Is HB7079 the Fast Track to Privatization?

HB7079 will dramatically disrupt the current high school grade calculation and direct more schools, labeled as failing by altered school grade calculations, toward privatized options, while chipping away at local control, requiring school boards to obtain permission from our appointed Commissioner of Education before they elect to close or repurpose public school buildings.

In case you missed it, last year, Florida’s Commissioner of Education made clear his goal of transitioning 2 MILLION of Florida’s 2.8 million public school children towards private options before the end of Governor DeSantis’ first term. HB7069 will help make Corcoran’s goal achievable.

Yesterday, the bill sailed through the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee with no questions and no real debate. No one discussed the massive disruption the bill will have on school grade calculations. No one questioned why school boards should have to seek Commissioner approval before repurposing a school building. No one defended the local control of our public schools. A lobbyist for the Department of Education waived in support. The bill moved forward on an unanimous vote.

(There was one public comment by a Tallahassee Community College professor, strongly supporting the bill for something it doesn’t appear to do… but that is another story.)

Who will defend our public schools from privatization? Anyone? Anyone?

Disrupting the School Grade Calculation.

HB7079 purports to streamline testing. It does not.

The bill calls for the elimination of the Geometry End of Course exam and the 9th grade English Language Arts exam. In their place, the bill requires all 11th grade students take a state funded ACT or SAT exam, establishing “passing scores” for the exams and including passing rates in the high school grade calculation. The bill also mandates that all students take a Civics Literacy exam in 12th grade. So far, scores on the Civics Literacy assessment will NOT be used in the school grade calculation (not yet, that is).

So, to be clear, the bill removes two mandated exams and adds two mandated exams, resulting in the same number of mandated tests, not fewer. While some will celebrate the use of established, nationally normed assessments in place of state created assessments, there are significant concerns regarding using SAT/ACT for accountability (read here) and offering districts the choice between two different assessments for state wide accountability purposes is problematic, to say the least. Eliminating 9th grade assessments will make calculation of leaning gains impossible. Learning gains are currently worth 40% of the high school grade calculation and are considered essential for assessing progress in our most at risk students. If the Department of Education wants to eliminate assessments (a good idea) then they must be required to re-evaluate the impact on the entire school grade/accountability system. Without a real evaluation of the accountability system, we should expect complete disruption of the high school grade calculation, placing schools serving low income and high needs students at a significant disadvantage.

Changing the Definition of “Failure”

HB7079 changes the definition of a “deficient and failing school” to any school earning a single grade below a “C,” and requiring intensive intervention and support strategies following the earning of a single “D” (rather than 2 consecutive D grades). Such schools must create a district turnaround plan and if the school does not achieve a subsequent “C” or higher, the district must choose from three options:

• “Repurpose” the school as one or more charter schools, with  governing boards with “demonstrated records of effectiveness”
• Enter into a performance contract with an external operator.
• Close the school and reassign students to another school with a grade of C or higher. This option, if HB7079 passes, will require specific approval by the Commissioner of Education.

Also, if a school earns a grade of “D”or “F” within 4 years of improving to a grade of “C” or higher, the bill requires the school to select a turnaround option other than the district-managed option (i.e. proceed directly to privatization). Moving in and out of turnaround status is common in high-needs schools so lots of schools can be privatized in this way.

Hastening Privatization via Turnaround 

Fully understanding HB7079 requires a brief history lesson.

During the 2017 legislative session, then Speaker Corcoran championed “Schools of Hope” (HB7069), a program designed to entice out of state corporate charter chains to come to Florida, presumably to offer a better alternative to students in struggling schools and low income neighborhoods. Arguing they had already “tried everything else” to help these schools, which had repeatedly scored low on state mandated assessments and Florida’s school grade system, lawmakers (like then Rep. Manny Diaz Jr.) declared an “emergency” claiming “we need to address these students now.” HB7069 identified failing schools as those scoring below a C two or more years in a row, eliminated the “district-managed” turnaround plan option (which had seen some success previously) and gave struggling schools 3 choices:

• close the school and reassign the students to another school
• close the school and re-open as a charter school with a “demonstrated record of effectiveness”
• contract with an external operator

To date, we are still waiting to see success from these School of Hope operators. IDEA Charter Schools, a corporate charter chain from Texas, was approved as a Schools of Hope operator in 2018 and has had strong support from charter supporters like former Florida Board of Education member, Gary Chartrand. IDEA has plans to open charters in Tampa and Jacksonville, something Chartrand called “a gift to Jacksonville.”

[Here’s is an interesting aside: Academica’s Somerset Academy is also a “Schools of Hope” operator. Somerset qualified as a “Schools of Hope” operator because of its involvement in Florida’s first private takeover of a public school system, in Jefferson County. After initial success raising Jefferson/Somerset Charter Elementary’s school grade to a “C” in 2018, the 2019 grade dropped back to a “D”. Ironically, according to the new HB7079, such performance would require a public school to immediately choose a new turnaround plan… should this charter school be required to hand this school over to another provider? or back to the control of their local school board?]

Last spring, at the May Florida Board of Education meeting, Commissioner Corcoran lost his cool when Duval superintendent, Dr. Diana Greene, explained her intentions of closing a struggling middle school (after failing to improve its grade under management by an external operator) and repurposing it as an elementary school. You can read the whole story here or watch their exchange here (at 2:26:00)

Rather than repurposing Northwestern Middle School [which was allowed by f.s. 1008.33(4)(b)], Commissioner Corcoran wanted Duval to hand their school over to IDEA Charter Schools, specifically. The commissioner was furious, calling Dr. Greene’s testimony “a travesty of justice” and vowing to ask the legislature for emergency powers allowing the state to override duly elected school boards and “literally take over” districts that refuse to hand their public schools over to his charter chain du jour.

HB7079 will give the commissioner the emergency powers he was seeking, requiring his express approval before school districts are allowed to close or repurpose their public schools. This is direct attack on local control. For education advocates who were around during the “Parent Trigger” battle, this sounds like “Commissioner Trigger,” no parents necessary.

Who Is Standing Up for Our Public Schools?

HB7079 passed through its first committee, the PreK-12 Innovation subcommittee unanimously (18 yes, 0 no votes). Yesterday, the PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee members didn’t ask a single question and voted 8-0 to move the bill forward.

Public Education parent advocates have just one question: Who is going to defend our public schools from privatization?

---