Category Archives: Florida House

State Responds: “Log Rolling is OK”

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The State was quick to respond to the Leon County judge’s decision to remove Amendment 8 from the ballot. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a brief to the Florida Supreme Court to reject proposals to remove six amendments, including Amendment 8, to Florida’s constitution from the ballot. A specific appeal to the LWVF case was also filed.

The Tallahassee circuit court rendered a decision today that Amendment 8 was misleading the public by combining multiple proposals and using vague language. There are other amendments that use the same tactic.

Separate cases have been filed arguing that six of the proposed constitutional amendments also combined multiple measures so that voters would have to approve all proposals or none in any given amendment.

Bondi stated that combining multiple proposals into one did not violate the single subject rule. This rule, she contends, does not apply to the legislature or to the Constitutional Revision Commission(CRC) because both provide public hearings. The CRC supposedly has safeguards against deception, but the League and other public interest groups have decried the inability of the CRC to follow its own procedures.

Read the State’s argument here.

What the Supreme Court decides is important to the transparency of our political system. If the decision is to let the public vote on these duplicitous measures, then November 6th becomes a critical date for the future of Florida’s educational system. Will we move forward with dismantling our public schools? The voters will decide. They must be well informed.

More Noise About Civics

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Erika Donalds, the Constitutional Revision Commission member behind Amendment 8 has fired another salvo to support her political agenda. Donalds is the founder of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members. This is the group that pulled out of the Florida School Board Association to form its own pro choice group. Her group has charged that some districts are gaming the Civics test requirement to improve school grades. Pam Stewart, Commissioner of Education, states that the districts are doing nothing wrong by giving students the option to sit the Civics test in either seventh or eighth grade.

The political motive behind this complaint is underscored by statements from a group of conservative Florida legislators: Baxley, Fischer, Bileca, Rommel and Sullivan.

Amendment 8 is about the promotion of the views of a particular group of people, not the best interests of students. Amendment 8: Don’t Take the Bait. This is a stealth attack by members of a clearly defined group.

What’s Going On With Civics Education?

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Amendment 8 to the Florida Constitution includes a requirement for K12 civics education which the Florida Department of Education already requires for seventh grade. There’s also a muddy mess about a post secondary civics literacy requirement based on HB 7069. The law requires an existing exam to measure civics literacy for a course that does not exist. A faculty committee was formed to develop the competencies, but nothing has come of it up to now.

An analysis of the requirement was prepared by the House staff.

OPPAGA studied the civics literacy option and found no general agreement on what civics literacy is. The topics are broad: U.S. and State History, economics, U.S. Government, Economics, and of course the U.S. Constitution.

Florida Politics published an article by Bob Halladay who questions the legality of the effort to build the college level test that is currently under contract with the University of Central Florida. The law requires the course to administer an ‘existing’ test, but there isn’t one. Given the number and courses involved, some argue that the U.S. Immigration Test should be the model for a course.

It is difficult to fathom what the sudden interest in civics literacy is all about. One wonders if it is related to an earlier proposal to require instruction in economic theories behind anti government ideologies. One think we know for sure….we do not need another test. The current seventh grade civics test has lots of facts no doubt soon forgotten.

Leon County: Latest Charter Battleground

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Some things are just inane. Leon County schools are over enrolled, but the State will not approve a new school. It is all about how space is now counted by the legislature. Should a gym count as a classroom??

What is so disgusting is that the State would allow two new charter schools in the area that the Leon County schools do not want. The reason is clear. Charters syphon off funding and hurt existing schools. Read Roseanne Wood’s op ed here. It is time to stop this. There is not enough money to support private, charter, and public schools. Our constitution says “a unified system of free public schools’. This is anything but unified and for many, not even free.

