by Doug Tuthill and Travis Pillow

The recent Florida adequacy lawsuit decision by Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds provides a window into the power struggles within public education and the constitutional contradictions that need to be resolved if public education is to achieve excellence and equity.

The lawsuit, which Reynolds dismissed, was originally designed to force state government to provide more funding to school districts. It was expanded last year to curtail school choice programs such as charter schools, tax credit scholarships for low-income children and vouchers for special needs students – an action that would reduce parents’ influence on how funds are spent on behalf of their children. What these choice programs have in common is that they provide students access to schools that are not owned and managed by school districts and controlled by teacher union collective bargaining agreements.

While the case was spearheaded by a public-interest law firm on behalf of a few parents and activists, the alliances that emerged in the witness lists and courtroom testimony of this Florida case are being replicated in political and legal battles across the country. State governments and low-income parents on one side. School boards, district administrators and teacher unions on the other. Their disagreements revolve around the distribution of power.

Most parents want to have more control over how their children are educated, while school districts and teacher unions oppose this decentralization, fearing it will diminish their power.

This raises fundamental questions, both for advocates who argued Florida’s educational system is constitutionally inadequate, and for those who felt vindicated by Reynolds’ findings that the situation is getting better.

If improving educational outcomes is the goal, should the state constitution empower the system, by giving more money and power to districts and their administrators, or should it empower parents and students directly? Should our constitution define a high-quality education solely as the government’s obligation, or should it be defined, first and foremost, as a right of every parent and child?

Florida’s constitution distributes power over public education in contradictory ways. Article IX, Section 1 states that public education is the “paramount duty of the state” and that “Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education.” Article IX, Section 4 requires counties to have local school boards, and that these boards “operate, control and supervise all free public schools within the school district.” (more…)