Charter Bills Update: Florida 2015 Legislative Session

Charter school bills are moving again, at least in the Florida House.  The bills are all beginning to look more alike.  The charter school amendmlegislation1ent to HB 1145, filed this week, dropped the requirement for districts to share public school capital outlay millage with charters.  This is good news for financially strapped public schools.

It added a provision stating that charters have a financial audit that does not reveal any of the financial emergency conditions in 218.503(1) for the most recent year. On the surface, this does not sound like a transparency move.

There are some differences in provisions between the House and Senate relating to charter advisory board conflict of interest rules.  The Senate bill 1552 looks stronger than the other bills.  They just require board members to be identified and two meetings be held in the district.  Advisory boards controlled by their management companies cannot be very independent.  Details follow.

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Ethics in Education Conference: Miami

ethicsI am looking forward to attending this conference on May 1-2, not just because I am a panelist.  The conference is sponsored by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.  Co-sponsors are the University of Miami and Miami-Dade Public Schools.  My panel is:

School Choice And Public Resources: What Are The Limits For Charter Schools And Private School Subsidies?

The other panels are very interesting as well.  They cover everything from teaching to the test,  social issues e.g. immigration, bullying, policing as well as oversight and accountability.

Details on the program and location follow.  If possible, join us.

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More Local Property Taxes to Charters? Say No!

school-295210_1280There is a snake in the grass in the Florida legislature.  We need to point it out to our local delegations before it bites us.  This is the amendment to the House charter bill HB 7037.  It was offered by Rep. Erik Fresen who is under investigation by the U.S. DOE for conflict of interest related to his real estate company and the Mater Charter Schools.  We need to contact everyone we can; the legislative session is nearly over, and we do not want this to appear on the last day.

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Charter Schools Unsupervised

door-171984_1280“Charter Schools Unsupervised” by the Sun Sentinel is a great interactive site.  It has maps, charts and videos that explain how laws need to change.  Fifty-six charters have closed in the past five years alone.  Florida can do better.  The Senate education bill does require that charter advisory boards be independent of their management companies.  It also requires background checks for operators. It is about time.  These are steps in the right direction, but much more needs to be done.

Florida League of Women Voters Positions on School Choice

lwv florida logoSome of you have been asking about the Florida League positions on school choice.  The positions were formally adopted at the convention last year.  They will be included in Study and Action when it is updated.  The League strongly opposes tax credit scholarships.  The Florida League  supports Florida’s constitution provision for a uniform, efficient, high quality public school system.  While charter schools are legally public schools, the League supports stronger district management and oversight to make them better conform to constitutional requirements.  Specific principles and positions are listed below.

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“Togetherness”, the Anti-Community’s Community?

Divided Community

Divided Community

Now television is in the charter fray.  In this review of the series “Togetherness”, Joshua Leibner in Salon magazine describes its charter school subplot.  Are neighborhood schools the “bogeyman for all of society’s ills?, he asks.  He wonders if for white people of their education and class,  all the education reform nonsense might feel right for minority kids–but just not for their children?  The setting for the series is in Eagle Rock in Los Angeles.  This is a real place where both Leibner and the show’s producers actually live.  Is the show fact or fiction? Continue reading

LWV Presentation to the Florida Senate Education Committee Workshop on Charter Schools

photoSue close upThe Senate Education Committee held a workshop on March 11th on proposed bills for charter schools. The list of bills was organized by topic. Sue Legg, Chair of the League’s Education Committee, made a presentation to the committee. She focused on three of the Committee’s topics.

Here is an edited version of her remarks.

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Florida Senate Education Committee Workshop on Charters

bill montfordjohn leggIf you want to take the pulse of charter school legislative priorities, watch this video.  It is yesterday’s Florida Senate Education Committee workshop on charters.  They have a long list of proposed bills to consider, and they are looking for ways to combine bills in order to move forward.

The two most comprehensive bills were from Senator Montford and Senator Legg.    Continue reading