Florida lawmakers look to expand school, sports choices

Parents unhappy with their public school’s academic or athletic offerings could transfer their children to another campus anywhere in the state, if a series of proposals by key members of the Florida Legislature become law.

The collection of bills aims to give parents greater authority to select schools they think are best for their children, whether they are across town or even across county lines, supporters say. Similar measures died in the regular session last year.

“You don’t have to move to make the best educational decision for your child,” said Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort

Myers, sponsor of one of the bills (SB 886).

But the proposals worry some school board members, administrators and coaches. Unfettered choice could hurt school finances, complicate building plans and lead to families cherrypicking schools based on athletics alone, they say.

Some of the measures would allow high school students to immediately join sports teams after transferring to a new school, even in midseason.

And home-schooled students and those attending charter or private schools where sports are not an option could pick any public high school for athletics.

The sports-choice provisions could create powerhouse programs, undermining teams at surrounding schools, said Jay Getty, athletic director and cross country and track coach at Oviedo’s Hagerty High School in Seminole County.

“Having a balance within a district of quality athletic programs is great for everybody,” he said.

The Florida High School Athletic Association, which oversees sports in Florida schools, also is worried about any provision that would allow midseason transfers, said Roger Dearing, the association’s executive director. In addition, the majority of FHSAA schools are opposed to the open-enrollment system — as proposed in a House bill (HB 7039) — that would allow students not in public school to join any public school’s team.

“That’s more than just letting kids play a sport they love,” Dearing said. “That’s allowing people to create dynasties.”

Under current rules, student athletes who transfer to a new high school cannot join a team if the season is under way.

Home-schooled, charterschool and private-school students can play sports only at the public high school they are zoned to attend.

The bills push the Legislature’s decade-long interest in providing families options outside a traditional, zoned public school and in curbing the authority of the FHSAA. Some lawmakers see the association as too powerful and its rules too cumbersome and incompatible with school choice.

Most Florida school dis- tricts now provide some options for students to attend school outside their zoned school, though almost all are within their district.

The Seminole school system, for example, has about 15 transfer options open to high school students.

More than 3,400 students are using them this school year, district figures show, or about 16 percent of the school district’s traditional high school population.

“We provide many, many choice opportunities for our students,” said Michael Blasewitz, Seminole’s executive director overseeing high schools.

But some lawmakers want far wider options.

State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, sponsor of SB 684, said under his bill, “any parent can enroll any child in any public school anywhere in Florida so long as that school has space available.”

Gaetz said the sports provisions are included to help out children in military families and in foster care, among others, who are sometimes forced to move during the school year.

Tampa parent Nina Cheery told lawmakers in Tallahassee that such a law would have saved her from pulling her children from a Pasco County school after her family was hit with financial hardships, lost their home and had to move out of the county.

Instead, they were forced to leave the school they loved, Cherry said, adding to their feeling of upheaval. “I would have loved to be able to keep my children at the public school where we were at,” she added.

But Christine Moore, an Orange County School Board member, said wideopen choice could dilute the power of local taxes, such as those Orange voters have approved for school construction, if lots of out-of-county students moved in. The tax provides about $1,500 extra per Orange student.

An enroll-anywhere policy also could throw off school building plans, especially in fast-growing suburbs, she said, while the sports provisions could make high schools students “free agents,” which would be unhealthy for both teenagers and their schools.

“What’s going to happen to that neighborhood, community pride if everybody is just a free agent?”

All four bills have earned favorable votes at committee stops and one, HB 7039, is ready for a floor vote. The various proposals could be merged or dropped as the Legislature continues its work in Tallahassee.