All 28 Florida colleges taking part in new program to help students finish their degrees

| 10/17/2019

All 28 Florida colleges taking part in new program to help students finish their degrees

Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Education and the Florida College System announced that all 28 Florida Colleges support the “Last Mile College Completion Program” and are voluntarily providing scholarships to eligible students using existing resources before receiving funding from the Legislature. The Last Mile College Completion Program helps students who left college with 12 or fewer credit hours remaining, to complete their first associate or baccalaureate degree. See the announcement from Gov. DeSantis and read more from Space Coast Daily, First Coast News, and Florida Daily.

Florida Trend Exclusive
Kristen "Brent" Venable will head the robotics program at UWF

Kristen "Brent" Venable has been appointed inaugural director of the Intelligent Systems and Robotics program for the University of West Florida and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. She joins UWF from Tulane University, where she held a joint appointment as a professor of computer science and research scientist for IHMC. [Source: Florida Trend]

Should Florida students get mental health days off of school?

A new bill just filed in Florida could allow kids to take a day off school each semester as a mental health day. From academics, to bullying, to active shooter drills and the threat of school shootings, Tampa Representative Susan Valdes says students are under a lot of pressure. More from WFTS and WESH.

Florida lawmakers consider ‘Bible Bill’

A newly proposed bill would make Bible courses a requirement in public schools in the state of Florida. Current state law says it’s okay to offer Bible classes, but it’s not a requirement. House Bill 341, if passed, would give students a chance to learn about the New Testament and the Old Testament in the Bible. While it doesn’t require students to take the class, it is stirring up a strong debate on both sides of the issue. [Source: WBBH ]

Florida Trend Exclusive
Editor's page: Teaching, anyone?

Efforts to expand the teaching labor supply in Florida aren’t working. As this school year began, anecdotal reports from around the state emerged of unfilled teaching slots and increased use of substitutes and “permanent substitutes” to fill the gaps. The state teachers union claimed there were more than 2,000 empty positions. We may have entered free fall in the supply-demand equation. Read Mark Howard's full column here.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Just 350 books? UF professor chafes at library limit [Lakeland Ledger]
Richard Burt owns more than 3,000 books. Filling his shelves at home and spilling over into his office at the University of Florida, he routinely increases that number by checking hundreds out from the university libraries. Burt loves books so much that it gets him in trouble. Until October, Burt had 728 books checked out from UF.

› FSU hosts symposium on diversity and inclusion in higher education [FSU News]
More than 200 Florida State University students, faculty and staff took part in a healthy dialogue on the topics of diversity, inclusion and equity in researching and teaching in higher education during the 2nd annual DIRECTO symposium.

› Fifth time in 24 years. Why Florida is changing school standards, again [Tampa Bay Times]
Florida education commissioner Richard Corcoran didn’t hide his enthusiasm during a “listening session” last week in Gainesville, where a crowd showed up to discuss proposed changes to the state’s education standards. He used words like “historic” and “unprecedented” to describe his department’s fifth effort in 24 years to revise the list of skills children should accomplish each year in public school.

› Florida’s newest voucher program hands out 18,000 private-school scholarships [Orlando Sentinel]
All 18,000 scholarships available through a new and controversial Florida school voucher program have been claimed, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office announced Friday. The new Family Empowerment Scholarship program pays to send children from low- and middle-income families to private schools. In six Central Florida counties, more than 3,200 students are using the new scholarships to cover tuition costs.

Tags: Education eNews

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