Dudley Goodlette not a candidate for chancellor

Former state Rep. Dudley Goodlette said today that he is not a candidate for the state university chancellor job and doesn't intend to be.

"I think having more of an academic involvement in the academic community than I have had as a lawyer for 30 some years would be a prerequisite for that job that I would think would be important," Goodlette said. "So for that reason and just because I’ve been so busy with my full-time job as the chief of staff of the Florida House, I just really haven’t had an opportunity to apply and I don’t anticipate it."

Goodlette, a Naples Republican who is serving as House Speaker Larry Cretul's chief of staff, had expressed interest in the job several weeks back, but said he was too busy to apply. Now he says he owes a phone call to the Texas search firm helping the board of governors find candidates to let them know he's not interested.

House signs off on Alexander's $5M request

Negotiations continue in the Capitol's Knott Building, but the House just gave in to Senate budget chief JD Alexander’s final-hour request for $5 million in recurring funding for the University of South Florida Polytechnic campus in Lakeland, in Alexander’s home county of Polk.

Alexander’s surprise request for USF Polytechnic stands out in a state universities budget with millions in cuts and was not part of USF's legislative budget request this session. USF Lakeland also figures in a separate funding issue between the chambers. From the college construction program known as PECO, the Senate wants to give the campus $11 million, while the House has offered $3.7 million. The lower amount was recommended by the Board of Governors.

The Lake Wales Republican denied it was a “member project,” something House Speaker Larry Cretul specifically outlawed from the budget process. So why wasn’t it requested sooner?

“I neglected it, I hadn’t thought about it or we would have done it earlier,” Alexander said.

The House's latest offer also includes restored funding for public libraries. The Senate will respond later tonight when the budget chairs meet again. 

Haitian American history money eliminated

The Senate just backed off its push to put $50,000 toward Haitian American history in the preK-12 budget, which had House members asking Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, whether that means the Task Force on African American history is restored to $100,000 funding.

No, Flores said. The money goes back into school recognition funding, where it started, and African American history funding stays at $50,000.

"That's awful," said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Pembroke Park.

On Friday, Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, denied the move was a member project, saying that "some of the members wanted to be able to, if we had African American history, then Haitian American history ought to be included." 

Key education bills dead, gone, goodbye

The House and Senate just adjourned until next week when only budget-related legislation will be taken up. That means we can call time of death on all major outstanding education legislation, and it's pretty much everything.

• Class-size proposal. The push to ask voters to loosen the class-size mandate passed the House last month, but never came to the Senate floor for discussion. Senate President Jeff Atwater said they didn't have the votes. Being it's a 2010 ballot measure, this can easily come back next year.
• Graduation standards. The effort to raise high school graduation standards by phasing in algebra II, biology and chemistry passed the House last month, but never came to the Senate floor and attempts to attach the plan to other legislation failed.

• Teacher tenure. We've got a broken record here. This proposal passed the House, never came to the Senate floor.

• Civics requirement. A last-minute push didn't do the job.

70 percent school spending solution dies on vine

The effort to force Florida school districts to spend a minimum 70 percent of their operating funds in the classroom just died after an animated debate on the Senate floor.

Senate sponsor Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, deferred presentation to Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, who took the full heat of lawmakers speaking for educators who have huge misgivings about the idea.

"This bill is a soundbite," said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "It is a bumper sticker in search of a bumper. I'm tired of addressing real problems with cosmetic solutions. ... Put my bumper sticker on your car and it would probably help you more" than this bill. 

Time running out for class size ballot measure

A Republican-led push to loosen the state's class-size mandate with a 2010 ballot measure is stalling to its death in the Senate, so far not making it to the floor for discussion. And this is the final day for all non-budget legislation.

The proposal, which passed the House last month, would have asked Floridians to halt class-size compliance at the current schoolwide average, while raising the maximum number of students allowed per classroom. School boards, superintendents and administrators threw their support to the measure, but the teachers union is fighting to the end. Lawmakers can approve the plan next year and still make the 2010 ballot.

