted nay, 15 were Democrats.

HB 7069 revises charter school provisions and expands the authority of high performing charter schools and systems. The bill authorizes the establishment of Schools of Hope, revises traditional public school improvement provisions and creates the Schools of Hope revolving loan program. The bill revises teacher certification provisions, modifies eligibility requirements for the best and brightest teacher scholarship requirements.

Primarily the "siphoning off money from public schools" was Clemen's biggest problem. He is not a Charter School advocate.

CS/HB 7069: Education

GENERAL BILL by Appropriations Committee ; Education Committee ; Diaz, M. ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Cortes, B. ; Donalds ; Fischer ; Roth

Education; Requiring the Auditor General to conduct annual audits of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind; requiring that the lowest-performing elementary schools be determined by specified assessment results; creating the Schools of Excellence Program; providing charter schools are eligible for capital outlay funds pursuant to specified provisions; deleting a provision requiring the Algebra II end-of-course assessment to be administered; creating the Florida Best and Brightest Principal Scholarship Program; authorizing all students, including home education and private school students, to participate in specified virtual instruction options, etc. APPROPRIATION: $418,950,000.00

Effective Date: 7/1/2017

Last Action: 5/8/2017 House - Ordered engrossed, then enrolled -HJ 1642