Teachers grade lawmakers: The state’s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association, releases the grades it’s given to legislators. Most Republicans got F’s, while most Democrats got A’s and B’s. The Senate grades are here, and the House grades here. The grades given were almost the inverse of those handed out in April by Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future. Unlike the foundation, the FEA calculated a grade based on the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions, and also considered factors such as bill votes, committee work, lobbying and accessibility to union members. Gradebook. WFSU. Tallahassee Democrat.
Virtual schools: A study by the National Educational Policy Center questions the performance of the nation’s virtual schools, saying there’s “overwhelming evidence” they don’t work. The report finds that virtual schools have high teacher-to-student ratios, huge enrollments and underperform academically. Virtual schools run by districts perform far better than those run by charter schools, the researchers found. Enrollment in virtual schools have been growing steadily, and is now up to nearly 300,000 students. T.H.E. Journal.
Higher education offer: Walmart announces it will subsidize college educations for its 1.4 million U.S. workers, who will have to pay just $1 a day for 365 days a year as long as they’re enrolled in one of three universities – the University of Florida, Brandman University in Irvine, Calif., or Bellevue University in Bellevue, Neb. Walmart thinks as many as 68,000 of its employees could enroll under the plan. USA Today. Washington Post. New York Times.