Ryan Dailey - News Service of Florida

Said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando: “I don’t care how many times you tell yourself this is about women’s sports and not LGBTQ rights or discrimination, because that is wrong,”

The Senate Rules Committee will also consider a less stringent version today.

Graduation for high school seniors this spring will not be contingent on passing exams, and end-of-course exam scores can be waived when determining whether students get promoted to the next grade levels.

The proposal would make participation in athletics contingent on determining a student’s “biological sex,” a disputed term that refers to the sex assigned at birth.

The Florida House and Senate each are proposing different ways to slash as much as $593 million from the state university system this fiscal year.

After the outcry that included a student-led opposition campaign, most controversial parts of the bill have been eliminated.

Under the bill as it was filed initially, state college and university students would not be eligible for Bright Futures scholarships if they enrolled in degree programs not on lists of “approved” programs.

Bill sponsor Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, says he is he is “absolutely” confident it will be back during the legislative session.

They estimate nearly 90,000 fewer students have enrolled in public schools than was expected for this academic year.

The requests would bring K-12 funding to a record high of $22.8 billion and raise per-student funding by $233 to $8,019.