Bill > S0758

This bill makes several key changes to education in Florida: 1. It allows members of the Legislature to visit any public school in their legislative district at any time. 2. It creates the Charter School Review Commission within the Department of Education to review and approve applications for charter schools overseen by district school boards. The commission will have the same powers as sponsors in reviewing and approving charter schools. 3. It establishes the Florida Institute for Charter School Innovation at Miami Dade College to improve charter school authorizing practices, including analyzing applications, providing training and technical assistance to sponsors, and conducting research on charter schools. 4. It modifies various provisions related to charter schools, such as changing the criteria for charter renewal, prohibiting certain land use regulations from applying to charter schools, and requiring sponsors to provide charter schools their proportionate share of teacher salary increase funding. 5. It requires the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to analyze the methodologies for distributing capital outlay funds and federal funds to charter schools and recommend any changes to provide more equitable allocation. The overall intent is to expand and support the charter school system in Florida, while also providing more oversight and resources to improve charter school authorizing and operations.