TIME TO FISH OR CUT BAIT: The Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission is set to tackle its toughest assignment - real tax reform. The main plans up for a vote would change the way Florida pays for education.

DON'T MAKE ME DO IT: A Marion teacher asks not to have to participate in the FCAT administration and calls on others to refuse to participate, the Ocala Star-Banner reports. (He doesn't get his way, of course, though he does make his point.)

FCAT FUN: Schools in northeast Florida tried to encourage kids to do well on the FCAT without building up too much pressure, the Florida Times-Union reports.

MONEY NEEDED, BUT DISTRICT WON'T ASK: Collier's superintendent says the district won't ask voters for a tax increase despite budget needs, because tensions with the teachers' union could doom the referendum, the Naples Daily News reports.

STOPPED SHORT: Florida Gulf Coast University had been on a roll as the state's fastest growing university. But all that's on hold now because of financial pressures on the entire university system, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

FAMU LAW GETS NEW REGISTRAR: The new dean dismisses the old one with little explanation, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

IT LETS THEM ESCAPE LOCAL PRESSURES: Leaders of some Pennsylvania school districts are defending their annual retreats to a Monroe County resort on the taxpayers' dime, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

UNIONS "RUINING OUR SCHOOLS": Teachers have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo regardless of how badly they and their students perform, Richard Berman of the new anti-union Center for Union Facts writes in the Newark (NJ) Examiner. He mentions a Florida teacher enshrined in the state's Educator Hall of Fame the day before she got laid off.