LegisLetter: March 09, 2018

Volume 25, Number 9

It has been a topsy turvy week at the Florida Legislature. Normally, today would be the last day of the 2018 Legislative Session, but lawmakers must extend a few days in order to finish their work on the annual budget.

Fortunately, an appropriation bill has been assembled and we are now in the constitutional 72-hour “cooling off” period when members of the public have one final look at the budget before the legislature casts a final vote. They can only accept or reject the product; the opportunity to amend the budget has passed.

This edition of the Legisletter focuses on three matters: summarizing the comprehensive higher education bill that was approved by the House and Senate and sent to Governor Scott this week (SB4), summarizing the legislative response to the school shooting (HB 7026) and highlighting the major initiatives in the budget that impact FSU.

We will provide a comprehensive list of higher education bills that pass once lawmakers conclude their business.

At one point in the Session, Florida Universities lost almost all budget increases for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Lawmakers pointed to the unexpected addition of needs that required hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending associated with the horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day.

With great support of their work and understanding, we gently advocated for additional funding this year in order to help us continue our work for students.

Fortunately, the appeals were accepted, and approximately $15 million recurring and $5 million nonrecurring will be added to our operational budget, pending legislative and Governor approval.

We also received a significant amount of funding for our building requests. In fact, only three universities received any Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) funds. Thanks to the legislature we will finally be able to finish the Earth Ocean Atmospheric Sciences building ($12.9 million). FSU was also given a second year of funding for the Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building ($9.5 million), a second year of funds for the College of Business Legacy Hall building ($8.5 million), and funds for the Florida State University Schools Hurricane Special Needs Shelter ($2 million).

Considering the unprecedented atmosphere and fiscal restraints this year, FSU did extraordinarily well.

Though we expect the traditional handkerchief drop that signals the end of Session in just a few days, we know there is much more work to be done.

Our focus will now shift from the Legislature to Governor Rick Scott. We believe he will receive the budget sometime next week. Meetings are already scheduled with the executive office to make our case for each of our new budget items.

We will continue our regular updates until we have final action on all of our budget and bills of concern.

Special thanks to Kathleen Daly, Toni Moore and Chris Adcock in Government Relations, and Laura Brock at the College of Medicine. These wise, diligent, and tireless advocates helped make our gains in the legislature a reality.

Thank you for your interest in the Legislative process. It has been and continues to be an honor to represent Florida State University at the Capitol.

Go Noles,

Kathy Mears

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Quick Budget Guide HB 5001

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Spotlight on bills

CS/SB 4 – Higher Education by Senator Bill Galvano (R – Bradenton), establishes the “Florida Excellence in Higher Education Act of 2018” to expand financial aid provisions and incentivize postsecondary institutions to emphasize on-time graduation. The bill also expands policy and funding options for state universities to recruit and retain exemplary faculty and enhance the quality of professional and graduate schools. The following is a summary of the bill:

University Accountability

• Requires each state university use the gap analyses to identify internship opportunities for students to benefit from mentorship by industry experts, earn industry certifications, and become employed in high-demand fields.
• Directs each university board of trustees, by June 1, 2018, to submit to the BOG a comprehensive plan to improve the 4-year graduation rate of undergraduate students for implementation beginning in the fall 2018 academic semester.  Includes assurances that there will be no increased cost to students.

Preeminent and Emerging Preeminent Universities

• Revises the excellence standards for the Preeminent State Research Universities to a 4-year graduation rate of 60 percent or higher for full-time, first-time-in-college students, as reported annually to the IPEDS.  (The new standard does not impact the 2018 preeminence designations).
• Eliminates the authority for the preeminent state research universities to require FTIC students to take a six-credit unique set of courses.
• Cuts by half (1/4 from 1/2 of the amount given to a preeminent university) the amount awarded to a designated emerging preeminent state research university, beginning in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Programs of Excellence

• Changes from a recommendation to a requirement that the Board of Governors establish standards and measures for programs of excellence throughout the SUS and specifies that the programs include undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. Additionally, the bill requires the Board to make recommendations to the Legislature for enhancing and promoting such programs by September 1, 2018.

