Critics of the Florida Standards Assessment came out in full force to voice their distaste for the statewide education standards at the State Board of Education meeting Wednesday in Orlando.

Florida’s fourth graders are performing better than the national average on both the reading and mathematics portions of the the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to new data released Wednesday.

Florida senators took the floor Tuesday afternoon to begin the process of selecting a new map for all 40 of the state’s senate districts, ultimately giving a thumbs up to a map presented by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, which would alter South Florida’s senate landscape but allow the Coral Gables Republican to keep his Senate seat.

The Common Core State Standards may have initially been accepted when many states agreed to adopt the education initiative in 2010, but the years haven’t necessarily been kind to the education standards -- and five years later, many of its fiercest critics are not backing down from their demands to repeal the standards entirely.

All of Florida’s state senators will have to run for reelection in 2016 as part of a new Senate map proposal passed by the Senate redistricting committee Friday. The vote was 4-3.

The 2016 regular session may be a few months away, but a bill hoping to allow gun owners to openly carry their firearms in Florida has already begun to cause a commotion across the Sunshine State.

The Senate Committee on Reapportionment is moving full speed ahead with its new state Senate maps, planning to have a committee vote on a map on Friday and bring it to the floor as early as Monday. 

The Florida Supreme Court will be taking up an oral argument to legalize medical marijuana in Florida, according to an order posted to its website Wednesday. The court-ordered arguments will take place at 9 a.m. Dec. 8. Each side will have 20 minutes for oral arguments.

A bill to allow concealed weapons on college campuses successfully made its way through another Senate Committee Tuesday, passing the Senate Higher Education Committee by a vote of 5-3.

The redistricting saga isn’t over for Florida just yet -- for the Florida Senate maps, the party’s just begun.