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Legislature passes cursive requirements with a tweak

A bill to require students in grades 3-5 to prove they know cursive is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

“The passage of this bill brings the great history of our past into the future and provides our students with critical instruction to make sure Florida is No. 1 in education,” said Rep. Toby Overdorf, the Palm City Republican who pushed for cursive writing to be taught to younger students.

The Legislature passed the measure as part of a bigger education bill during the final days of the 2026 Regular Session. The amendment tweaked Overdorf’s proposal so the cursive sessions will start in third grade instead of second grade.

Overdorf filed HB 127 that would have required students starting in second grade to learn cursive. Students would then be tested in fifth grade to prove they can legibly write upper case and lower case letters in cursive.

House lawmakers supported the idea, as they said young people today grow up unable to sign their own name on their mortgage documents.

Changes in drinking straw laws get sunk in Committee process

Legislation to change drinking straw laws in Florida got the life sucked out of them and never made it out of the Legislature.

Fleming Island Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley sponsored the bill (SB 958). The measure would have restricted local governments from banning single-use straws without providing environmentally sound alternatives. That was matched by a similar bill in the House (HB 865).

The Senate measure stalled in the Committee process and never made it to the floor for a vote.

The proposals would have stipulated more criteria before such straw laws could be enacted and required some changes to existing laws in cities and counties.

Bradley’s proposal stated that municipalities with current laws banning some straws would need to “amend any such rule, regulation, or ordinance in effect as of the effective date of this act which does not permit the sale or use of drinking straws and stirrers that are renewable, home compostable certified, industrial compostable certified, or marine biodegradable to permit the sale or use of renewable, home compostable certified, industrial compostable certified and marine biodegradable drinking straws and stirrers.”

Blaise Ingoglia praises lawmakers for approving bills he backed to control local spending

Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is celebrating the Legislature’s approval of two measures he helped draft designed to provide more control of local government spending.

Both chambers passed the bill (HB 1329) sponsored by Republican Rep. Yvette Benarroch. Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie sponsored the companion measure (SB 1566). The main objective of the legislation is to require cities and county governments to post their budgets and employee salaries online in an easily accessible and transparent format for taxpayers to view.

“As Chief Financial Officer, I have made it my mission to provide real transparency into local governments’ spending so Floridians know exactly what their tax dollars will go towards. For far too long, local governments have benefited from ambiguity and inaccessibility in their spending habits,” Ingoglia said in a news release Monday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis still needs to sign the measure.

Ingoglia was inspired to push for the bills following his crusade for most of the past year where he has traveled around the state and blasted local governments for “overspending.” He has singled out more than a dozen municipalities for his scathing reviews that he says has uncovered nearly $2 billion in overspending.

5 bills that died during Florida’s 2026 legislative session

Florida’s 2026 regular session ended, and with it, a slew of hotly debated bills.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ agenda for the session this year was thin. But even with the reduced wishlist, many bills died in House-Senate squabbles.

Here is some of the legislation that didn’t make it to DeSantis’ desk.

Vaccine exemptions

Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, last year announced a push to remove all vaccine mandates from state law.

Lawmakers had a milder idea: expanding vaccine exemptions. The legislation would have allowed parents to opt their children out of required school entry vaccines based on their personal conscience and would have made the opt-out forms easier to access.

In the House, bill sponsor Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, also put forward language that would compel physicians to see unvaccinated children, a priority of Ladapo, DeSantis and first lady Casey DeSantis.