Florida is once again changing its rules for the way teachers are trained to teach English-language learners.

And perhaps not surprisingly, the issue remains controversial.

Rosa Castro Feinberg, the retired FIU education prof and former Miami-Dade School Board member, has pressed for years to keep the training high, so teachers really can reach the many children who come to Florida not speaking English.

The state has looked for ways to make the training less onerous. You can see its latest proposed standards and compare them to the current standards to get the picture. The new one doesn't talk about teaching gifted ELL students, for instance.

"At a time when student standards are becoming more challenging and teachers need the best possible preparation to help ESOL students succeed, the current draft omits or does not sufficiently cover several of the areas included in the national ... standards," Feinberg tells the Gradebook via e-mail. "It also omits areas needed in the Florida standards because of requirements mandated by the LULAC Consent Decree and state law and regulations based on the Decree."

If you want to jump into this argument, there will be a public hearing at 10 a.m. Nov. 9 at Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry campus, student services building 113. There's another hearing at the University of Miami the next day.

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