Two South Florida charter schools are challenging a new state rule that raises the academic bar for state facilities funding.
In a complaint filed this week with the state Division of Administrative Hearings, the Florida Association for Independent Public Schools argues the state overstepped its authority by denying facilities funding to charter schools that received consecutive D grades through the state’s A-F accountability system.
Two of the association’s members — Aspira Raul Arnaldo Martinez Charter School and the Miami Community Charter Middle School — are joining the complaint. Both received charter school capital outlay funding in the past, including a combined total of more than $200,000 during the 2015-16 school year.
The schools say the state withheld their facilities funding for the 2016-17 school year in anticipation of new rules, approved late last month by the state Board of Education.
Unlike district-run schools, charter schools in Florida rely on annual appropriations by the Florida Legislature to pay for facilities.
Earlier this year, lawmakers overhauled the formula for charter school facilities funding, steering a larger share of money to schools where 75 percent or more children are economically disadvantaged, or 25 percent or more children have special needs. The new law also allows charters to receive facilities funding after two years rather than three.When the state board approved the new formula at its September meeting, it also made a change that keeps state money from going to charters that received two straight D grades.
State officials said the change is intended to ensure state funding goes only to schools that serve students well and noted the new standard would affect a relative handful of the hundreds of charter schools that receive state facilities funding.
The law requires the state to give capital outlay funding only to charters with “satisfactory” student achievement, but the Florida Department of Education has to decide what that means.
The affected schools argue the change “represents an invalid exercise of the Division’s legislative authority because they impose qualifications that do not exist in the statute and unlawfully narrow the scope of eligibility” for state facilities funding. The schools note that they’re losing funding based in part on letter grades issued during the 2014-15 school year, which was regarded as an “informational baseline” for school accountability.
Charter school facilities funding has been a perennial legislative battle in Florida, and charter school critics have recently seized on reports that the state gave some capital outlay money to schools that later closed, sometimes for poor academic performance. Florida charter schools that receive consecutive F grades from the state can be shut down automatically.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said the state does not usually comment on pending litigation.
