The euphemism that Florida, the nation's third most populous and politically powerful state, is a battleground is an apt description--and more than just every four years. Every year, every day in the state's capital, Florida has become high ground for pro-corporate, special-interest lobbyists who seek to instill a far-right legislative and social…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) follows education budgets and legislation during regular and special legislative sessions. Current actions are found in Legislative Reports that are released on a timely basis during the months that SREB state legislatures are in session, usually from January through July. These reports follow education…

Since the 1970s, American governors have become increasingly active in education politics. Where they once told state education chiefs to "make me the best education governor ever," they now demand control of state boards of education, push for state control of school funding, and urge statewide standards for teacher evaluation. This…

This article reports on the eroding power of state school boards in the U.S. as lawmakers and governors are seeking to expand their authority over K-12 education and, in some cases, reverse education policy set in motion by elected or appointed panels. This year alone, state boards in Florida, Ohio, and Vermont are targets of legislation that…

In 2004, the State of Florida imposed the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (VPK). This legislation provides free prekindergarten services to all four-year-old children in the State of Florida (Agency for Workforce Innovation [AWI], 2005a). The legislation outlines the requirements of the VPK schools. This outline addresses specifications for…

Performance funding in higher education ties state funding directly to institutional performance on specific indicators, such as rates of retention, graduation, and job placement. One of the great puzzles about performance funding is that it has been both popular and unstable. Between 1979 and 2007, 26 states enacted it, but 14 of those states…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) follows education budgets and legislation during regular and special legislative sessions. The Legislative Reports follow education and budget issues from governors' proposals through final legislative actions in each of the 16 SREB states. The reports include bill numbers and legislative Web site…

This legislative handbook for child advocates in Florida features a description of Florida's legislative process, including sessions, leadership and procedure, committees, legislation, public access to legislative information, state publications, and critical stages in the passage of a bill. A legislative glossary and a chart showing the route of…

This study of journalist, public, and legislator responses to televised sessions of the Florida legislature is part of a symposium on legislative and judicial communications. (CH)

This booklet contains steps that will help the vocational student to acquire some letter writing skills quickly, the result of which will be the student's own personal letter to a legislator. Background information discusses the need for State or Federal financial support for vocational education and students' role in informing legislators about…

Explanation of shifts in U.S. Congressional representation among states have often overlooked the effects of international migration on the size and distribution of the U.S. population. Seventy percent of recent U.S. immigrants have settled in California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois. Estimates of the distribution of…

This paper examines ways in which the state of Florida addressed and resolved pressures to respond to continuous demands for reform by using new and different reform paths. Florida had committed itself in 1991 to a standards-based reform strategy. This commitment was analyzed during the 1996 election year. For the study, a content analysis of all…

A survey was conducted to ascertain the reactions of viewers and legislators to a public television series, "Today in the Legislature," which presented videotaped segments of a nine-week session of both the Florida House of Representatives and Senate. The results showed that viewers felt the program was informative, that their…

Explores the attitudes of legislators towards the college public relations function through interviews with Florida senators and representatives, and cites the need to establish a clearer identity with them in order to secure necessary funding. (RT)

This paper urges colleges to take an active role in the political decision-making process and uses the lobbying efforts of Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) as an example. The paper first notes the inability of the Florida community colleges to foster a concise public image, the concomitant lack of attention paid by the state legislature to the…