The Palm Beach Tech Association’s Board of Directors and Public Policy Committee are pleased to announce our 2018 Legislative Priorities!
As the Florida Legislative Session begins, we ask our industry, members, and community to support these pivotal projects. You can do so my contacting your legislators by email or phone toexpress your support, as each of these will positively impact the Palm Beach County technology industry:
- Florida Senate Website
- Florida House of Representatives Website
- Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation List
The 2018 Florida Legislative Session convenes on January 9th in Tallahassee and lasts for 60 calendar days. Click Here to download PDF Version of these priorities to share.
2018 Legislative Priorities
HB 2855 – Palm Beach State College – Coding & Cognitive Technologies Program | Request: $250,000
This turnkey-ready program would align with the industry and be directly transferrable. Potential areas included in the curriculum are Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Predictive Analysis, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, etc. It will appeal to those with and without degrees, is STEM focused, and will remain flexible by providing a marketable skillset through credentials with the opportunity to lead to a degree. PBSC has agreed to a $250,000 match, which includes funding for software license fees, computer lab materials, wiring and network server expenses. The total cost to establish the program is $500,000.
HB 2365 – Florida Atlantic University Tech Runway | Request: $3,000,000
Tech Runway is based on best practices developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University, and combines the resources of FAU with the local business community to create an ecosystem that is conducive to the development of successful technology startups. Since its inception in 2014, Tech Runway has launched 29 startup companies, which collectively have raised $17.976 million in capital and created more than 239 jobs.
SB 180 – Computer Coding Instruction
Authorizing, but not requiring, high schools to offer students opportunities to take specified computer coding courses beginning with a specified school year; requiring the Commissioner of Education to identify such courses that satisfy two credits of sequential foreign language instruction under certain circumstances; requiring each student and his or her parent to sign a specified statement, etc.