Performance Metrics

• Revises the performance funding metrics beginning with the 2018 award determinations.
• Revises the 6-year graduation rate metric to a 4-year metric for full-time, first-time-in-college students.
• Requires the access metric to include benchmarks that must be differentiated and scored to reflect varying access rates among universities, and not include bonus points.
• Requires the Board of Governors, in consultation with the universities, submit recommendations, by October 1, 2019, on the most efficient process to achieve a complete performance-based continuous improvement funding model focused on outcomes.
• In addition to recommendations submitted by the Board of Governors, the Legislature will review recommendations from an independent entity that consults with the Board of Governors for the purpose of receiving input on behalf of the SUS. Implementation of any recommendations will not occur unless affirmatively enacted by the Legislature.

Free Expression on Campus

• Creates the “Campus Free Expression Act” which prohibits public higher education institutions from restricting expressive activities.
• Provides a cause of action for declaratory and injunctive relief, including reasonable court costs and attorney’s fees, if a person’s expressive rights are violated.

Direct Support Organizations (DSOs)

• Prohibits state university BOTs from permitting the use of state funds for travel expenses by any state university DSO.
• DSOs are prohibited from giving, either directly or indirectly, any gift to a political committee.
• Any information related to the expenditure of state funds, and any financial information related to the expenditure of private funds for travel are no longer confidential.
• Board of trustees are required to establish thresholds for approval of purchases, acquisitions, projects, and issuance of debt.
• Chair of the board of trustees are required to appoint at least one representative to the board of directors and the executive committee of any DSO and the board of trustees shall approve all other appointments.
• Personal services for DSOs must comply with requirements for other state employees.
• No later than July 1, 2019, university transfers of any state appropriation to direct-support organizations by a board of trustees may include only funds pledged for capital projects.
• Each university board of trustees must annually report on the amount of appropriated funds that are transferred to a DSO, the purpose for each transfer, and the remaining balance, if any, of funds transferred.

Consolidation of USF

• Establishes a task force to develop and implement a plan for phasing-out the separate accreditation of the USF St. Petersburg and USF Manatee/Sarasota campuses. 

World Class Faculty & Scholar Program

• Establishes the World Class Faculty and Scholar Program to support the efforts of state universities to recruit and retain exemplary faculty and research scholars.

State University Professional and Graduate Degree Excellence Program

• Establishes the State University Professional and Graduate Degree Excellence Program to enhance the quality and excellence of state university programs in medicine, law, and business.

Bright Futures

• Expands the Florida Bright Futures Academic Scholars award to cover 100 percent of tuition and specified fees plus $300 per fall and spring semester for textbooks and college-related expenses and the Florida Bright Futures Medallion Scholars award to cover 75 percent of tuition and fees.
• Authorizes the use of the Bright Futures Scholarship during the summer-term if funding is provided.

Grants and Scholarships

• Revises the state-to-private match requirements for the First Generation Matching Grant Program.
• Expands eligibility for the Benacquisto Scholarship Program to include eligible out-of-state students. 
• Establishes the Florida Farmworker Student Scholarship Program for farmworkers and their children.
• Renames the Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG) Program as the Effective Access to Student Success Grant (EASE) Program.

Specific Appropriations

For the 2018-2019 fiscal year:

$121,776,631 in recurring funds from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund $1,736,404 in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund are appropriated.

$1,737,223 from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund shall be used for 2019 summer term awards for Florida Bright Futures Academic Scholars

$28,416,515 from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund shall be used for 2019 summer term awards for Florida Bright Futures Medallion Scholars

$91,622,893 from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund shall be used for Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program awards

$1,236,404 from the General Revenue Fund shall be used for the Benacquisto Scholarship Program

$500,000 from the General Revenue Fund shall be used for the Florida Farmworker Student Scholarship Program.

The bill is effective upon becoming law.

