[UPDATE] 6-4 9:00PM by Danielle Sommerfeld--

Many students in Florida may have to pull up their pants and tighten their belts when the new school year starts up.

Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 228 Thursday.

This bill is known as the saggy pants bill.

It requires schools to ban clothing that shows underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner.

David Lee, supporter of the Saggy Pants bill says, "It's a great idea that they passed the bill. Because the boys need to grow up and act like gentlemen. Because I don't want to look at their behind."

Students who don't obey the new saggy pants law may be removed from extracurricular activities or get in-school suspension.
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Tallahassee, FL - A trio of bills overhauling state voucher programs and a measure cracking down on baggy pants at public schools were signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday.

The four bills were among 48 measures Scott approved Thursday, according to an announcement by his office late in the day.

Two of the bills could increase, perhaps by thousands of students, the number of recipients of taxpayer funds to be put toward private education.

One of the measures (HB 1329) could add 50,000 to the rolls by increasing the number of conditions that would qualify a student for the John McKay scholarship. The scholarship program targets students with disabilities.

Another (HB 1331) would make it easier for students in poorly performing schools to take advantage of the Opportunity Scholarship program. Currently, students are eligible if their public school has received an “F” in a four-year period; the new law changes the definition of failing school to instead include any school that received a “D” or “F” in the prior year.

In addition, the bill, which already allows students to use the scholarships at private schools, now permits students in failing public schools to transfer to a higher-rated public school anywhere in the state, instead of limiting that choice to adjacent districts.

Some Democrats at times complained that the measures could make it more difficult for public schools to improve, but the bills passed easily through the GOP-dominated Legislature.

Scott also signed a bill (HB 965) tweaking the corporate tax credit scholarship program. The measure allows companies that donate to a scholarship organization to claim 100 percent of that donation as a corporate income tax credit. Current law only permits a credit of 75 percent of the donation.

And in a victory long sought by Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, Scott signed into law a bill (SB 228) that has become known around the Capitol as the “baggy pants” bill. The new law requires school boards to adopt dress codes barring clothes that “expose underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner.”

Students could be punished with removal from extracurricular activities and in-school suspension. Siplin said he pushed the measure in an effort to make sure students understood how to dress well and improve their employment prospects after they graduated.

Note: News Service Reporter Lilly Rockwell contributed to this report.

CORRECTION – VOUCHER STORY

THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

In a story Thursday evening about Gov. Scott signing legislation related to the Opportunity Scholarship program, the News Service incorrectly reported that the bill allowed students to use the scholarships, or vouchers, at private schools.

The bill specifically repeals parts of the state law that related to private school options in the Opportunity Scholarship Program, because the courts found the use of those particular vouchers to attend private schools unconstitutional. The program now allows students to leave one public school for another higher performing public school.

WCTV regrets the error.