The Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday moved forward with the House's HB 7055, an education measure that contains provisions ranging from the creation of the Hope Scholarship program to mental health funding for Florida schools.

The panel accepted an amendment that would require specific membership requirements for teachers' unions.

The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, would result in teachers' unions losing state certification if their membership falls below 50 percent of the employees they represent in the collective-bargaining process, according to
News4Jax, NSF.

A similar provision was stripped out of the bill last week in the Senate Education Committee. But Baxley's amendment was approved Tuesday in the Appropriations Committee in a largely party-line vote, with Democrats calling it a "union busting" measure.

The bill now moves to the Senate floor with the changes adopted by upper chamber committees of reference.