CS/HB 7055 – Education by Representative Michael Bileca (R – Miami), creates education scholarship programs and streamlines state school choice scholarship program accountability provisions; specifies district school board oversight responsibilities; and promotes education, certification, and licensure opportunities for members of the U.S. military. Over the past week, the bill was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee and amended delete certain provisions and:

• Modifies the Hope Scholarship Program to provide the parent of a public school student who was the victim of a substantiated incident of violence or abuse an opportunity to transfer the student to another public school that has capacity or to request and receive from the state a scholarship for the student to attend an eligible private school.
• Reduces the authorized scholarship funding tax credits for the Hope Scholarship Program from $105 to $20.
• Modifies the accountability provisions for private schools that participate in state school choice scholarship programs and applies such provisions consistently to the participating schools.
• Adds the following provisions related to K-12 education funding:
  • Creates the mental health assistance allocation within the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) to provide funds for school-based mental health programs and establishes related requirements.
  • Establishes the hope supplemental services allocation within the FEFP to provide schools implementing a district-managed turnaround plan or a turnaround option specified in law with funds to offer services designed to improve the overall academic and community welfare of the schools’ students and their families. Establishes the funding compression allocation within the FEFP to provide additional funding to school districts and developmental research schools whose total funds per FTE in the prior year were less than the statewide average.
  • Modifies the eligibility requirements and calculation methodology for specified charter school capital outlay provisions and revises the amount of discretionary millage that a school district may expend for specified purposes.
• Adds the following provisions related to school improvement and accountability:
  • Provides that a school must complete two years of a district-managed turnaround plan before the school is designated as persistently low-performing and required to implement a turnaround option.
  • Expands the turnaround options available to a school district for a persistently low performing school to include a franchise model school that is led by a specified highly effective principal.
  • Revises the school of hope provisions to require a hope operator to submit a notice of intent containing an operations plan specifying the hope operator’s intent to undertake the operations of the persistently low-performing school and incentivizes a hope operator to establish a school of hope at the district-owned facilities of the persistently low-performing school.
• Adds a provision to rename the Collegiate High School Program as the Structured High School Acceleration Program and creates a bonus funding mechanism to incentivize school district interest in expanding programs.
• Adds a provision to clarify that school districts may construct or renovate facilities without a survey recommendation when using funds from specified local revenue sources.
• Requires all schools and district school board buildings to display the state motto, “In God We Trust,” in a conspicuous place.
• Adds the following provisions related to instruction in public schools:
  • Establishes a separate one-half credit requirement in personal financial literacy, and specifies financial literacy standards and instruction for students entering grade 9 in the 2018-2019 school year and thereafter.
  • Requires each school district to provide students instruction in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of an automated external defibrillator.
• Adds a provision to authorize an individual member of the legislature to visit any district school, including any charter school, in his or her legislative district, on any day and at any time.
• Adds a provision to modify the Florida Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program to specify a school district employee who, in the prior school year, was rated highly effective and met the eligibility requirements of the scholarship as a classroom teacher, is eligible to receive a scholarship award during the current school year if he or she maintains employment with the school district.
• Requires, for an employee organization that has been certified as the bargaining agent for a unit of instructional personnel, the following:
  • Information that must be in an application for renewal of registration, including the number of employees eligible for representation by the employee organization and the number who are represented by the employee organization, specifying the number of members who pay dues and the number of members who do not pay dues.
  • An employee organization whose dues paying membership is less than 50 percent of the employees eligible for representation in the unit to petition the Public Employees Relations Commission for recertification.
• Adds a provision to authorize an early learning coalition to refuse to contract with a private provider of the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program if the provider has been cited for a class I violation.
• Adds a provision to revise the definition of a rare disease for the purposes of the Gardiner Scholarship Program and conforms the definition of a rare disease to the definition provided by the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, Pub. L. No. 97-414.
• Modifies school safety requirements in the following ways:
  • Requires a school district to formulate and prescribe policies and procedures for emergency drills for hostage and active shooter situations and establish model emergency management and emergency preparedness procedures for active shooter situations. The active shooter situation training must be conducted by the law enforcement agency or agencies that are designated as the first responders to the school’s campus.
  • Requires each school district to conduct security risk assessments at each public school and conduct a self-assessment of the school districts’ current safety and security practices using a format prescribed by the Department of Education (DOE) and develop a plan that includes having a secure, single point of entry onto school grounds.
  • Requires a district school board or a private school principal or governing board to allow the law enforcement agency or agencies that are designated as first responders to the school’s or districts’ campus tour such campuses once every 3 years and to document any recommended changes to school safety and emergency issues.
  • Requires a district school board to establish a school resource officer program and commission one or more school safety officers at each district school facility.
• Modifies appropriations, for the 2018-2019 fiscal year:
  • The sum of $2,596,560 in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund to the DOE for the following purposes:
    • $2 million to implement the Hope Scholarship Program.
    • $596,560 to implement additional state scholarship oversight requirements. o The sum of $392,134 in nonrecurring funds from the General Revenue Fund to the DOE for the following purposes:
    • $142,134 to implement additional state scholarship oversight requirements.
    • $250,000 to award a competitive grant to study student performance in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program as required in law.

