Today's news

WHAT'S JEB UP TO? He's got a big education conference coming up, his pals have put some education issues on the November ballot. Is the former governor gunning for office again? Or does he just care about the schooling that kids get?

HERNANDO PREPARES ITS CUTS: District officials are looking at sports, field trips and even entire schools to make ends meet.

WHERE'S THE PARTY? It's increasingly off the USF campus, making it hard to keep the beers out of the hands of minors.

THIS IS HOW NOT TO DO IT: The failed Deerwood Academy in Pasco offers a textbook example of how not to run a charter school, while also making it harder for others to operate in Pasco, the Times editorializes.

WHAT A MESS: The proposal to get rid of "required local effort" for school funding opens a potentially disastrous situation where Florida lawmakers would have to find billions of dollars more to pay for education, and it's not likely to be pretty, Palm Beach Post columnist Randy Schultz writes.

MAKE HIGH SCHOOLS BETTER: Reducing Florida's dropout rate is important, but not if the schools handing them out don't improve, Hoover Institution research fellow Liam Julian writes in the Orlando Sentinel.

STILL NEEDED, BUT ... Florida colleges and universities are cutting programs that still have big demand, such as nursing, to meet new budget reality, the Palm Beach Post reports.

THEY'LL TAKE THE PAY CUT: Manatee's non-instructional employees agree to a 1 percent salary reduction to avoid layoffs, the Bradenton Herald reports.

AROUND THE NATION: Separating kids by gender to teach them is gaining popularity, but still faces criticism over civil rights concerns, the Washington Post reports. Many schools also are paying kids to see if that will help boost their achievement, the AP reports.