Teachers and other school personnel could get a pay raise earlier than next year under a budget agreement reached Wednesday between the House and Senate.

But the deal still would require Palm Beach County and many other school districts to develop a teacher evaluation system required before the pay hikes can be distributed. The county and teachers’ union representatives have been working on an evaluation system, talks that could accelerate with the latest budget deal.

“It helps that the counties are being given this flexibility,” said Vern Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for county schools.

Under the Legislature’s initial plan, teachers graded “effective” would be eligible for a $2,500 pay raise, beginning in June 2014. Those rated “highly effective” would be eligible for $3,500.

But Wednesday, House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to allow districts to hand out the raises before that date — as long as they were based on teacher evaluations.

The Legislature in 2011 required that teacher evaluations be shaped heavily by student performance and be in place by next year. The Florida Education Association has sued to overturn the requirement — but linking pay raises to the evaluation system could complicate that challenge.

Lawmakers had already agreed to spend $480 million this year on the pay-hikes sought by Gov. Rick Scott. But legislators insisted they be give out based on job performance, not across-the-board, as the governor recommended.

The Legislature also expanded the pool of those eligible to tap into the $480 million pool to include guidance counselors, librarians, school psychologists, social workers, principals and assistant principals. The FEA has criticized the move as likely reducing the amount available to teachers.

Scott, though, has said that all teachers should be able to get pay raises of at least $2,000 each, under the pay plan.

Teachers may not have to wait to get performance-based raises included in the state budget, according to Senate President Don Gaetz.

Gov. Rick Scott had wanted $2,500 across-the-board pay raises for teachers. House and Senate budget leaders this weekend agreed to $480 million for raises but with some limitations. Teachers graded “effective” will be eligible for a $2,500 pay raise, beginning in June 2014. Those rated “highly effective” would be eligible for $3,500.

Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Senate budget conforming bills due out later this week will make it clear that pay raises can be based on a “formative” teacher assessment instead of one based on student performance that won’t go into effect until 2014 and that would have held up the raises.

“In my experience as a school superintendent, we were able to evaluate students and evaluate effective teaching based not just on summative assessments at the end of a school year but based on formative assessments as we go along,” Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County superintendent, told reporters late Tuesday afternoon.

“As far as I’m concerned, teachers who earn their increases in pay ought to be able to get them as soon as school districts develop a plan to do so, collectively bargain that plan with their unions, submit the plan to the commissioner of education and have it confirmed,” he said.

Gaetz blamed Scott for the delay.

“We simply followed the governor’s proposal as to the timing of the pay increase…But I’m sure that the governor didn’t mean to unnecessarily delay the pay increase,” he said. “My hope is we ought to go forward and give Florida teachers the pay increase that they deserve especially because we have a pay increase…which is based on performance.”

Budget conferees working on education — the biggest-ticket item in the state’s $74-billion-plus spending plan — effectively abandoned efforts late Monday toward reaching a final agreement.

The House’s push for 6 percent college and university tuition increases, and the Senate’s demand that state scholarship programs including Bright Futures funding avoid any cuts were among a handful of areas dividing House and Senate negotiators.

Public school funding does look generally on track to receive slighly more than a $1 billion funding increase next fall. Gov. Rick Scott had sought a $1.2 billion increase, that had initially been matched by the Senate.

“We made a good faith effort…and I thought we could get there,” said Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, the House’s lead negotiator on schools, after a final round of talks yielded no overall agreement late Monday.

Scott and the Senate are rejecting any talk of tuition increases. And the House earlier reduced its 6 percent demand to 4 percent — only to ratchet its tuition proposal back up to 6 percent in its final offer as it sought agreement in other education areas.

Fresen’s counterpart, Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said the two sides had settled plenty of lesser matters. But big policy differences still divide lawmakers.

Next stop: Budget chairs, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, will take a stab at the work for a few days, beginning tomorrow evening. They’ll have a chance to rope into their deal-making a wide range of spending differences in environmental, economic development and health and human service programs.

Lawmakers have to button-up the budget by early next week for the session to conclude on time, May 3.

Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a sweeping education bill Monday, even as the focus on Florida schools is being largely overtaken by a battle between the governor and legislative leaders over teacher pay.