"It really is frivolous in the sense that if they’re not going to tie something to it, why sit it around, you know, just go ahead and put it next year," said Senate sponsor Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville. "I mean, that’s my opinion. I just work here."

By "tie something to it," Wise is referring to his proposal to combine the class-size amendment with a permanent penny sales tax increase to benefit education funding. The combo ballot measure, which Wise suggested as a 2009 special election vote, was a non-starter with House Republican leaders and never was introduced in the Senate.

Key dispute in preK-12 budget: last-minute $50,000 for Haitian American history

After two straight days of late-night meetings, lawmakers were racing to agreement on the preK-12 portion of the state budget. But talks broke off this morning with five issues left for House and Senate budget chairs to resolve this weekend.

Of note is the Senate's surprise push to include $50,000 for Haitian American history. The budget line item was not part of either chamber's preK-12 budget in previous weeks and showed up during the budget conference process.

That money is taken from a $100,000 allocation for the Task Force on African American history, so the Senate offer is $50,000 for African American history and $50,000 for Haitian American history.

Rep. Gwen Clarke-Reed, D-Deerfield Beach, said the move caught her "really off guard." 

"My bone of contention is that there’s legislation that says African American history should be taught and it is not being taught and it’s not been funded," she said. "Here we have an opportunity to fund it and then they decide, you know, to do something else."

Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, denied the move was a member project, but rather that "some of the members wanted to be able to, if we had African American history, then Haitian American history ought to be included."  

PreK-12 budget talks making progress

The preK-12 budget conference committee just met, with the Senate providing its counteroffer to last night’s House bid. The sides appear to be moving quickly to agreement, though the talk today was about provisions in the budget, not the funding numbers themselves. That comes later today. New in the Senate offer:

• A pitch to preserve bonuses for all of Florida’s National Board certified teachers. The House plan was to limit the bonuses, which have been $5,000 a year, to classroom teachers in low-performing schools. “We don’t want to disenfranchise people who work hard,” said Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville.
• A proposal to waive green building requirements for school districts during the 2009-10 school year, which would let districts meet building standards but not have to spend more money on environmentally friendly materials.
• A plan to create a pilot study for English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, teacher training. The study would look at whether teachers with fewer hours of training could provide the same quality instruction as teachers receiving more training.

Read more in the Times' Gradebook blog.

PreK-12 budget watchers score early win

Courtesy of Patricia Mazzei, Miami Herald:

In a win for school districts, leaders of the House and Senate committees hashing out a compromise pre-K-12 education budget agreed late Wednesday not to cut funding to Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and other rigorous high school courses. (The meeting started at 9:26 p.m.)

The Senate had originally proposed slashing money for the popular, college-level classes in half, as well as reducing the bonuses teachers receive when their students pass the course exams. School districts cried foul, saying that was unfair to do in a year when a new high school grading system will give more weight to those advanced course offerings.

Senators reversed their position earlier Wednesday, and House members accepted the change Wednesday night.

While the two chambers don't yet have a compromise on all areas of the education budget, one area has seen no change: a move that would shift some property-tax money normally designated for school districts' capital budgets into its day-to-day operating budgets.

Read more on the Times' Gradebook blog.

Graduation standards push tabled for this year

The first major piece of education legislation declared dead this session is the push to raise graduation standards for high school students.

Senate sponsor Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, said tonight that SB 2654 won't be heard on the Senate floor --- though the proposal passed the House barely one week ago --- because there's just not time.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future has been pushing to raise the curriculum requirements for high school students, phasing in algebra II and geometry as required math classes, and biology I and chemistry as required science classes. In addition, the proposal would have increased the required graduation score on the 10th grade FCAT to 3 from 2.

"The bills got farther than I ever expected this year," Altman said.

Read more on the Times' Gradebook blog.