Schools must seek tax increases; Tallahassee loves charters

For the second time, the Palm Beach County School Board has challenged the for-profit charter school lobby.

The board has placed on the November ballot a referendum that would raise a property tax. The revenue would go toward teacher salaries and campus safety, so the school district could comply with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act.

In 2010 and 2014, voters approved a tax of 25 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value. The money has paid for roughly 650 teachers. The owner of a homestead assessed at $300,000 pays $75.

This time, the board wants to quadruple the tax, to $1. But the net increase would be 75 cents. The owner of that $300,000 homestead would pay $225 more.

The tax at first was restricted to construction. As Tallahassee kept cutting money, legislators got generous, by their standards, and allowed districts to shift the revenue to the operating budget.

Tallahassee was especially mean this year. Legislators allocated most new education money for security and shifted $150 million from large counties to small ones. Chief Financial Officer Mike Burke said Palm Beach County schools face a net loss of $204 million.

Still, the board took a big risk. If the vote fails, the district loses not just the extra $110 million but the current $37 million. From what I’ve heard, there’s no backup plan.

The board’s other risk was not sharing the money with charter schools. Board members cited an analysis by the Greenberg Traurig law firm that money for charters can come from only three sources. One is the Florida Education Financing Program — essentially, the state budget. The others are the Florida Lottery and a school district’s current tax, not this discretionary tax.

Superintendent Donald Fennoy considered including charters, but the teachers union and some board members pushed back. Good for them. Bad schools, not just good ones, could have received that money.

Two decades ago, Florida allowed charter schools to operate, supposedly to complement traditional public schools. Non-profit organizations would target hard-to-teach students. Large businesses might form onsite charters to help employees with children.

Instead, charters have become more of an industry that competes with traditional public schools. The Legislature, which has been increasingly hostile to traditional public schools, has helped.

At first, advocates claimed that charter schools would need only per-student money that went to traditional public schools. Charters wouldn’t need any other public revenue. They would operate leaner.

Soon enough, however, charter operators began agitating for more cash. Last year, the Legislature obliged. House Bill 7069 for the first time required school districts to give charters a share of their construction money. Roughly a dozen districts challenged the law. They lost at trial but have appealed.

Under current law, school districts must approve charter schools and retain oversight. After all, it’s public money. But forprofit operators and cooperative Republican politicians have rigged the system.

In 2014 and 2015, the Palm Beach County School Board rejected two applications from Renaissance Charter Schools. It’s part of Fort Lauderdale-based Charter Schools USA. Board members said the schools didn’t meet a need and would not be innovative, as state law demands.

Renaissance, which already has six schools in the county, appealed. Last month, the company prevailed at the charterfriendly Board of Education, which unanimously overruled the denial. Board members suspect that, rather than help students with unique needs, the schools will pick off affluent students and leave nearby traditional public schools under capacity.

Charter school operators now hope to avoid that pesky oversight entirely. Revision 8 on the November ballot would end school district approval of charters. A lawsuit seeks to remove the proposal from the ballot because the language hides its intent.

Charter schools aren’t the only reason Palm Beach and Broward counties will ask voters this year to tax themselves for schools. But charters have far more political clout than traditional public schools, which educate 10 times more students.

Yet Palm Beach County School Board members pledged to help charters by giving them money for security from other sources besides the special property tax. That was the responsible thing to do.

The gesture, though, likely won’t impress the charter school lobby and legislative leaders. They will press on with its campaign to privatize public education. That’s the biggest risk to Florida.