Flanked by university presidents, lawmakers and other education leaders, Scott signed SB 1076, which would overhaul high school and higher education.

The legislation  creates two designations for high school degrees, each with different requirements. One is aimed at encouraging students to work toward industry certification.

The bill would also set out standards for universities to be recognized as “preeminent universities,” with one of those schools positioned to run an online institute to encourage internet-based education, a priority of House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

Weatherford called the legislation “transformational.” Scott also praised the measure for helping connect students to the state’s evolving economy.

“We should all be proud of how this will help children get jobs when they finish their education,” Scott said.

But House and Senate budget negotiators have darkened one of Scott’s top priorities: $2,500 pay raises for teachers. While the proposed budget being hammered on now settles on the $480 million Scott needs to achieve that goal, lawmakers want to broaden the pool of potential recipients and tie the raises to merit.

Including guidance counselors, librarians and other non-teachers in the eligible pool would potentially shrink the amount of individual raises.

Since there isn’t a plan in place to enact merit-pay raises, that also could delay getting the money into teachers’ hands, critics said.

“Despite the fact that teachers in Florida make $10,000 less than the national average, much-needed pay raises for next year will be based on a system that doesn’t make a lick of sense,” said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

“Pay raises for other state workers like law-enforcement officers and firefighters aren’t tied to a ridiculous evaluation system,” Ford concluded.

Senate Education budget chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said negotiators are still refining how the merit raises would be distributed. But he said it would not be difficult for the state and school boards to devise a system.

“I don’t think that’s a legitimate concern,” Galvano said.

Scott, though, after signing the education bill into law, said he was not bending on the $2,500 raise.

“I have my priorities, the House and Senate have their priorities,” Scott said. “We have two weeks left in session. We’ll see how well each of us get our priorities…I believ we’re going to have a great session.”

He added, “Our K-12 school system is doing a great job…The right thing to do is reward our teachers with a $2,500 pay raise.”

Video of a protest at FAU, supporting Deandre Poole, his “Step on Jesus” exercise and academic freedom. Watch students reenact the “stepping.”

Video streaming by Ustream

The Florida House would increase school spending by $395 per-pupil next year while also allowing Florida colleges and universities to boost tuition by 6 percent, under an education budget released Wednesday.

Education Budget chairman Erik Fresen, R-Miami, said the spending plan is also likely to include $2,500 teacher pay raises — a priority of Gov. Rick Scott. Details are still being worked out.

“Right now, we are exceeding it,” Fresen said of the pay-raise effort.

But there are clear areas of friction.

Scott has recommended a $412-per-pupil increase — bringing spending to $6,800 for each of Florida’s 2.7 million students. That’s edging closer to the state’s high-water mark, $7,126 reached during the pre-recession 2006-07 school year.

Scott also reiterated his opposition Tuesday to tuition increases.

“I’m against tuition increases. This is a tax, this is a tax on students, it is a tax on families. We can’t be raising the cost of getting a higher education in this state,” Scott said.

Among the more controversial provisions of the House budget is what Fresen called a recalibration of the state’s school funding formula. The rewrite changes how students taking online classes are calculated — a move which supporters of Florida Virtual School — condemed Wednesday.

Florida Virtual School is the nation’s largest K-12 online system. It’s been used by many students to take a seventh class — above the standard six offered by many school districts — and in rural counties where online students can access classes not available in classrooms, supporters said.

Vern Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for the Palm Beach County School Board, said the revamped formula would likely cost the county about $5 million.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush returned Thursday to the Florida Capitol for one of his few visits since his two terms as chief executive ended six years ago.

Bush, who now leads foundations that advance education policies similar to those he signed into law as governor, met behind closed doors with House and Senate members, frequently posing for pictures with lawmakers. Many had entered the Legislature since Bush left office.

Bush, however, insisted he came to Tallahassee without specific proposals to push.

“We provide assistance to people who want to advocate education reform policies, the Legislature is about ready to start,” Bush said outside Senate President Don Gaetz’s office. “I’m here to say hello to some friends and advance the cause of rising student achievement.”

Bush said he conveyed identical messages to lawmakers he encountered.

“Be big. Be bold. Fill the space,” Bush said.

