Florida lawmakers end up with scaled back plan to ease school regulations

Proposals to cut graduation test requirements, increase teacher contract terms don’t make the cut.

Tampa Bay Times | By Jeffrey S. Solochek | Updated March 7, 2024

Entering the 2024 legislative session, the Florida Senate made a priority of reducing “onerous” regulations placed on public education.

Senators quickly passed three ambitious bills with several provisions that many observers considered potential game changers. They included proposals to end the use of algebra and language arts tests as high school graduation requirements, allow teachers to again have multiyear contracts and extend the time struggling schools have to implement turnaround plans.

On Wednesday, some of the more far-reaching ideas officially fell by the wayside.

The Senate quietly accepted scaled-back measures advanced by the House (SB 7002 and SB 7004), sending the two remaining bills to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his consideration.

The final versions included several changes that the Senate initially recommended, such as changing the age at which a teen may take the high school equivalency test and providing new retention requirements and teaching interventions for kindergarten through second grade students who struggle in English and math.

The proposals relating to the graduation tests and teacher contracts were not among those that made the cut.

“We don’t want to lower standards,” sponsor Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, said during House debate a week ago.

A large number of the remaining items affect school districts rather than students and teachers, such as the elimination of several reporting and advertising requirements.

“Most of the operational things are in there,” Pinellas County Superintendent Kevin Hendrick told his school board during a workshop Tuesday.

Hendrick said the changes are positive and should help districts. Superintendents and board members lobbied lawmakers heavily to support the deregulation initiative.

At the same time, he said, the items that did not make it to the finish line are worthy of reconsideration.

Senate sponsor Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, said this week during debate on another measure that the effort will not end with the passage of these bills.

“What we don’t walk away with this year we will definitely come back and try again,” Simon said.