Florida Bills Could Slash Funding for Accelerated and Career Education Programs
Multiple bills moving through Florida’s Legislature — including HB 5101 and SB 2510 — could significantly reduce state funding for accelerated learning and career education programs from pre-K through high school.
If passed, the legislation would affect programs like Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge AICE, dual enrollment, and Career and Technical Education (CTE), cutting student participation by an estimated 55,000 under the House proposal and 69,000 under the Senate version.
Educators warn the funding cuts could lead to fewer qualified teachers, reduced professional development, limited course offerings, increased testing costs for families, and lower college and career readiness for students statewide, including in Brevard County.
Florida Tech researchers study roaches
Darby Proctor, an associate professor of psychology at the Florida Institute of Technology, runs the Roach Lab at the university.
Roach's "sociobiology" could teach us about our own evolutionary behaviors. They live in colonies in caste systems that include workers, soldiers, and reproducers.
They can spread dangerous pathogens, so understanding roaches could help prevent disease and result in better ways to manage them without harsh pesticides.
Females clone themselves and have 20-50 roach babies at a time. Roaches have independent 'ganglia' that can control their legs even if their head is removed.
According to an article in the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed, "Cockroaches have the potential to be cultivated as a nutritious food source for human consumption, medicinal purposes as well as a viable feed option for livestock, so contributing to sustainability efforts."
Florida lawmakers turn off student cell phones in bill heading to DeSantis
Late Friday, Florida lawmakers approved barring students in elementary and middle schools from using cell phones during the school day — and testing the idea in high schools.
Current law prevents students from using cell phones during instructional time, but the change would expand that prohibition to throughout the school day in elementary and middle schools.
The bill maintains the current law about instructional time for high schools. But it also would create a pilot program in six counties preventing cell phone use in high schools during the entire school day.
The bill is ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The bill would make it easier to convert traditional public schools to charter schools. Currently, such conversions must receive support from a majority of parents and a majority of teachers. The bill would remove the requirement for teacher support.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor blasts Trump order to defund PBS & NPR as ‘illegal’ and an ‘overreach’ WRAP
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end federal funding for NPR and PBS.
Congressmember Kathy Castor blasted the move as illegal.
The order directed the Center for Public Broadcasting to cancel funding for NPR and PBS, with Trump claiming the stations are biased and inaccurate.
However, the CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation - creating a situation Castor calls an overreach.
“This is illegal. You hate to see the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have to take him to court, because that's just a waste of money.”
However, Castor says pushback from Congress may be dicey, and encouraged Americans to reach out to their representatives and demand change.
“It’s more important than ever that our neighbors all across the Tampa Bay area, all across the state of Florida, are speaking out and pressing their representatives in Congress and speaking out. It’s only going to be through activism and democracy that we’re able to defend these authoritarian moves”
More: www.floridatoday.com
