(The Center Square) – The Florida Department of Education released its accountability scores for individual public schools and districts on Monday and no school district received a failing score. 

Grades for individual schools were also up, as the number of A-rated schools increased from 38% in 2024 to 44% this year and the number of failing schools decreased from 117 to 71, a decrease of 39.3%. 

It marked the third year for Florida’s progress monitoring, which continually assesses student and school performance throughout the school year rather than with one end of the year test. 

“I think the progress monitoring reform was the right reform to do,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at an event at Oceanway Elementary School in Jacksonville, which improved from a C to an A. “I think it is providing dividends, but we all say we have more work to do.” 

Only 71 out of Florida’s 3,451 public schools (2.05%) received a failing grade (a D or an F), with 44% of them receiving an A and 27% received a B. 

There were only 49 elementary, six middle and only two high schools that received unsatisfactory scores. A scores were awarded to 49% of high schools (250), 42% of middle schools (237) and 40% of the state’s elementaries (717).

Of the state’s combined schools, 322 (55%) earned top ratings and only 14 received failing marks. 

For districts, 28 scored an A, 31 received a B and only eight received a C. 

Florida Department of Education Commissioner-designate Anastasios Kamoutsas, who replaced Manny Diaz Jr., spotlighted the improvement in civics education with 70% of Florida students on grade level in that subject. 

“Florida schools are improving across the board, and this is a direct result of the governor’s innovative policies and his mandate to school board members and superintendents across the state to bring education back to the basics and focus on student success,” Kamoutsas said. “Indoctrination, whether it’s critical race theory or sexually explicit materials, has no place in Florida schools.”

Diaz is now the interim president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola. 

The state Department of Education uses 12 components to assess individual school performance, which include achievement components, learning gains, middle school acceleration, graduation rate and college and career acceleration. 

(The Center Square) – A federal district judge in Massachusetts, Judge Brian Murphy, sought to prevent deportation of violent criminals but was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

On July 4, eight convicted felons, citizens of Burma, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Vietnam and South Sudan, were deported to South Sudan. The country’s leaders have entered into an agreement with the U.S. to detain criminal foreign nationals, including those who aren’t their citizens. El Salvador and others have entered into similar agreements, with the U.S. government agreeing to pay for detention costs.

U.S. deportation efforts rely on diplomacy with foreign governments, many of which won’t accept their own citizens. Under previous administrations, federal efforts to deport criminal illegal foreign nationals failed because many countries wouldn’t take back their citizens. As a result, they illegally remained in the U.S. even though they had deportation orders from a federal immigration judge, authorities have explained to The Center Square. Under the Trump administration, this has changed.

Those deported to South Sudan were all men illegally in the U.S. with extensive criminal histories, including felony convictions and prison sentences in the U.S. They all received due process in federal immigration court and received final removal orders from federal immigration judges that were never enforced, including one dating back to 1999.

Burmese national Kyaw Mya was convicted of lascivious acts with a child-victim under age 12 and sentenced to 10 years in prison and paroled after four years. ICE- St. Paul officers arrested him; his final removal order was issued March 17, 2022.

Burmese national Nyo Myint was convicted of first-degree sexual assault involving a victim mentally and physically incapable of resisting and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was also charged with aggravated assault-nonfamily strongarm and a registered sex offender. ICE- St. Paul officers arrested him; his final removal order was issued August 17, 2023.

Cuban national Enrique Arias-Hierro was convicted of homicide, armed robbery, false impersonation of official, kidnapping, and robbery strong arm. His final removal order was issued September 13, 1999. Due to Cuban authorities refusing to take him, he remained illegally in the U.S.

Cuban national Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones was convicted of attempted first-degree murder with a weapon, battery and larceny, and cocaine possession and trafficking. ICE Miami officers arrested him in April; his final removal order was issued Dec. 4, 2012.

Laos national Thongxay Nilakout was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to life in prison. ICE Los Angeles officers arrested him in January. His final removal order was issued July 12, 2023.

