For those who understand senate bills (I dont!)

[Tac]

Florida senate bill S 1194


From what i'm being told this bill will do away with a math/english competency test required to be awarded a bachelor degree or an associate's degree.

In 2009 the CLAST test was removed as a requirement but the verbage in the bill still required the colleges to make the student pass some exam type to award the degree... and since no test was specified each college had to either make up their own exam or follow the law that told them the student would be exempt from it if he had a 2.5 GPA in  math or english.

In my case i'm exempt from English test due to my GPA (pure A's) but Math is under 2.5 (2 math classes, both passing C's) and I've not been able to pass the exam itself (suck so badly at math they even think I have dyscalcula dammit) so this has been preventing my degree from being awarded for nearly 2 years.

Now this bill is going through the senate... but I don't understand WTF is going with it. Its sort of legalese. 


Link: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/1194/BillText/c2/HTML

Sections 1 and 3 are the ones I believe refer to the changes I'm hoping are passed so i can get my degree.


If anyone here is more legalese-inclined or knows more of how this works.... could you tell me if the changes I need are in place (I know the bill is slated to be voted on in May and if passed, become effective July 1).

[mthrockmor]

Just quickly skimmed this and I think you are right. It appears they are going from standards being set in law (bad idea generally) to the removal of those standards the creation of an advisory board that will determine standards by policy (as opposed to law.) This legislation does speak of remediation for those unable to pass the previous standards though it looks like they are running into large groups of students unable to make the previous standards so seeking more flexibility.

I would contact the Senate office, find the sponsor then ask the sponsor for any supporting documents. These documents will likely lay out in real basic terms what they are trying to do and why. I bet you could also go online and listen to testimony given. I would do that.

Good luck with it.

Boo