Education Funding

Idea is meant to entice workers seeking cheaper medical care.

Facing a $46.7 million budget deficit, the Lee County School District has informed 457 employees that their contracts would not be renewed for the next school year. Of those, 275 are teachers.

Highlands County schools are in danger of state take-over of finances.

School district projected to fall below state-mandated threshold of reserve funds.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signs two education bills at a press conference Friday at Fort Myers High School.

As it stands now 62 jobs could be cut across the district.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined his proposed $117 billion state budget Wednesday, as the term-limited executive prepares to leave the state's top office. His spending plan includes increased spending on law enforcement and corrections officers. He also recommended new investments in campus security for the state's public universities, following a mass shooting at Florida State University in April that killed two and injured six others. DeSantis also continued his call to slash property taxes in the state, and floated $300 million to backfill local government budgets in rural and fiscally constrained counties.The FEA issued a statement harshly critical of the budget plan.

Florida’s expansion of vouchers for families who want to enroll their children in private schools is leading to tighter budgets at public schools across the state. In 2023, the Republican-led Legislature passed a bill that eliminated the income requirement for families to receive the vouchers, called family empowerment scholarships and Florida tax credit scholarships. These vouchers, intended to help families who could not afford private education, allow for public state aid to be redirected to families to cover the costs of the private school.

The same Suncoast lawmakers who voted earlier this year to let charter schools move into underused public campuses have stayed quiet as a Miami-based charter operator’s early push to occupy local schools set off confusion and concern among parents and educators.Mater Academy, one of Florida’s largest charter school networks, filed notices last week to co-locate inside five Sarasota and Manatee county schools — part of a broader wave of early filings across the state that districts say were submitted prematurely. According to officials, charter operators must wait until Nov. 11 to submit a notice.

WGCU reporter and host Sandra Viktorova’s documentary “Dream School: A Journey to Higher Ed” has won a National Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.“Dream School” explores the struggles that students face as they apply to the most prestigious colleges in the nation. It premiered on Jan. 26, 2024 on WGCU TV and subsequently ran on more than half of the PBS stations in the country. It’s available to stream on pbs.org and WGCU’s YouTube channel.