Toss sneak attack on public schools

A constitutional amendment that would harm public education in Florida shouldn’t be on the November ballot. A Tallahassee judge can make that happen.

Last week, the Florida League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a proposal from the state Constitution Revision Commission. The lawsuit correctly alleges that the ballot title and summary of Revision 8, which is all the public would see, would mislead voters and conceal the proposal’s true intent.

Revision 8 actually is a package of three proposals. It would set eight-year term limits for school board members and encourage the teaching of civics. Attorney Ron Meyer, who represents the plaintiffs, said the wording “shows off the sparkly things and hides the mud.”

That mud is the third item: a change that would allow the state, not local school districts, to authorize charter schools. Commission members surely put that item last in hopes of sneaking it past voters.

The title says only: “School Board Term Limits and Duties; Public Schools.” The ballot summary says: “The amendment maintains a school board’s duties to public schools it establishes, but permits the state to operate, control, and supervise public schools not established by the school board.”

As Meyer said, that wording “clouds the issue.” Voters would not understand how significant the change would be and the threat it poses to traditional public schools.

Under current law, local school districts must authorize local charter schools, which use public money but are often operated by for-profit companies. Current law also says local school districts must supervise charter schools. Ample reporting in Broward and Palm Beach counties has shown the need for such oversight, given the mismanagement of some charter schools that have misspent public money.

If this proposal were to pass, however, school districts could only supervise existing charter schools. They would have no say-so in the creation of new charter schools, even if those schools would be unnecessary or fail to offer the sort of innovative teaching today’s rules require.

This sneak attack comes one year after the Legislature, in House Bill 7069, began requiring school districts to share construction and maintenance money with charters. Supporters had said for years that charters wouldn’t need such money. A separate lawsuit challenging HB 7069 lost at trial and is on appeal.

The stealth amendment represents the latest attempt to privatize public education in Florida. The political tracks are clear.

HB 7069 was the top priority for House Speaker Richard Corcoran, RLand O’Lakes, during the 2017 legislative session. Corcoran’s wife founded a charter school in Pasco County.

In 2017, Corcoran made Collier County School Board member Erika Donalds one of his nine appointments to the Constitution Revision Commission. Donalds helped to start a charter school in Naples. The school just got permission to expand in Martin County with help from a Donalds ally on the school board.

As a commission member, Donalds sponsored the charter school proposal and approved the wording. In an op-ed for The Miami Herald, she made a patriotic argument for ending public accountability.

“Like most Floridians,” she wrote, “I believe in local control. But local control should never trump individual rights – including the right of parents to access the best possible schools for their children. Parents should hold the ultimate local control.”

In fact, this amendment is about total control for charter schools. Operators already can appeal to a state panel if a school district denies their application. The Legislature would likely create a rubber-stamp approval process for any charter school and remove requirements for standardized tests. For-profit companies could then set up in affluent areas and pick off students.

After the commission approved Revision 8, supporters opened a political action committee called 8 is Great. Not surprisingly, the first contributions came from entities tied to charter schools. The Republican Party of Florida also donated $100,000 last week.

Donalds’ background underscores the political bent behind Revision 8. She co-founded and was president of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members, which positions itself separately from the Florida School Board Association that advocates for traditional public schools. As a school board member, Donalds said schools could teach intelligent design and evolution “alongside each other without violating the Constitution.”

The Constitution Revision Commission does not have to follow the single-subject rule required of petition drives for constitutional proposals. But it does have to fairly inform voters “in clear and unambiguous language” about the “chief purpose of the revision.”

Revision 8 does not even mention charter schools. Backers want the appeal of term limits and the feel-good idea of civics education to hide that chief purpose. The courts should see through this ploy and strike Revision 8 from the ballot.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Andy Reid and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.