Another school choice expansion won overwhelming approval in the Florida House on Wednesday.
SB 850 is a wide-ranging education bill that, among other things, would expand career-education programs and create an “early warning system” for at-risk middle school students.
It would also require the state’s community colleges to expand access to school choice programs that allow students to finish a year of college before they finish high school.
Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, said earlier in the session that he drew up the legislation after seeing the success of Tampa Bay-area programs like St. Petersburg Collegiate High School and the Collegiate Academy at Hillsborough County’s Leto High School.
“You sit there and say, “Why isn’t this in every school?'” he said.
The bill would require colleges to make at least one collegiate high school program available to all students in their service areas. The programs would allow high school upperclassmen to earn at least 30 college credit hours before they graduates.
It passed the House with a lone no-vote from Rep. Darryl Rouson, who called it a “good bill that has a bad provision,” singling out a portion that limits schools’ legal liability if they make their playgrounds available after school hours. The rewritten version still needs final approval by the Senate.
