While teacher performance pay dominated the lengthy House session Thursday, lawmakers also passed other measures concerning education, including one that would give voters the chance to loosen class-size restrictions during November's election.
The measure, introduced by Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, passed 77 to 41, almost on a party-line vote.
A class-size amendment was approved by Florida voters in 2002. The measure would remove caps established by the 2002 statute and allow schools to use the average size of each class.
Theres nothing with limits on class size, said Weatherford. But it has to be workable, it has to be flexible.
Democrats criticized the measure for harming education in the state and questioned the cost of putting the measure on the ballot.
Class size does matter, said Bill Heller, D-St. Petersburg. It makes a difference to children and those who teach them.
A bill by Port Richey Republican John Legg that phases out FCAT and replaces it with other tests in math and science, passed the House 106 to 12.
Weatherford scored a second victory when his proposal to tweak tax credits and accountability measures for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, a corporate-funded voucher program for charter schools, passed the House 95-23. A proposed amendment introduced by Rep. Ronald Brise, D-North Miami, to create tax credits for donors wishing to contribute to public schools failed on party lines.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or (850) 727-0859.
