Jim Saunders / News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — A fiercely divided Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected a nearly decade-long lawsuit that challenged whether the state has properly carried out a 1998 constitutional amendment that called for ensuring a “high quality” system of public schools. The decision upheld lower-court[Read More…]
Tag: education adequacy lawsuit
Groups seek to prolong Fla. education lawsuit, revive school choice claims
The groups behind a wide-ranging lawsuit that argues Florida has violated its constitutional mandate to provide a high-quality education want to hit the reset button on the case. In court papers filed Monday with the state Supreme Court, attorneys with Southern Legal Counsel argue a trial court erred when it[Read More…]
Fla. constitutional ‘framers’ want to weigh in on education adequacy lawsuit
News Service of Florida Some members of Florida’s 1998 Constitution Revision Commission are seeking to file a brief in the Florida Supreme Court as part of a legal battle about whether the state is meeting its constitutional duty to provide a high-quality system of public schools. Describing themselves as the[Read More…]
Florida Supreme Court agrees to hear wide-ranging education lawsuit
Education activists hoped to put two decades of Florida education policy, and above all, funding, on trial. They will get their wish before the state Supreme Court. The high court agreed today, in a 4-1 decision, to hear appeals in the so-called “adequacy lawsuit.” Alan Lawson, a new appointee of Gov.[Read More…]
Fla. lawyers to high court: Keep ‘legal cloud’ off McKay Scholarship program
Florida’s school voucher program for special needs students is constitutional. If the state Supreme Court entertains arguments to the contrary, it will create an unnecessary “legal cloud” for thousands of families. That’s the argument lawyers defending the McKay Scholarship program made in court papers filed this week. Late last year, a state[Read More…]
Appeals court rejects education lawsuit, upholds Florida special needs vouchers
A three-judge panel on a Florida appellate court has tossed an 8-year-old lawsuit taking aim at 20 years of state education policy. Today’s ruling upholds an earlier trial court decision hailed as a victory for education reformers who defended school choice, testing and other policies targeted by the lawsuit. It[Read More…]
A new direction for Florida school turnarounds
This spring, Florida’s smallest school district launched an unprecedented turnaround effort led by a charter school organization. But Jefferson County schools may not be alone for long. On Monday the Florida Board of Education asked three North Florida school districts to revise plans to turn around long-struggling schools. It was[Read More…]
‘Schools of Hope’ and a judge’s ‘warning not to be complacent’
The Florida House’s effort to create new “Schools of Hope” in struggling areas has rocketed to the top of education agenda in this year’s legislative session. Its backers may find support for charter school recruitment and aggressive school turnaround efforts in interesting places, like a “warning” flagged last year by[Read More…]