Mexican national Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. ICE Miami officers arrested him in May. His final removal order was issued June 16, 2005.

Vietnamese national Tuan Thanh Phan was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree assault and sentenced to 22 years in prison. ICE Seattle officers arrested him in May. His final removal order was issued June 17, 2009.

The only South Sudan national in the deportation group was Dian Peter Domach, who was first encountered by ICE in 2011 and received a final removal order on July 19, 2011. He wasn’t deported and remained in the U.S. illegally and committed a range of crimes. He was convicted of robbery and possession of a firearm, possession of defaced firearm, possession of burglar’s tools, and driving under the influence.

Murphy, born in 1979, a former public defender and a criminal defense attorney, was appointed by former President Joe Biden less than six months ago. Murphy argued a Supreme Court ruling didn’t apply to his injunction, seeking to keep convicted felons, including sex offenders and murderers, in the U.S. in violation of federal law. His order violated due process, critics argue, because the convicted felon illegal foreign nationals already appeared multiple times before federal immigration judges who issued judgements against them and final orders of removal.

Justice Elena Kagan chastised Murphy in the court’s July 3 ruling, affirming the Trump administration’s authority to deport illegal foreign nationals to third-party countries.

(The Center Square) – After an Independence Day question on his social media platform, the world’s richest man offered Americans an alternative political party independent of Democrats and Republicans.

For North Carolinians, that means one of three criteria will have to be met before the America Party – or any other creations – can be officially recognized for purposes of being on the ballots.

Musk, a 53-year-old space and automotive industry phenom, served Republican second-term President Donald Trump in the Department of Government Efficiency. Reviews were mixed. On Friday, the 249th celebration of the Fourth of July, Musk asked on social media, “Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system! Should we create the America Party?”

His poll, he reported the next day, was 2-1 in favor and he wrote, “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

Registration with the Federal Election Commission would be necessary on the national level.

For recognition by the North Carolina State Board of Elections, as outlined in the General Statutes, the three ways involve the options of a party’s voters getting at least 2% of the entire vote cast in the most recent general election; signature petition of at least 0.25% of all registered voters who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election; or a group of voters showing documentation the group had their candidate on the general election ballot in 70% of the states (35) in the most recent presidential election.

The first and third of those are moot at this point; the America Party was not in existence for the 2024 cycle. In fact, Musk was a significant campaign piece for Trump.

For petitions, they must be filed with the state board before noon on June 1 of the year of the election the party wishes to participate in. There’s also a stipulation that, so that counties can verify, the signatures must go to them 15 days before being due to the state. That’s May 16.

The 2025 cycle is known as municipal elections in the state, and 2026 is the midterms – second-longest ballot of the four cycles for the state. The America Party could get into place for next year.

Last year’s governor’s race drew 5,591,547 votes among Democrat Josh Stein, Republican Mark Robinson, Libertarian Mike Ross, Vinny Smith (Constitution Party) and Wayne Turner (Green Party). A quarter of 1% would be 13,979 (rounded up).

More than once, Musk reposted a question on party platform that listed reduce debt, responsible spending only; modernize military with artificial intelligence/robotics; pro tech, accelerate to win in artificial intelligence; less regulation across the board but especially in energy; free speech; “pro natalist,” a form of pronatalism or belief in human reproduction and a high birth rate; and centrist policies everywhere else.

Among other posts through the weekend from Musk, estimated Monday morning by Forbes at more than $405 billion, was one that included the following:

• Tesla will never succeed.

• Elon can’t start a space company.

• Neuralink will never work.

• SpaceX will never reuse a rocket.

• Elon can’t run a social media.

Three political parties lost recognition through the last cycle and North Carolina has four recognized today. Alphabetically, they are the Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Republican Party.

By registrations through Saturday, those unaffiliated (more than 2.8 million, or 38.3%) have the largest bloc, followed by Democrats (2.3 million, or 30.6%), Republicans (nearly 2.3 million, or 30.4%), Libertarians (only 45,986, or 0.6%) and Green (just 4,024, or 0.05%).