A proposal to let students choose any public school that has room is on the move again in the Florida Legislature.
This year, the plan is tied to an overhaul of the state’s high school sports regulations. But unlike other bills in the state’s perennial legislative battles over athletics, SB 684, dubbed “choice in sports,” has gotten a go-ahead from the Florida High School Athletics Association.
Representatives for the group said they could go along with the changes in the bill — which, among other things, would allow private schools to participate in the sports governing body on a sport-by-sport basis — before the Senate Education Committee passed the measure unanimously.
Like last year’s public-school choice effort, the bill drew logistical concerns from some school districts. Vern Pickup-Crawford, a lobbyist for Palm Beach County schools, said districts are in the process of allocating spots in their choice programs now, but the plan wouldn’t take effect until over the summer. Crawford said that could cause headaches before the start of school.
One change in this public-school choice plan: Schools would be required give preference to students, like those from military families, who are often forced by circumstances to change schools.
Bill sponsor Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is the former superintendent of Okaloosa County Schools, where he said more than 40 percent of students were in some way tied to Eglin Air Force Base. Other children all over the state, he said, are in foster care, or caught in the middle of parental custody battles.
“At the beginning of the year, a student may be in a different school than they are on Thanksgiving, and a different school than they are at spring break,” he said. As long as those students are accommodated, he added, other parents should have the freedom to pick the best public schools for their children.
“The idea is that, if there’s space available, they’ll come,” he said.
Other versions of the public-school choice proposal and the high-school sports overhaul have also been filed in the House and Senate. In other words, it’s not yet clear how these measures will come together.
