It’s too early to know what the 2019 Legislative Session will hold. But if the past week is any indication, then education will be a major theme through the 60-day lawmaking process.
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently called on the Legislature to launch another school choice scholarship program. DeSantis, who has said he wants to empower lawmakers, is leaving much of the blueprint work up to them.
He envisions the program, named the “Equal Opportunity Scholarship,” to cover 14,000 students at about $6,500 per student. Getting the numbers to work, DeSantis said, will largely be up to lawmakers. He suggested a tax credit and revenue hybrid to fund the scholarship, which would help students hoping to attend private and charter schools.
Earlier this week, lawmakers mulled a different change to education policy.
The Senate Education Committee passed along party lines a proposal (SPB 7030) that, among other things, would allow teachers to be armed on campus. Republican Senators on the panel supported the idea, noting it is backed by the final report issued from a fact-finding panel spawned after the Parkland shooting in 2018. Democrats, however, are opposed.
Last year, then-Gov. Rick Scott said he wouldn’t support legislation arming teachers, instead encouraging the Legislature to usher a different program that trains and arms school ‘guardians,’ a position available only to outside personnel or non-educating faculty.
Also in education news, State Rep. Randy Fine, a Palm Bay Republican and influential chair of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, signaled that there would be cutbacks in capital projects for university campuses this year. Nearly 40 state college and university construction projects could be on the chopping block due to a $733 million backlog.
"We are going to take a good, hard look at the commitments we have made but not funded to just make sure they're things we still want, and ought, to be doing," Fine said.
In addition, schools are expected to face a $150 million decrease in PECO funds which pay for construction projects.