Judge Dismisses One HB 7069 Lawsuit

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The Broward County lawsuit over HB 7069 and Schools of Hope was dismissed by Judge Cooper in the Leon County Court. No written decision is yet available. Judge Cooper, according to the Miami Herald, ruled that districts did not have the constitutional authority to direct facility funding that is locally generated. Thus, charters could share in locally generated funding. In addition, the law allows charter systems to be their own Local Education Agency which makes them independent from local school boards. Schools of Hope which are charter take overs of low performing public schools were ruled to be outside local district control. The bill also includes a state designated standard charter contract that has no locally inserted provisions. Districts cannot amend the contract to designate local needs be observed. Finally, some changes in local district control of federal funds for disadvantaged students remain.

While Judge Cooper seemed sympathetic to the school districts’ case, he said his court did not have jurisdiction to overturn the law passed by the legislature, even if, as a local observer reported, the law was “stupid”. The expectation is that the case will be appealed to a higher court.

For a brief review of the HB 7069 lawsuits see: How many HB 7069 lawsuits are there?.

Politicians’ Wives On Charter Boards

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Erika Donalds, wife of Florida Representative Byron Donalds, was appointed by Governor Scott to the Constitutional Revision Commission. She is behind the current proposed amendments to Florida school boards and charter school districts. Behind the scenes, there is much more telling information about her support for charter schools. In this article by Emily Mahoney in the Tampa Bay Times, you can see her ties to Richard Corcoran’s wife Ann who also is tied to charter schools. As I mentioned in a previous post, these aren’t just any charter schools.

Yet another plot against public schools

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The Gainesville Sun editor, Nathan Crabbe, reports harassment by the Florida legislature. Buried in HB/SB 7087 is language requiring districts who place sales tax or property tax proposals on the ballot, have an OPPAGA approved audit. Districts are already required to have audits and get approval for new facilities. This measure impacts districts, like Alachua County that has a proposed facilities one-half cent sales tax. The chair of the sales tax campaign, an insurance agent, smells a conspiracy.

Other counties also will be affected. Alachua will move forward; they cannot do much else. The schools are over crowded and the facilities need repair. The constant cuts in school district funding for schools has created a crisis. Curious that the attorneys representing the State in the Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit argued that if districts needed money, they could raise it locally. Then, the legislature makes even that more difficult. Will the State approve the request before the measure is put on the ballot?

Newpoint Charter Owner Guilty

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An Ohio businessman, Steven Kunkemoeller, and the owner of Florida’s Newpoint charter school chain conspired to get kick backs and were accused of organized fraud in the management of 15 Florida charters. Kunkemoeller was found guilty today and faces up to 60 years in prison. Marcus May, the Newpoint charter owner, will face trial soon. You can read the story here.

This type of criminal activity is not unusual in the charter sector. It is a function, in part, of the privatization movement in which oversight and regulation are viewed as stifling innovation. Clearly, these innovative business practices can lead to jail time. The Florida legislature failed once again this year to pass proposed legislation to curb charter profiteering. The Senate had inserted a measure in SB7055 to control real estate and other purchasing self interest machinations, but the House deleted it. How bad does it have to get before the children’s interest replaces charter management self interest?

Political Maneuvers on HB 7055

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Sometimes things are not what they seem. Politics versus policies take many forms. In the case of SB 7055, there was a dramatic shift in Senate education policy last week. The Senate version took a much more responsible approach to educational choice by including controls for charter school corporate profiteering and private school expansion. These measures are now gone and replaced by House priorities to expand private school scholarships and charters. Some measures, however, were just moved around.

The big shift was in the Senate version of SB7055 that included the mental health program. The Senate deleted the program and moved it to the gun safety bill SB 7026. SB 7026 passed the Senate yesterday and goes to the House next. Many oppose the firearms policies in the bill, but politics and horse trading go hand in hand. So, maybe the Senate collapse was a trade for a mental health program in schools?

IS THIS JUST A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN…You know trading away your soul?

If you do not like the horses being traded, or whom they carry, then it is time to get a new crop of horses and replace those in the saddles. Some of us are organizing to do just that.