Effective upon becoming law.

CS/SB 7026 – Public Safety by Rules and Appropriations Committees, provides law enforcement, the courts, and schools with the tools to enhance public safety by temporarily restricting firearm possession by a person who is undergoing a mental health crisis and when there is evidence of a threat of violence.

In the area of mental health the bill makes significant changes to keep firearms out of the hands of those suffering from mental illness:

• Authorizes a law enforcement officer who is taking a person into custody for an involuntary examination under the Baker Act to seize and hold a firearm or ammunition from the person for 24 hours after the person is released and does not have a risk protection order against them or is the subject of a firearm disability.
• Prohibits a person who has been adjudicated mentally defective or who has been committed to a mental institution from owning or possessing a firearm until a court orders otherwise.
• Creates a process for a law enforcement officer or law enforcement agency to petition a court for a risk protection order to temporarily prevent persons who are at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms when a person poses a significant danger to himself or herself or others, including significant danger as a result of a mental health crisis or violent behavior. The amendment also:
• Allows a court to issue a risk protection order for up to 12 months.
• Requires the surrender of all firearms and ammunition if a risk protection order is issued.
• Provides a process for a risk protection order to be vacated or extended.

The bill also provides new provision to ensure full and complete background checks when a firearm is purchased:

• Requires a three-day waiting period for all firearms, not just handguns or until the background check is completed, whichever is later. Provides exceptions for:
• Concealed weapons permit holders, and
• For the purchase of firearms other than handguns, an exception for:
  • Individuals who have completed a 16 hour hunter safety course; or
  • Law enforcement officers, correctional officers and service members (military and national guard)

The bill addresses two of the most frequent requests the Legislature heard from the families of victims simply to raise the age for purchasing a firearm and ban devices that turn a legal firearm into an illegal weapon.

• Prohibits a person under 21 years of age from purchasing a firearm and licensed firearm dealers, importers, and manufacturers, from selling a firearm, except in the case of a member of the military, or a law enforcement or correctional officer when purchasing a rifle or shotgun. (Persons under 21 years of age are already prohibited from purchasing a handgun under federal law.)
• Prohibits a bump-fire stock from being imported, transferred, distributed, sold, keeping for sale, offering for sale, possessing, or giving away within the state.

The bill improves school safety through the following provisions:

• Establishes the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to investigate system failures in the Parkland school shooting and prior mass violence incidents, and develop recommendations for system improvements.
• Codifies the Office of Safe Schools within the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and which will service as a central repository for the best practices, training standards, and compliance regarding school safety and security.
• Permits a sheriff to establish a school marshal program. The bill allows school districts to decide whether to participate in the school marshal program if it is available in their county. A school marshal must complete 132 hours of comprehensive firearm safety and proficiency training. This program is completely voluntary.
• Requires each district school board and school district superintendent to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to assign one or more safe-school officers at each school facility.
• Requires each district school board to designate a district school safety specialist to serve as the district’s primary point of public contact for public school safety functions.
• Requires each school district to designate school safety specialists and a threat assessment team at each school, and requires the team to operate under the district school safety specialist’s direction.
• Requires the DOE to contract for the development of a Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool which will assist school districts in conducting security assessments to identify threats and vulnerabilities.
• Creates the mental health assistance allocation to assist school districts in establishing or expanding school-based mental health care.

The bill also:

• Prohibits a person from making, posting, or transmitting a threat to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.
• Requires DCF to contract for community action treatment teams to provider behavioral health and support services.
• Requires FDLE to procure a mobile app that would allow students and the community to relay information anonymously concerning unsafe, dangerous threats. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglass recommended that the program be named “FortifyFL”

The legislation appropriates $400 million to implement the bill provisions, including the following:

• Over 69 million to the DOE to fund the mental health assistance allocation;
• 1 million for the design and construction of a memorial honoring those who lost their lives on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Except as otherwise expressly provided in this act, this act shall take effect upon becoming a law