Big Media's Hair Will Be On FIRE if this Goes Through and Senate Passes HB 7049 (Local Government Legal Notice Reform)!

The bill to allow local governments to bypass archaic laws and rules where legal notices must be placed in local newspapers is now actually moving in the Florida Senate.

The house passed the bill already by a large margin.

The senate has now put the bill into a rules committee hearing tomorrow.  If it passes, it could go onto the Senate Floor for a vote before the end of the session Friday.

Collective media heads will explode if this passes---as they make a lot of cheddar off of counties and cities being FORCED to advertise with local papers ---while public notices could easily be made on the internet saving local governments MILLIONs of dollars yearly.

Ironically, as is the case locally, often times the local paper is openly hostile, overtly critical, and biased against the very government (s) that must pay to advertise with such media outlets.  So passage of this bill (it's a long shot at this point) sure would be sweet! 

Even though it is unlikely to pass the senate-- the media is terrified of this bill's passage---and what it would do to their print media's bottom line in the state.

All eyes on the senate this week.  From the county's lobbyist in Tallahassee:

"In an 11th-hour move, the Senate has scheduled a committee meeting Tuesday to take up a House bill that would make changes in laws about publishing local-government legal notices. The House voted 78-39 last week to approve the bill, which has faced opposition from the newspaper industry. The Senate had not considered the proposal during the legislative session that started Jan. 11. But with the session scheduled to end Friday, the Senate posted notice of a Rules Committee meeting Tuesday to take up the issue (HB 7049). If it passes the Rules Committee, the bill could go before the full Senate. The bill, in part, would allow local governments to publish legal notices on publicly available county websites if it would be cheaper than publishing them in newspapers. The Rules Committee also will take up a House bill (HB 861) about terms related to medical specialties."

Senator Don Gaetz Discusses Important Florida Education Policy with School Board Members Statewide

The Florida Coalition of School Board Members hosted a member’s only educational roundtable webinar yesterday with Senator Don Gaetz.  Gaetz (Senate President 2012-2014) is in his final term in the Senate, having spent nearly a decade in this position.  “I started out like you all, first as a school board member, then I became a Superintendent of Schools, and finally I slid all the way down to become a state Senator” quipped Gaetz at the beginning of the call.

“This was a good session for education in general, we did not get everything we wanted, but we did get a lot of things that are good” Gaetz told the assembled group of school board members from around the state.  “It was also a good session for your group [FCSBM] as language was put into [HB] 7029 that allows you all to pull your share of membership dues away from FSBA”

When asked about CAPE, he pointed out that this program that he supported strongly, has exceeded expectations, with more than 400,000 Florida students having earned industry certifications thus far as a result of this program.

When asked by Tina Calderone of Seminole County about the “Seminole Solution” regarding testing reform—Sen Gaetz responded by saying the Senate was ready to move on testing reform and legislation was submitted in the Senate to address many areas of reform the Dr. Griffin and Seminole County had described.  “There was no movement at all in the house on this issue” Gaetz said.

I asked about how we are to ensure all students’ privacy rights are maintained with respect to the mandate from President Obama’s Department of Education regarding transgender students and access

Virtual Town Hall Meeting with Senator Don Gaetz 1-13-2016

The Florida Coalition of School Board Members hosted an online, town hall meeting of its membership and Senator (and former Senate President) Don Gaetz yesterday evening.  Counties from all around Florida were represented on this webinar, the subject of which was legislation that is important in the upcoming session.

Senator Gaetz was extremely gracious as he described several bills of interest, fielded questions from our members, and gave his thoughts on what would be necessary for these bills' passage this session.

SB 672, the Education Options Bill, passed out of the Senate 39-0 yesterday, and the Senator believed it would pass in the House as well, where it is headed today.

SB1360, Alternative Assessments Bill, allows local districts the option to choose alternative, paper and pencil and/or computer based assessments from known entities like ACT or SAT--or such districts could stick with the FSA.  Gaetz described passing this bill as a "heavy lift."

SB 1426, Membership Organizations:  We were all delighted to hear that Senator Gaetz has signed-on as a co-sponsor to this bill, a bill which we strongly support because it gives individual school