In West Miami, DeSantis signs bills revamping early learning and literacy
Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law two pieces of legislation that will reshape Florida’s early childhood learning system and create new initiatives to help struggling readers.
DeSantis held a signing ceremony for the two bills: first, in Indian River County, then again at the media center of West Miami Middle School. He was flanked by Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, MiamiDade County School Board Member Marta Perez, early learning advocate David Lawrence Jr., and several state lawmakers from the Miami-Dade delegation.
HB 419 sets in motion a plan to gradually implement a new pre-K grading system that will measure toddlers’ progress by taking into account test scores, learning gains and teacher-child interactions. The measure puts the Florida Department of Education and the Board of Education in charge of 30 regional early learning coalitions and an annual budget of roughly $1.3 billion.
The state Board of Education, with its newfound authority, would now be able to withhold funding from early learning coalitions to enforce the new accountability measures.
“This legislation is really significant for accountGov. ability,” said DeSantis, who said the state’s kindergarten readiness rate was 42% when he took office. “It’ll turn the tide for these families and these students.”
10 YEARS OF ADVOCACY PAYS OFF
DeSantis then turned the floor over to Rep. Vance Aloupis, a Miami Republican who has been a leading voice on early education policy in the Legislature. Aloupis is the CEO of the Children’s Movement of Florida, a South Florida nonprofit that advocates for young kids.
Aloupis has spent the past several years working with Rep. Erin Grall, RVero Beach, to reshape what they call a “broken” pre-kindergarten accountability system. They came close to passing legislation that would overhaul the system last year, but the effort died toward the end of the legislative session.
“The dirty little secret of pre-K that we have fought for 10 years is that there is no accountability in it,” Aloupis said, while adding that the policy changes approved by the governor on Tuesday will be “transformational.”
DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a second measure, HB 7011, that will set up a statewide monitoring tool to gauge the academic progress of kids from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
Tucked in that bill is also a new initiative that is designed to help schools that need to improve their reading scores.
The measure will create the Reading Achievement Initiative for Scholarship Excellence (RAISE) program, which will deploy literacy support teams to schools that the Florida Department of Education deems could use the extra support based on results from statewide, standardized English Language Arts assessments and other criteria.
“What these pieces of legislation will do is ensure that we have the data, we have the resources we need to make sure every child is reading at grade level by 2030,” Aloupis said.
Under the newly created RAISE program, certain high school juniors and seniors would also have the opportunity to tutor students with substantial reading deficiency in kindergarten through third grade, in exchange for community service hours.
DeSantis on Tuesday touted the tutoring opportunity as one that would allow high school students to not only meet the requirements for graduation, but qualify for a Bright Futures college scholarship, which can cover 75% to 100% of a student’s tuition.