Attorney Robin Gibson makes his case before the Florida Ethics Commission during a hearing last week.

Charter schools are public agencies and should be treated that way. That's the upshot of recent deliberations from the Florida Ethics Commission.

The panel spent months grappling with the case of Robin Gibson, a Lake Wales City Commissioner who also does legal work for the city's one-of-a-kind charter school system.

The city wants to donate a piece of land to one of the charters. State ethics laws would bar Gibson from voting on the land donation as a city commissioner if it would result in a "special private gain" for his legal client — the charter schools. However, an exception in the law would allow him to vote if the charter schools are a public agency.

Gibson contended the charter schools are a public agency. Among other things, he cites this line near the beginning of Florida's charter school statute:

All charter schools in Florida are public schools and shall be part of the state’s program of public education.

But Ethics Commission staff saw things differently. They drew up an opinion holding the schools should be viewed as a private entity. Staff attorney Grayden Schafer laid out several arguments during a hearing earlier this fall. Among them: The "corporate nature of charter schools" means they're not public in the same way a school board or a city government is.

What's more, Schafer said, charters are exempt from the bulk of state education regulations.

There are deregulation efforts in the works for other public schools. For example, the Legislature recently passed a law that exempts nearly a fifth of the state's district-run public schools from many state rules.

Still, the Legislature often treats charter schools differently from other public schools. State law exempts them from much of the state's ethics code for public officials. (more…)

Charter schools. Supporters are trying a different approach this year to securing facilities funding for charter schools, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Lawmakers split along party lines on a charter schools bill, reports StateImpact Florida. A new charter schools network is eyeing the site of a former fundamental middle school in Pinellas, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Parents say Polk district officials aren't telling students at a district middle school that they're eligible to attend a charter high school in Lake Wales, reports the Winter Haven News Chief. An educator returns to his roots in Cocoa to start a charter school, writes Florida Today columnist Matt Reed. The Bay County school district is reviewing a troubled charter school's finances, reports the Panama City News Herald.

Magnet schools. A magnet in Flagler aims to help student who "aren't clicking in mainstream schools." Daytona Beach News Journal.

Parent trigger. Palm Beach Post: "The goal isn’t to improve schools, it’s to improve the bottom line for for-profit charters."

Graduation requirements. Lawmakers consider alternative pathways for career education, reports the Orlando Sentinel. More from StateImpact Florida.

Parents. Parents of two students assaulted at a Pinellas school for disabled students are planning to sue, reports the Tampa Bay Times. A small group protests alleged bullying by administrators at a Deerfield Beach elementary school, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. (more…)

The community takeover of Lake Wales public schools feels so much like an educational Camelot that it is easy to forget this romance was spawned by Florida’s charter school conversion law. It’s also easy to forget that its local benefactor was a powerfully connected Democrat.

Students at Bok Academy Middle celebrate their school's designation as an Apple School of Distinction.

The account of these schools and their champion, Robin Gibson, so ably reported this week by redefinED associate editor Sherri Ackerman, is a poignant reminder that school reform and school choice can indeed start in the homes of parents who think children are not getting what they deserve. Gibson, an attorney who helped run campaigns for former Democratic governors Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham, and was once chairman of the state university Board of Regents, thought his own children and the tiny city of Lake Wales were being hampered by public schools that were treated like stepchildren. So he began an effort, in 2002, to convert them to charters.

“I don’t think there’s anything partisan about it, if you’re for a first-class education system, ’’ Gibson says today. “I think everyone’s for that. I’m an advocate for what works, and I’m an advocate for educating the entire demographic.’’

Unsurprisingly, there was resistance. But Gibson and his friends brought sophistication and enterprise to the effort, taking over five schools in 2004 and starting a sixth from scratch. The charter campuses of Lake Wales now enroll 3,800 students – ranking them ahead of 15 of the state’s school districts in size – and the academic success has put the schools on track to be designated "high performing" under charter law.

The Lake Wales conversions provide educational as well as political lessons. (more…)