Although Bush’s stop at the Capitol was his first since 2010, he still has plenty of allies. Fellow Republican, Gov. Rick Scott, is promoting changes to expand enrollment in charter schools.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has pushing for expanding online education in Florida, a concept now being studied by state university officials. He also has created a new education Choice and Innovation Subcommittee charged with exploring more charter-, virtual- and home-school options.

Legislation introduced this week in the Senate also would let parents in low-performing schools call for a private-management company to take over. A similar “parent trigger” bill died on a 20-20 vote last year in the Senate. But Bush said his Foundation for Excellence in Education, which advocates nationwide, is a strong proponent of the approach.

“It’s a pretty simple law. It says that if you’re in a failing school, parents ought to have the ability, if a majority want to, to have a say — simply a say — in providing advice on what structure a failing school should take,” Bush said. “That doesn’t say…they can convert to a charter school or something else. It just simply says, parents’ voice matters. If that’s a radical idea in America today, then we’re in a heap of trouble.”

“I think it’ll pass,” Bush said.

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, who adheres to Bush’s parental choice concepts, has been a frequent speaker at the former governor’s foundation meetings. Bennett is Florida’s third education commissioner in two years.

Gaetz, however, said that in their meeting, he and Bush didn’t speak about the parent trigger idea.

“We talked generally about where education policy was going in this country, we talked about online education,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz acknowledged that the pair shared concerns about deadlines that are nearing for many state and national education efforts. Among them, is the movement in Florida away from FCAT testing toward standards based on a common core curriculum, and the linking of teacher salaries to student performance.

“I told him we have a lot of reform that has been sort of shot off like rockets…and it’s all coming down from the sky now in the same place at the same time,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said that Bush’s response was, “You need leadership. He sort of looked at me like, ‘Gaetz, do your job.’”

A day after the House budget committee gave Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed $74.2 billion state spending plan a mostly gentle review, its Senate counterpart followed suit Wednesday — although a few stylistic differences emerged.

Senators seemed more concerned than the House about the state maintaining fat reserve funds — a particular focus of Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart.

Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, also extracted an acknowledgement from Scott budget director Jerry McDaniel that the Legislature could move forward with a funding boost for Florida State University similar to the $15 million extra the governor wants for University of Florida to help it achieve top 1o ranking by academic reviewers.

McDaniel also pledged that Scott’s plan for $2,500 pay increases for teachers would not interfere with local collective bargaining agreements between union representatives and county school boards.

Several counties have reached deals that require raises to be based on performance standards — which may affect how counties dole out the pay hikes sought by Scott.

“We recognize that some teachers may get $4,000; some may get $1,000,” McDaniel said.

Otherwise, the Senate panel followed a course similar to that cut Tuesday by the House budget panel. Democrats’ questions pivoted mostly on school funding and why Scott was not endorsing the Medicaid expansion authorized under the Affordable Care Act.

“We believe we have too many questions than answers,” McDaniel said, echoing comments he made a day earlier.

But McDaniel may have given some hope to health care advocates who have been looking for signs that Scott’s resistence is waning.

“He does not yet propose expansion,” McDaniel told the committee.

Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday that he is proposing a $1.2 billion increase for Florida’s public schools, a boost that would hike per-pupil spending by about $400.

Scott’s proposal will be unveiled Thursday as part of his 2013-14 budget recommendation to the Legislature. More policy details also will be revealed then, showing more about how Scott found the cash for schools in a year that marks his first where he’s not staring at a budget shortfall.

“My top two priorities are jobs and education, and they are directly connected,” Scott said at the Associated Press’ annual planning meeting at the Florida Capitol.

Education under Scott has rollercoastered the past two years. Within months of his swearing in, Scott signed a budget that slashed public school spending by $1.3 billion — but last year he approved a $1 billion increase.

Scott said he is “doubling down” on the schools investment this year. His overall schools plan will include $480 million that will allow for $2,500 pay raises for Florida teachers and covers the 26,746 additional students who will fill Florida’s classrooms next
year at a cost of $172.9 million.

Scott’s proposal also would outstrip the $70-per-student increase sought by the state’s Board of Education. Scott said his per-pupil funding level will reach $6,800 — edging closer to the state’s record, $7,126 reached during the pre-recession 2006-07 school year.

“Investing in our teachers and our education system is our key to economic growth,” Scott said.

Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, also speaking at the AP session, said he would welcome the boost for schools. But he mocked Scott for having an “epiphany” on education that was driven largely by concern over his re-election campaign next year.

Smith said Scott’s action showed he was effectively saying, “I was wrong to starve education and starve government so much.”

After catching heat from even a member of the state’s Board of Education, Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that all 23 of Florida’s colleges that offer bachelor’s degrees have embraced his call for making available a $10,000 degree program.

Scott has been pushing to make higher education more affordable, ridiculing Florida’s universities for moving forward with tuition increases. The state college system, however, has ben more willing to follow Scott’s lead — and the governor Monday went to Miami Dade College’s north campus to announce a clean sweep of the four-year degree schools.

“Our goal should be that students do not have to go into debt in order to obtain a degree,” Scott said.

The cut-rate programs, like the four-year degrees at colleges, will be limited. Palm Beach State’s four-year degrees, are currently available only in business supervision and management, information technology and nursing.  Normally, they cost $13,200 over four years, roughly the state average .

Board of Education vice-chairman Roberto Martinez dismissed Scott’s proposal last fall as a “gimmick.” But Martinez’s two-terms on the board ended Dec. 31.

While the State College System was given the go-ahead by the Legislature to increase tuition 5 percent this year, colleges have largely escaped Scott’s scorn. In part, it may be because many of their programs are viewed as providing skills for current work force needs.

Randy Hanna, chancellor of the Florida College System, said last fall that he expected most individual colleges to go along with offering at least one job-oriented degree program at the lower rate to get students out into the local work force.

Scott’s idea isn’t original. Texas Gov. Rick Perry aired a similar challenge in that state in 2012. Since then, 10 universities have offered $10,000 degrees.

Critics have warned the initiative could lead to states sacrificing some level of quality education by deploying adjunct professors and teaching assistants to reduce costs to meet the $10,000 standard. Others also have said publicly financed scholarships may have to be beefed-up to reduce the cost to students.

Gov. Rick Scott, who has signed state budgets that whipsawed classroom spending the past two years, is traveling to Central Florida this afternoon where he plans to call for an across-the-board pay hike for teachers.

Scott said he would set aside $480 million for the extra pay.

“Right now, what I’m focused on is the fact that our teachers have done a great job,” Scott said Wednesday at the Capitol. “Look at the quality of our education system, look at how hard they’re working, look at the test scores. They’re doing a very good job.

“I believe in merit pay, I believe in measurement. I believe in accountability. We’re going to continue to work on that,” Scott added. “But right now, the right thing to do is an across-the-board pay raise for all fulltime teachers.”

Scott plans to release his budget proposal next week. But it’s up to the Legislature to craft the annual spending plan. Local school boards, in turn, make the final decisions on pay raises.

Still, Scott’s pledge is expected to carry some weight. The size of the pay-raise package also suggests he may recommend well over the $1 billion boost to education approved last year, which only partially covered a $1.3 billion cut to classroom cash a year earlier.

Republican Rick Scott named five new members Thursday to the board of governors leading Florida’s universities – giving him a powerful hold on a panel that earlier resisted his calls for lower tuition and cost-cutting.

The five new appointees include H. Wayne Huizenga, Jr., 51, of Delray Beach,  son of the South Florida investor and former
sports team owner, and Wendy Link, 48, of Palm Beach  Gardens, managing partner of a law firm
bearing her name.

With the five new selections, Scott appointees now comprise nine-members of the 17-person State University System Board of Governors. The new members get seven-year terms and must be confirmed by the Florida Senate.

By adding new allies, the governor likely fortifies his drive to retool Florida’s university system, which he sees as central to the push to expand the state’s economy and create jobs.

“Gov. Rick Scott has chosen a group of well-qualified individuals, with broad ranges of skills and experience,” said Board Chair Dean Colson, an appointee of Scott’s predecessor, Gov. Charlie Crist. “They join the Board of Governors at a time when there is a heightened awareness of the importance of higher education to the citizens of our state.”

Florida’s elementary schools should have a police officer on hand to ward against the threat of violence, a state lawmaker told Gov. Rick Scott in a letter Friday.

Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, asked the governor to expand the presence of middle- and high-school resource officers to include all elementary schools, a move prompted by last week’s killings of 26 people, including 20 students, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“Although there are no guarantees, it is quite possible that the mere presence of a law enforcement officer on campus may be enough of a deterrent to curb or totally prevent school-based violence,” Fasano told Scott. “While this no doubt will be an expensive proposition, no price tag can be placed on the lives of the precious children our public schools are entrusted with each and every day of the school year.”

Fasano’s letter came only hours before Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association, also called for having an armed, law-enforcement presence in every American school. LaPierre condemned calls for restricting guns as wrongheaded.

“Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them … in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk,” said National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

Scott’s office did not immediately respond to Fasano’s letter. While some elementary schools may already have school resource officers, Fasano estimated that his proposal could cost as much as $180 million annually.

“Certainly, we can find the dollars in a $70 billion state budget,” Fasano said.

Florida voters condemn the state’s new student achievement standards that are based in part on race in a new poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University.

The state’s Board of Education in October set goals for reading and math that differ by race and ethnicity. Many parent groups and educators decried the approach, which state officials defended as being part of reaching accountability measures set by the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

The Quinnipiac survey, however, show most Floridians are skeptical. By an overwhelming 71-7 percent margin, Floridians said race and ethnicity should not be considered when setting achievement goals.

“Voters, with little difference along political, racial or gender lines, find setting different goals for different races to be distasteful,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“The data from this survey finds that voters like the idea of treating all students and colleges the same,” he added.

Indeed, the poll also found voters rejecting proposals being floated that would charge lower university tuition to students majoring in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, than those pursuing liberal arts degrees. The motive for the difference is that STEM students are more eagerly sought by employers and that advocates say these skills will be needed even more in the evolving job market.

But voters surveyed dismissed the tuition difference 66-26 percent.

Similarly, another measure advanced by the University of Florida and Florida State University — allowing them and eventually other schools to be designated “preeminent universities” and authorized to set their own tuition rate – also draws little support in the Quinnipiac poll.

Seventy-six percent of respondents said they didn’t like treating universities differently, while only 16 percent supported the approach.

Gov. Rick Scott’s recent pitch for state colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees that could be obtained at a cost capped at $10,000 also was greeted coolly by voters. Some officials have tarred the idea as a gimmick, and most Floridians seem to agree, according to Quinnipiac.

Sixty-six percent of those surveyed said they doubted the $10,000 degree would happen, while 29 percent said they thought such degrees would be offered.

The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute surveyed 1,261 registered voters the first week of December. The survey has a margin of error of  plus-or-minus 2.8 percentage points. Live interviewers called land lines and cell phones.

In other questions put before voters, the survey found Floridians’ opposition to same-sex marriage is easing — with 45 percent now opposed compared to 43 percent supporting such unions. Opponents had outweighted supporters by a 10 point margin in a Quinnipiac poll conducted in May — but now Floridians are roughly equally divided, with the issue likely to be shaped heavily next year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Legalizing marijuana in Florida is rejected by voters at a 52-42 percent margin.

By Allison Ross

Note: this post has been updated.

Two years after Palm Beach County School Board member Jenny Prior Brown got elected to her District 4 seat, some unexpected donors tried to make contributions.

Jenny Prior Brown.

Last night, an online portal that Brown used to use to have donors contribute online received four donations of between $20 and $25 each — and the list of donors is somewhat peculiar.

One donor is Robert Kanjian, a former school board member whose wife, Anne, ran unsuccessfully against Brown in 2010. The Kanjians (including their children) spoke up at this week’s school board meeting on behalf of South Olive Elementary Principal Hank Smith in regards to an ongoing dispute between Brown and Smith.

Meanwhile, South Olive Elementary parent April Milner, who has led efforts to support Smith in recent weeks, also gave Brown a contribution. As did Deborah Pope, mother of a South Olive student and an employee at Kanjian’s company, Title Matters, and Melissa Nash, who is also listed as an employee of Kanjian’s Building Solutions company on the company’s website.

Milner said she made her donation because she wanted to extend an “olive branch” to Brown. Milner said she has nothing personal against Brown, and only wants to ensure that Smith be left as principal of the West Palm Beach school.

