Representative Bill Heller serves on the House Schools and Learning Council and is the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Post-Secondary Education. He also serves on the Committee on Agribusiness, the Committee on Utilities and Telecommunications, the Select Committee on Autism and Developmental Disorders, and the Select Committee to Protect Personal Information.
During the 2006 and 2008 legislative sessions, Representative Heller was instrumental passing many important pieces of legislation.
In 2006, he sponsored HB 169/SB 282, legislation aimed at reducing drunk driving. This legislation prevents bars from forcing patrons to purchase a minimum amount of alcoholic beverages. The bill promotes the use of designated drivers and makes our roads safer. It passed unanimously out of both houses and was signed into law by the Governor.
Representative Heller was a valuable leader on the 2008 FCAT reform bill. Using his decades of education experience, he and the Schools and Learning Council promoted a reduced emphasis on the FCAT and took a first big step in passing much-needed reforms to our school accountability system. Florida school grades are currently based on FCAT scores alone, but with the passage of this bill, high schools will be graded on a wide range of academic indicators, including graduation rates, Advanced Placement scores and SAT scores. Representative Heller is continuing to work on additional reforms, especially at the elementary and middle school levels. One of his top priorities is creating a school accountability system that effectively ensures our students are learning but does not handicap our teachers by requiring them to “teach the test” or penalize struggling schools because of their FCAT scores.
As a member of the Select House Committee on Autism & Developmental Disorders, Representative Heller helped craft bipartisan legislation to create health insurance benefits for autistic children and developmental disability therapies. Statistics show that one in every 150 children develops an autism spectrum disorder, jumping to one in every 94 for boys.
