A Senate education panel approved a measure that would allow counties to enact a tax to pay for additional resource officers and student mental health services, the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau reports. In the wake of the Newtown elementary school massacre, some lawmakers are even proposing measures to let teachers carry concealed weapons.
In other legislative news, House Speaker Will Weatherford says questions over federal funding tied to Medicaid expansion shouldn’t delay the House and Senate budgets scheduled for release next week, the Florida Current reports.
Meanwhile, the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee narrowly approved a measure that could mean an end to mandatory jail time for people caught with illegal prescription drugs, the Panama City News Herald reports. A similar bill passed a Senate committee last week.