Kanjian also said he wanted to show that his involvement in the issue at South Olive was not about politics. “Neither myself nor my wife will be a candidate for the school board in 2014. Nor will we accept the appointment in the event Mrs. Brown leaves office early,” Kanjian said.

When told the site was from her 2010 election bid and not for a bid for 2014, he said there was nothing on the site that said that. He added that he would love to, as a constituent, sit down and talk with Brown about what’s good and what can be improved about schools.

A call to Pope has not yet been returned. Nash, when reached by phone, said she was driving and would call back.

Brown’s campaign consultant, Rick Asnani, said the account that was attached to the online web portal was closed after the election, so the four donations were rejected and returned to the donor’s accounts.

“Her campaign has not taken any money,” Asnani said. He said the campaign had asked that the web portal be taken down after the election but it was accidentally left up. He said it is now dismantled.

State law states that candidates who are elected must, after 90 days, dispose of any funds remaining in their campaign accounts and not accept further contributions. They don’t have to close their accounts but, in order to begin accepting campaign contributions again, they must file new paperwork, said Chris Cate, communications director for the Florida Department of State.

Brown said she has filed nothing for a 2014 re-election bid and is “not in fundraising mode.”

“This is pure politics. That’s all this is,” Brown said. “They know this is an old account and they’re trying to create some new political controversy. But this is dirty politics. That’s all this is. They know full well that’s all this is.”

In a later statement, Brown added:

“Bob and Anne Kanjian knowingly and willfully engineered a personal and disgraceful attack upon my character and integrity as an elected official by concocting an entrapment scheme they knew was baseless and misleading.”

Gov. Rick Scott’s outreach to Florida teachers and his newfound support for public schools may have been dealt a setback Wednesday with the selection of a new state education commissioner Tony Bennett.

Bennett was ousted by voters as Indiana’s superintendent of public education last month after warring with teachers unions over school vouchers, charter schools and a new school grading system.

Since then, he addressed Jeb Bush’s Excellence in Education national conference in Washington, D.C., where he echoed many of the same policies long attached to Florida’s former governor. Bennett was chosen Wednesday by the Florida Board of Education to become the state’s third education commissioner of Scott’s two-year tenure as governor.

“(Bennett) is a champion of the testing mania, unchecked expansion of charter schools and voucher programs and has proven to advance the Jeb Bush education agenda that has drawn fire from teachers, parents and experts in the field,” said Florida Education Association President Andy Ford.

“That’s the same approach that has led to a flawed and chaotic system in Florida that has frustrated parents and teachers alike,” Ford concluded.

Scott invited Ford and other union officials to the Governor’s Mansion for dinner in September. It was their first meeting and was viewed as a sign of thawing relations between the two sides, which had battled fiercely during the 2010 governor’s race and through Scott’s first year in office.

Scott has since been publicly avowing his support for classroom dollars and the quality of Florida teachers.

Scott said he expects Bennett to advance the administration’s new look at education.

“I look forward to working with him on our goals to increase education funding and advocate for the professional development of Florida teachers, which is critical for student success,” Scott said.

Gov. Rick Scott, who has been trying to rein-in the cost of higher education in Florida, fired off a challenge Monday to state college leaders — urging they create bachelor’s degree programs costing no more than $10,000.

Such degrees at Florida state colleges — formerly known as community colleges — currently average $13,264, said Randy Hanna, chancellor of the Florida College System.

“Today, what I’m doing is saying to our state colleges, ‘Can you come up with $10,000-degrees, where people can get great jobs…so you could live your version of the American dream,’” Scott told a Tampa television station, before announcing his proposal in an appearance at St. Petersburg College.

Most of Scott’s earlier questioning of higher education costs have been directed at the State University System, where the latest round of tuition increases of from 9 percent to 15 percent, have boosted the average annual rate to $6,232 this fall — 41st highest in the nation.

But the State College System now serves almost 900,000 students, with enrollment rising with the slow economy.

Hanna said the “logistics still have to be worked out,” on the governor’s challenge. But Hanna said he expected individual colleges to embrace the idea of offering at least one popular degree program at the lower rate that is aimed at getting students out into the local work force.

Gov. Rick Scott continued his new-found focus on education Tuesday, announcing that he would seek $2 million from next year’s Legislature to finance a teacher training program.

