STATE LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP: Florida school reorganization plan advances

The Florida Senate Education Committee has endorsed a plan to reorganize Florida's school system--including an overhaul of the state university system. The reorganization measure would abolish the Board of Regents and hand much of the panel's authority over the state's 10 universities to an 11-member, governor-appointed boards of trustees. (Florida Times-Union)...related story: Legislation in the Florida House proposes altering the way public education is run at all levels in the state, with the 10 state universities facing the most sweeping changes. The reforms, among the most anticipated of the session, would ultimately affect all students, parents and faculty across the state. (Tampa Tribune)

Poor-performing school districts would face state takeover under a proposal by Michigan House Republicans. Districts that fail to meet state standards within a certain amount of time would be taken over by the state much like the Detroit Public Schools were in 1999. (Detroit News)

Florida officials are trying to set aside enough money to fund the state's school system, but they don't really know how many students to count on. Gov. Jeb Bush released a proposed state budget based on an estimated 30,000 new students enrolling in public schools next fall. But now the anticipated number of new students for the 2001-02 school year could be more than 52,000. (Orlando Sentinel)

Democratic legislators in New York have proposed increasing education spending by $1.7 billion this year. The proposed hike is more than four times the amount sought by the governor and almost double what the senate majority leader has proposed. (New York Post)

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft came out with everything he wanted from the leaders of the House and Senate, but the upshot of his meeting with them is that all proposals to resolve school funding issues have been left for dead, and the state faces a fast-closing June 15 deadline with no solution in sight (Columbus Dispatch)