The Collier County School Board fired its superintendent Tuesday, but it wasn’t a unanimous decision. WGCU’s John Davis has more.

The beginning of construction on East Elementary School in Punta Gorda marks the beginning of Charlotte County School District's final stage of recovery from Hurricane Charley. WGCU's Valerie Alker reports.

Balancing the rights of the institution against the rights of students with mental illness was the topic of a web based seminar yesterday at Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

For a complete look at the reading, math and science scores released Wednesday click here.

The Florida Department of Education announced today that independent auditors will be re-scoring the entire batch of 2006 3rd grade reading tests.

Department Commissioner Jeanine Blomberg says an internal investigation found what looks like a problem with the test, and that 3rd graders in ’06 may have had it easier than their predecessors. And because of that, the entire batch will face an audit - and be rescored.

“It isn’t related to the scoring of the test, it’s an equating issue. I just want to assure you that this was not intentional or deliberate.”

Blomberg says they’re still trying to get a handle on exactly what went wrong and that more details will be available later this week.

The just-released 2007 scores will not face an audit…but Blomberg says all future FCAT tests on all levels will be audited from now on.

And she says while the intention isn’t to cause grief to anyone, the re-scoring could have an impact on the letter grades school’s received last year.

For a complete look at the reading, math and science scores released Wednesday click here.

Personnel from the Florida Department of Education were in Ft. Myers Wednesday to brief teachers and others on how education was affected by the 2007 legislative session. The Department’s Tom Butler says lawmakers were generous.

“there’s an increase in per student funding, there’s an increase in funding for reading which could translate to more coaches and more reading instruction for our students out there. The class size reduction amendment has more funding that’s attached to it as well – reducing our class sizes”

Butler says there’s also start-up money for virtual tutoring, and that no funding was cut from any K-12 education program. The briefings will continue next week with DOE staffers traveling to Miami, Niceville and Jacksonville.

Officials at Florida Gulf Coast University held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the building that will house the university’s young school of engineering. WGCU’s Mike Kiniry has more.

Florida education was a big winner in this year’s legislative session.

Even with some money constraints on legislators, there were no cuts made to the education budget. And in some cases there were increases. This is a great thing according to Florida Department of Education press secretary Thomas Butler. Of all the things that money will do, one big one is how much can be spent per student.

“It’s a 6-point 8 percent increase over the spending last year. So what that does that brings up the spending per student to 7-thousand 305 dollars and 79 cents. And what that means is that’s more money that can be spent on your son or daughter as far as their education goes and that’s always a good thing.”

The budget this year will also mean there will be an increase of almost 28 percent in operating funds for smaller class sizes. And there is now more money according to Butler for reading and virtual tutoring programs.

Another group who is enjoying a good year thanks to legislative decisions is educators. The session ended last Friday with a budget of 24-billion dollars for education across the state.

Officials at the Florida Department of Education say that money will go to reducing class size, increasing spending per student, and workforce education funding. Press secretary for the FDOE Thomas Butler says there was nothing bad about this year’s legislative session when it came to education.

“First off we are extremely pleased with this budget…it’s just a phenomenal effort on the part of the governor and the legislator. Right off the bat, it’s an increase over last year’s educational budget and we saw some key increases in certain programs that we’re really excited about.”

Butler says there will be increases for reading programs and things like virtual tutoring. Butler says one of the major victories for education is the fact that there were no cuts in this year’s education budget.

As parents across Southwest Florida go online for information about the latest FCAT scores…officials at the Department of Education are issuing a warning about misleading websites.

With F-CAT scores now available for parents online, a number of bogus websites have turned up. The actual website is www-dot-fcat-parent-network-dot-com. But officials at the Florida Department of Education say there are a few websites that are just one letter off and are misleading parents for financial gain. Spokeswoman Jennifer Fennel says they take advantage of people’s mistakes.

“It doesn’t have anything derogatory on student scores, basically it’s someone that is trying to capitalize on knowing that people often type something wrong, and going in…it’s paid links, it’s advertising, trying to get people to buy stuff.”

The Department has released the 2007 FCAT writing results. But the actual writing scores come out next week.