TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Senate on Wednesday passed a suite of bills aimed at “deregulation” of public schools, with one measure undergoing a significant change that nixed a provision related to the state’s third-grade literacy policy after it was heavily criticized by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

The legislative package, a priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, is aimed at what she characterized as “cutting red tape” and taking burdensome regulations off the books for schools.

Included in the plan is a proposal (SB 7004) that would make changes related to state assessments and instructions. For example, the bill would remove a requirement that high-school students pass the state’s tenth-grade English-language arts exams in order to graduate. Instead, the exam would count for 30 percent of the student’s final course grade.

The measure would also do away with a requirement that students pass an Algebra I end-of-course exam in order to earn a diploma.

Bill sponsor Corey Simon, a Tallahassee Republican, has touted the deregulation effort as a way to let teachers place more focus on classroom instruction, which he has said would benefit students.

“Over the years, our education code has only grown. And there are great ideas from