The effort, which he said evolved from a weeklong “listening tour” he completed last month, would be a matching grant program designed to attract additional dollars from private companies, educational foundations and local school districts.

The Scott administration said that including the matching funds, the goal is to have as much as $6 million available for continuing teacher education.

“We’re acknowledging the importance of our teachers in this state,” Scott told reporters. “All of us know that in our childhood, teachers were the ones who helped us get ahead.”

Scott said the value of good teachers should be an easy sell to legislators and potential matching grant givers.

 ”They’re teaching and training the future of our state,” Scott said of those working in Florida’s school districts.

A spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, said it was too early to react to the Republican governor’s idea, which at this point includes few specifics.

“We have to see what it includes, whether its aimed at some predetermined outcomes,” said Mark Pudlow of FEA. “With anything like this, the devil is in the details.”

Scott spoke Tuesday alongside his Governor’s Office desk, atop sits a small chalkboard which touts, “Over $1 billion in NEW education funding.” The motto represents the amount he and the Legislature increased public school dollars this fall.

Unmentioned, however, is the $1.3 billion cut in school funding that he signed into law last year. Also not addressed is a lawsuit now before the Florida Supreme Court challenging Scott and the Legislature for ordering public employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay to belong to the Florida Retirement System.

School district employees are the bulk of those in the FRS.

Scott, though, has lately gone out of his way to make peace with the education system.

Along with new training dollars, Scott is awaiting a report back this month from a panel of seven school superintendents charged with ferreting out red tape that inhibits classroom teachers. Scott also has echoed the frustration of many parents and educators by criticizing Florida’s dependence on testing as a means of evaluating students, instructors and schools.

Scott last month invited FEA leaders to the Governor’s Mansion for the first time since he took office in January 2011.. He emerged promising to at least maintain current school spending next year. He later suggested the funding level could be increased.

Florida’s ruling Republicans are undermining their own pledge to boost the state’s economy by shifting millions of dollars away from public education, former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and state Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said Wednesday.

Flanked by a dozen university students, Graham and Smith expanded on what has become a steady campaign theme this fall for Democrats in state House and Senate races across the state.

Graham, who also served as Florida governor from 1979-87, said Republicans have come close to reversing the state’s longstanding commitment to universities, which in his time had taxpayers covering 75 percent of college costs and students paying 25 percent.

“We can’t continue down this course if we aspire to be a state where young people want to plant their personal flags,” Graham said.

The Legislature cut university spending $300 million this year, while restoring $1 billion to public schools which had shouldered a $1.3 billion reduction in 2011.  Tuition was increased between 9 percent and 15 percent at the state’s 11 universities, in the latest round of several years of steep hikes.

Florida Republicans have defended the actions. Lawmakers have had to deal with multibillion dollar budget shortfalls since the recession hardened in 2007.  With analysts predicting a slight surplus next year, Republican Gov. Rick Scott has lately joined the chorus calling for more dollars for schools.

But with the federal government also reducing financial aid programs, Graham concluded, “At all levels, higher education is under assault.”

Graham and Smith said the budget cuts, combined with a slow economy, are making it increasingly difficult for Florida students to attend state universities. Meanwhile, students attending Wednesday’s news conference with the Democratic leaders also told of struggling to enroll in the classes they needed, or being forced to attend school for an additional academic year because of budget cuts.

“We have demonstrably devalued education in this state,” Smith said.

Smith said Democratic candidates in legislative races have made the difficulties families face with education a central part of their campaign pitch.

“In almost every one of our House races and in the Senate races we are involved in, you’re hearing about education again,” Smith said. “It is front and center, because families in Florida, when they sit down at the breakfast table, are worried about not only jobs for themselves, but jobs for their children and grandchildren.”

While Graham decried rising student costs, he is expected to be in attendance Thursday at the Florida Supreme Court for a case he started and which critics say could spur tuition rates even higher. Graham is the lead party in a 2007 lawsuit over whether the State University System Board of Governors — or the Legislature — is empowered to set tuition.

Lower courts have ruled against Graham, whose side says a 2002 constitutional amendment makes it clear that it is solely the board’s responsibility to set tuition rates.

Under current law, the Legislature has authority to set tuition increases, and universities can add an additional increase so long as the total tuition increase year-over-year does not exceed 15 percent.