Florida lawmakers are looking to amend the state’s constitution to create a new, statewide body to oversee charter schools.
The proposal cleared a state House panel this morning, and would need to be approved by voters if passed by the full Legislature.
State lawmakers have previously tried to create statewide boards with the power to approve and oversee charter schools. But courts ruled the state constitution gives local school boards exclusive control over all free public schools in their geographic area.
School districts would keep their authorizing authority under HJR 759 by Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah. The amendment would add a provision requiring the State Board of Education to create “a statewide charter school authorizer to authorize, operate, control and supervise charter schools” in addition to local districts.
Backers said the plan would create an “impartial” forum, free of the legal and political wrangling that has hampered charter schools in some Florida districts, and allowed others to approve shaky operators who opened charter schools that quickly failed.
Groups like the National Association of Charter School Authorizers have recommended states like Florida create at least one non-district authorizer, which gives charter schools a new route to open, and also makes it more feasible for the state to hold individual authorizers accountable if they approve charter schools that don’t perform.
“It would create a stable, streamlined, consistent benchmark for what an approved charter should be,” Diaz said, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it would roll out the welcome mat for more schools that wouldn’t otherwise get approval. “I think what you would see in the long run is a raising of the bar,” he said.
Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura, was among the skeptics on the House K-12 Subcommittee who said creating a statewide authorizer could undermine local control.
“Charter schools are not the enemy,” Geller said, but he was wary the proposal would allow charter applicants to “forum-shop.” For that reason, he added, “I don’t think we should be taking authority from local school boards and giving it to an unelected statewide body.”
Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami countered that if the Legislature approved the plan, it would still need approval by 60 percent of statewide voters before it could become part of the constitution. That referendum, he said, could amount to a “better representation of the will of Floridians than a system of school districts that was created 100 years ago.”
