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Capital Report: January 27, 2023

Debate over a plan to give nearly every K-12 student in Florida a stipend to pay for private school, homeschool or certain education-related expenses officially got underway this week [1/26]. A “school choice” bill introduced in the state legislature last week [1/19] would deliver what proponents describe as “universal choice.” As Valerie Crowder reports, the measure is expected to pass, though the final version might not look the same...

The controversy over an advanced placement course in African American Studies exploded as the state’s refusal to accept the course as-is encountered resistance. Margie Menzel reports civil rights attorney Ben Crump is threatening to sue over the rejection as the DeSantis administration doubles down on its defense that the course is quote: “indoctrination, not education.”

Governor Ron DeSantis has expressed support for a proposal in the Florida legislature to make school board races partisan. But that's not what the Founding Fathers would have wanted, according to Meredith Mountford, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University. She spoke with WUSF's Kerry Sheridan about why President Thomas Jefferson was a leading proponent of non-partisanship in schools.

All the education initiatives already teed up for legislative consideration in Tallahassee are unlikely to be the last. Capital Reporter Lynn Hatter gives Tom Flanigan a long list of other measures that may come up during the 60-day session that begins in a little over a month from now.

Governor Ron DeSantis suspended Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren after he signed a statement saying he would not enforce state laws on abortion or transgender health care. A federal judge has ruled that DeSantis violated state and federal law. But he also said he does not have the power to compel the governor to reinstate Warren. WUSF's Steve Newborn unwinds the technicalities surrounding this case with Louis Virelli, [loo-iss ver-rel-lee], a professor at Stetson University College of Law.