School choice-friendly proposals advance through constitution revision panel

Four proposals intended to advance school choice and educational freedom won approval from the education panel of a commission working to revise Florida’s constitution.

But some of their fates could be in doubt after members of the Constitution Revision Commission with varying political backgrounds expressed reservations.

Two proposals are designed to remove perceived constitutional barriers to school choice.

The first, by Erika Donalds, a Collier County School Board member, would negate Bush v. Holmes. That 2006 Supreme Court ruling blocked one of Gov. Jeb Bush’s earliest voucher efforts. Patricia Levesque, a commissioner who served in Bush’s administration, said the Holmes decision was so bad, it’s now “used in law schools to demonstrate a very poor Supreme Court decision.”

But for that reason, she said, the commission might not need to address the ruling. She predicted if another case tested the Holmes precedent, courts would likely reverse it.

She expressed similar reservations last week about a proposal to remove the Blaine Amendment from Florida’s constitution. It would eliminate Florida’s ban on public funding going to religious institutions.

Both proposals won approval from the education committee this week. If they make their way to the full commission, it could vote to place them on the November ballot, where voters would decide whether to make them part of the state constitution.

The proposals could see revisions as they advance. The commission might also consider a more education-focused proposal by Marva Johnson, a commissioner who also chairs the state Board of Education. Her proposal would prevent the constitution from blocking public money flowing to private schools.

The commission’s education committee also approved two proposals intended to expand public school options in Florida. One, also by Donalds, would give the state the authority to sponsor public schools outside the direct control of local school boards.

Robert Haag, the president of Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, lauded the move. His organization has advocated for changes that would allow entities other than school boards to authorize charters.

“Alternative authorizers will lead to additional charter schools, which will result in greater competition and an increase in the quality of all schools, both traditional public schools and public charter schools,” he said in a statement. “We urge the full Commission to approve the recommendation to place the proposed amendment on November’s General Election ballot.”

Last week, Donalds and Levesque tweaked the proposal. It’s now about more than alternative charter authorizers.

That move drew criticism from Lynda Russell of the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union. She argued commissioners were trying to “hide the ball.” She added that if the amendment reached the ballot, groups would work to inform the public that its goal was to promote charter school expansion.

“I want us to think bigger than that,” Levesque countered. The state needs to promote “pluralism” in public education, she said, and the Legislature should have the flexibility to create new educational institutions in the future that might be hard to envision now.

Alberto Carvalho, the Miami-Dade schools superintendent, touted the growing pluralism in his district to promote a proposal that won tentative approval.

The proposal would allow school districts that consistently earn B’s or higher in the state grading system to become “charter” districts, with the same flexibility charter schools receive in state law.

Commissioners roundly praised the concept but raised questions about the details — especially as they would apply to entire districts and not just individual schools. They suggested the idea might be one for the Legislature to address, not the state constitution. Chris Sprowls, a Republican from Palm Harbor in line to become Speaker of the House in 2020, pointed to bills already advancing in his chamber.

Roberto Martinez, the sponsor of the proposal, persuaded commissioners to keep it alive while the legislation develops.


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BY Travis Pillow

Travis Pillow is Director of Thought Leadership at Step Up For Students and editor of NextSteps. He lives in Sanford, Fla. with his wife and two children. A former Tallahassee statehouse reporter, he most recently worked at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research organization at Arizona State University, where he studied community-led learning innovation and school systems' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. He can be reached at tpillow (at) sufs.org.