Note: Every week the Florida Legislature is in session, we’ll provide a rundown of school choice-related discussions and developments. Look for future installments on Saturday mornings.
Last week, the Florida Board of Education approved an unprecedented charter school takeover in a persistently struggling rural school district.
Jefferson County could soon be the first district in Florida where every public school is run by a charter organization.
As the House Education Committee learned, the move would also be a rarity in Florida school turnarounds.
Districts are required to make major changes in schools that receive F’s or consecutive D’s from the state. But of 115 schools currently required to make those changes, Jefferson’s are the only turnaround schools districts plan to convert to charters.
During the committee’s hearing, several lawmakers wondered aloud why charter conversions aren’t more common. That’s another reason Jefferson will be worth watching.
Expanding Private school choice
Add Florida to the growing list of states across the country are contemplating either creating or expanding education savings account programs.
A bill by Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs and chairman of the education appropriations subcommittee, would nearly triple funding for the Gardiner Scholarship program, which is targeted at special needs children. (Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer Florida’s Gardiner Scholarships.)
During preliminary budget discussions, Simmons also said he wants to push for a “historic increase” in funding for Voluntary Prekindergarten. VPK is one of Florida’s most widely used, and most popular, private school choice programs. It’s a voucher the teachers union unequivocally supports. A majority of its providers are private. Many of them are faith-based. A growing number are public schools.
Charter school barriers
Some of the nation’s top charter school operators told a Florida House panel they are considering expansions in Florida. They also described potential barriers they’d face, from teacher certification rules to a shortage of funding for school buildings.
A pair of Senate bills, set to be heard Tuesday, would address the school facilities issue.
But tearing down one barrier they cited could require constitutional changes.
Several of the charter school groups noted they typically deal with statewide agencies that are focused on screening and overseeing charter schools. They don’t typically deal with local districts, which are the only organizations allowed to sponsor charters in Florida.
Still, Peter Bezanson of BASIS charter schools told the House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee that his network is preparing to open schools in Baton Rouge, La., that will be its first overseen by a local school board. If that experience works out, it might bode well for the network’s Florida expansion plans, whether the constitution is amended or not.
Speaking of constitutional changes…
Education reformers are well-represented in Senate President Joe Negron’s appointments to Florida’s once-every-two-decades Constitution Revision Commission. They include Patricia Levesque, CEO of the Jeb Bush-chaired Foundation for Excellence in Education, and former Senate President Don Gaetz, who also served as a district superintendent in Okaloosa County and sponsored multiple school choice-related bills during his time in the Legislature. Several other appointees have ties to education or children’s issues.
Virtual education expansion
When he pitched his budget plan, Gov. Rick Scott proposed eliminating Florida’s last remaining eligibility restrictions on virtual education.
Bills to that effect have now been filed in both the House and Senate.
