rockin'robin
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott Signs 4 Education Bills Thursday
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed into law four education bills, including one that punishes students if they don't pull up their pants.
Senate Bill 228, which has become known around the Capitol as the "baggy pants" bill, requires school boards to adopt dress codes barring clothes that "expose underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner."
Students could be punished with removal from extracurricular activities and in-school suspension.
Students will be warned the first time they're caught, and their parent or guardian will be notified. On a second offense, the student will be withheld from extracurricular activities for five days. A third violation would result in a three-day in-school suspension.
Florida is second only to Arkansas to place a ban on baggy pants.
Scott also signed three bills that could dramatically increase the amount of taxpayer money used to fund private education.
House Bill 1329 could add up to 50,000 to the rolls of private schools by increasing the number of conditions that would qualify a student for the John McKay scholarship, which provides private-school scholarships for students with disabilities.
HB 1331 would make it easier for students in poorly performing schools to take advantage of the Opportunity Scholarship program. Currently, students are eligible if their public school has received an "F" in a four-year period; the new law changes the definition of failing school to instead include any school that received a "D" or "F" in the prior year.
In addition, the bill, which already allows students to use the scholarships at private schools, now permits students in failing public schools to transfer to a higher-rated public school anywhere in the state, instead of limiting that choice to adjacent districts.
Some Democrats at times complained that the measures could make it more difficult for public schools to improve, but the bills passed easily through the GOP-dominated Legislature.
Scott also signed HB 965, which tweaks the corporate tax credit scholarship program. The measure allows companies that donate to a scholarship organization to claim 100 percent of that donation as a corporate income tax credit. Current law only permits a credit of 75 percent of the donation.
New Law Bans Baggy Pants In Schools - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed into law four education bills, including one that punishes students if they don't pull up their pants.
Senate Bill 228, which has become known around the Capitol as the "baggy pants" bill, requires school boards to adopt dress codes barring clothes that "expose underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner."
Students could be punished with removal from extracurricular activities and in-school suspension.
Students will be warned the first time they're caught, and their parent or guardian will be notified. On a second offense, the student will be withheld from extracurricular activities for five days. A third violation would result in a three-day in-school suspension.
Florida is second only to Arkansas to place a ban on baggy pants.
Scott also signed three bills that could dramatically increase the amount of taxpayer money used to fund private education.
House Bill 1329 could add up to 50,000 to the rolls of private schools by increasing the number of conditions that would qualify a student for the John McKay scholarship, which provides private-school scholarships for students with disabilities.
HB 1331 would make it easier for students in poorly performing schools to take advantage of the Opportunity Scholarship program. Currently, students are eligible if their public school has received an "F" in a four-year period; the new law changes the definition of failing school to instead include any school that received a "D" or "F" in the prior year.
In addition, the bill, which already allows students to use the scholarships at private schools, now permits students in failing public schools to transfer to a higher-rated public school anywhere in the state, instead of limiting that choice to adjacent districts.
Some Democrats at times complained that the measures could make it more difficult for public schools to improve, but the bills passed easily through the GOP-dominated Legislature.
Scott also signed HB 965, which tweaks the corporate tax credit scholarship program. The measure allows companies that donate to a scholarship organization to claim 100 percent of that donation as a corporate income tax credit. Current law only permits a credit of 75 percent of the donation.
New Law Bans Baggy Pants In Schools - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
