Our View: Our verdict on state Legislature’s performance.

After the Florida Legislature concluded its 2017 session a month ago, we delivered our verdict on its performance in 10 areas. But when they reconvened last week in a tumultuous three-day special session, legislators revisited several areas, so we’re doing the same. And since most legislators are sticklers for accountability when it comes to public schools in Florida, we’ll follow their example and offer our assessments with letter grades.

EDUCATION

At Gov. Rick Scott’s request, legislators increased funding for public schools by about $100 per student — an improvement from the $25 in the budget they passed at the end of the regular session. This higher funding level will help districts keep up with rising costs and avoid the cuts many were facing at the lower level. The governor merits credit for insisting on more resources for public education. We’ll give him and legislators, who yielded, a B for now.

However, if the secret deal between Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran that paved the way for the special session included a promise from the governor to sign a massive education policy bill, the B falls to a

C. There are positive elements in House Bill 7069, including improvements to standardized testing sought by teachers and parents. But there are negatives, too, like directing more state dollars to private operators of charter schools without subjecting them to the same accountability standards as public schools. Education leaders around the state, including in Central Florida, have urged Scott to veto the bill.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

This year’s regular session ended with a pair of stinging political setbacks for Scott. Legislators rejected the governor’s request to provide $85 million for business incentives to Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development agency. They downsized the budget for Visit Florida, the tourism marketing agency, from $76 million to $25 million. Hinting he might veto the entire budget, Scott forced legislators to reverse course.

Having gone too far to cut economic development during the regular session, legislators overcompensated last week. They created an $85 million infrastructure and work-force development fund and handed control to the governor. They also returned every dollar they took from Visit Florida. Neither spending hike came with the level of accountability and transparency that taxpayers deserve. Legislators, in turn, deserve aC.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Legislators also took advantage of the opportunity of reconvening to finish work on legislation to carry out the constitutional amendment voters ratified last year to legalize pot for medical purposes. Considering that 71 percent of voters approved the amendment, this was the least legislators could do. While the bill isn’t flawless, its passage is a redemption for legislators, and earns them a solid B.

ENVIRONMENT

Legislators came up with $50 million to speed up work on repairing the crumbling Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee — another one of Scott’s priorities. A stronger dike should lead to fewer environmentally ruinous releases of polluted lake water.

Considering that legislators also committed $1.6 billion during the regular session to build a reservoir to hold lake releases and help restore the Everglades, we’d be inclined to give them a high mark in this category — if not for the fact that they didn’t also use the opportunity to protect more natural land from development. They could have made more money available without adding to the balanced budget’s bottom line by paring back spending on economic development or member projects. They didn’t. That drops our grade for them in this category to aC.

TRANSPARENCY

Regrettably, most of what legislators passed last week was put together behind closed doors in deals cut by Scott and legislative leaders. They made a mockery of Florida’s constitutional guarantee of open government. So when it comes to transparency, only one grade makes sense: F.