The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) is the

state education agency A state education agency or state department of education is the state-level government organization within each U.S. state or territory responsible for education, including providing information, resources, and technical assistance on educationa ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. It governs public education and manages funding and testing for local educational agencies (

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

s). It is headquartered in the Turlington Building (named for former education commissioner

Ralph Turlington Ralph Donald Turlington Sr. (October 5, 1920 – May 12, 2021) was an American politician from the state of Florida. Early life Turlington was born in Gainesville, Florida in 1920. Turlington was in the inaugural class of the P. K. Yonge Develo ...

) in

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

. The Florida commissioner of education manages the day-to-day operation of the department. The office of education commissioner was originally a Cabinet-level position filled by direct election and directly responsible for education in Florida. The 2002 Florida Constitution Revision Commission submitted a revision to the Florida Constitution, amending Article IV, Section IV to reduce the Cabinet from six elected officials to three. The voters approved the changes and it became effective January 7, 2003; after this time, the commissioner of education became an appointed position and the FLDOE became the overall responsibility of the governor. The revised constitution also created a new

Florida Board of Education The Florida Board of Education, also known as the State Board of Education (SBE), is a committee composed of members appointed by the Florida governor to guide and direct the public K-12, community college and state college education in the U.S. ...

with seven members (one of whom is the commissioner of education), appointed by the governor to oversee the Department of Education. Division of Vocational Rehabilitation - 930 positions Division of Blind Services - 300 positions Annual operating budget for all entities in 2012-13 - approximately $18.6 billion Oversee 28 locally governed public state colleges and 47 school district technical centers The department supports 2.6 million students, 3,800 public schools and 318,000 full-time staff and more than 180,000 teachers. The department manages the Florida Information Resource Network (FIRN), which provides Internet access to public schools.

History

The superintendent of public instruction was established to oversee Florida's public schools in the 1868 Florida Constitution. The elected officeholder became the commissioner of education under the 1968 Florida Constitution. A constitutional amendment in 1998 made effective January 2003 reorganized the office so its head was no longer elected and created a State Board of Education. In 2022, the Florida Department of Education rejected a record 41% of mathematics textbooks for non-compliance with the state's new B.E.S.T. Standards, which replace Common Core. The department claimed that the books rejected "incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies", including critical race theory (CRT), social–emotional learning (SEL), and Common Core. Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran stated that the state is aiming to prevent "indoctrination or exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts in our classrooms". The state did not provide any specific examples of content that led to the books being rejected. The state later approved 19 previously-rejected books, after receiving assurances from publishers that "

woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexi ...

content" had been removed. In May 2022, the state published records disclosing the results of the reviews, revealing that the majority of reviewers—largely educators—found no evidence of the textbooks containing CRT, but more often flagged for containing SEL. Most of the accusations of prohibited content came from Chris Allen—a vice chair of a chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty—who accused textbooks of promoting CRT because of its inclusion of data surrounding an implicit bias test and a statement that the United States had not "eradicated poverty or racism", complained of a word problem that involved the gender pay gap, objected to an author " alkingabout a climate crisis as if it’s a proven fact". and objected to questions involving elections and vaccines that did not include references to The Federalist Papers or natural immunity.

State exams

The State of Florida requires students to take the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) each year in grades 3-10. Students' results from the FSA are compiled to generate a grade for each public school under former governor

Jeb Bush John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush ...

's "A+ Plan." Under this plan, public schools receive a letter grade from A to F, depending on student performance and the degree to which the bottom 25% of the school has improved compared to its past performances. The higher a public school scores, the more funding it receives.

Teacher certification

The department paid bonuses to teachers certified by the federal government. Up until 2010, the bonus was as much as $3,800 annually. This is expected to diminish with diminished income to the state.

Superintendents of Public Instruction

# C. Thurston Chase (1868–1870) # Henry Quarles (1870–1871) #Rev. Charles Beecher (1871–1873) # Jonathan C. Gibbs (1873–1874) # William Watkin Hicks (1875–1876) # William Penn Haisley (1877–1881) # Eleazer K. Foster (1881–1884) # Albert Jonathan Russell (1884–1893) # William N. Sheats (1893–1905) and (1913–1922) # William M. Holloway (1905–1913) # William S. Cawthon (1922–1937) #

Colin English John Colin English (July 3, 1895 – June 3, 1986) was Florida State Superintendent of Education from 1937 until 1949. He was elected to the office in 1936. He campaigned for governor in 1948.https://www.news-press.com/amp/18619485 Biography J ...

(1937–1949) # Thomas D. Bailey (1949–1965) # T. D. Johnson (1965) # Floyd Thomas Christian (Supt. of Public Instruction 1965–1969; Commissioner of Education in 1969–1974)

Commissioners of Education

# Ralph D. Turlington (1974–1986) # Betty Castor (1986–1994) # Douglas L. Jamerson (1994–1995) # Frank T. Brogan (1995–1999) #

Tom Gallagher C. Thomas Gallagher III (born February 3, 1944) is an American politician, financier, and insurance agent from the state of Florida and a member of the Republican Party. Gallagher holds the distinction of having served more years as an elected s ...

(1999–2001) # Charlie Crist (2001–2003) # Jim Horne (2003–2004) # John L. Winn (2004–2007) #Jeanine Blomberg (interim) (2007) # Eric J. Smith (October 5, 2007 – June 10, 2011) # Gerard Robinson (June 11, 2011 – 2012) #

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...

(January – August 2013) # Pam Stewart (August 2013 – January 8, 2019) # Richard Corcoran (January 8, 2019 – May 1, 2022) #Jacob Oliva (interim) (May 1, 2022 – June 1, 2022) # Manny Díaz Jr. (June 1, 2022 – present)

References

External links

Florida Department of Education website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Florida Department Of Education

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

State departments of education of the United States State agencies of Florida 1870 establishments in Florida