Fla. Lawmakers End Impasse On K-20 Guidelines

By Alan Richard

In their second special session of the year on education, Florida lawmakers last week finally set into motion the laws that give structure to the state's new K-20 system of schooling.

Legislators approved a thorough revision of the state's education codes on May 2, almost a month after their first special session ended with an emotional debate over students' rights to express their religious beliefs and to have guns on campuses.

The Republican-controlled legislature ultimately compromised around Gov. Jeb Bush's suggestion that the state distribute rules on religious expression in schools each year. An amendment that would have allowed students to keep guns used for hunting locked in...