HIALEAH, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced $289 million for STEM, civics and after-school programs he said were meant to promote student achievement and to close COVID-era learning gaps in Florida schools.
The governor spoke from the City of Hialeah Educational Academy, framing the awards as additional money for education-related initiatives already pursued by the state, as well as in addition to those earmarked in a $112 billion state budget approved by Florida lawmakers on Monday.
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“We’re excited about what this funding can do. Any type of achievement gap, you know, we want to work on addressing,” DeSantis said. “I think what we’ve seen in the data is that the math proficiency kind of suffered the most with COVID, and so we want to make sure districts are able to remedy that.”
DeSantis was asked about his redistricting efforts, days in the wake of the Florida House approving a pair of congressional redistricting maps he said he would veto. He said he hadn’t yet reviewed the state budget, but promised vetoes when that time comes.
“So I haven’t reviewed the budget yet, I mean, we’re gonna go through that, I think as many of you know there’s a lot of line items in there, it takes a lot of time to be able to go through that. I can tell you that, of course, there will be vetoes in the budget, that’s just the nature of it,” DeSantis said. “What I think it’s important to just say is, you know, I respect when the legislature makes these decisions, at the same time, you know, don’t get carried away with any irrational exuberance about, just because our fiscal situation is so strong.”
Here’s some of what’s included in the awards, according to DeSantis:
$105 million - After-school, weekend and summer learning camps.
$47 million - Purchase curriculum material in line with Florida’s new standards in English Language Arts, math, civics and Holocaust education.
$50 million - Support reading intervention and professional development for reading coaches.
$44 million - Support STEM programs and math acceleration.
$22.5 million - Parent mentorship and extra-educational resources to help parents reinforce what’s taught in classrooms.
$5 million - Establish Regional Mental Health Resiliency Teams to support districts with delivering services to students.
The conference comes one day after DeSantis signed a bill eliminating Florida Standards Assessments testing. The overhaul was a priority of DeSantis’ during the 2022 legislative session that ended Monday, and lawmakers gave final approval to the bill (SB 1048) last week.
The measure is designed to replace the current standardized testing system with “progress monitoring” tests, which will require that students be administered exams at the beginning, middle and end of each school year.