Legislative Whack-A-Mole

We are just 4 weeks into the 60 day long, 2019 Florida Legislative session and bills detrimental to public education are moving forward at a rapid pace and from every direction. From arming teachers, to sharing local revenue with private entities, bypassing school district approval of corporate charter chains, and expanding vouchers to private religious school (and directly funding them with your local property taxes), the privatizers/”Corporate Ed Reformers” are on a roll. With three new conservative Florida Supreme Court Justices, one who previously served as Betsy DeVos’ attorney, leadership seems to be intent on pushing the envelope of privatization of public education and challenging Articles I and IX of the Florida Constitution, with little or no regard for the 2.7 million school children who are depending on the Free and Appropriate Public Education they are guaranteed by federal law.

If you care about public education in Florida, this would be a good year to take action, voice your concerns to your representative and stand up for public schools. There are several groups that are regularly issuing pro-public education “calls to action,” like Fund Education Now or Florida Education Association Action Center, to name a few.

You can follow the movement of House or Senate bills by using the Senate Tracker: https://www.flsenate.gov/Tracker/Signup

You can find your state representative, along with their contact information, here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find

You can watch committee meetings live, or via an extensive video library, at thefloridachannel.org.

It is rumored that the Legislature is racing through the session with the intent to complete the 2019 session by Easter, a full 2 weeks early.  The House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee has already held its last meeting, leaving many Education bills assigned to it, many proposed by Democrats, dead for this year.

The time to act is now. What are you waiting for?

Here are a smattering of bills that threaten our schools, in one way or another.

More Guns

SB7030/HB7093 are in response to the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission’s initial report. Both bills seek to expand the Guardian Program, allowing firearms training for teachers, who would then be allowed to carry guns in the classroom. These bills also address threat identification/reporting and school hardening, two very important discussions that have been completely overshadowed by the bill’s controversial expansion of the Guardian program to allowing the arming of teachers. The bill also gives the Commissioner of Education (currently charter school and voucher advocate, Richard Corcoran) authority to identify and sanction superintendents and school boards who have not satisfied requirements to “the maximum extent provided under law.” Such oversight authority could increase the micromanagement from Tallahassee and further erode local control of district schools.

More Privatization

SB7070 creates Family Empowerment Scholarship (Voucher) in FEFP, Funds Best and Brightest bonuses in FEFP, allows a Hope Scholarship redo… this is the massive Senate Education train that pairs much needed school construction regulatory relief and the creation of Community School programs for struggling neighborhoods, with an ill-advised teacher bonus program (in lieu of increased funding for salaries) and a massive expansion of private school vouchers, to be funded directly from local property taxes. Read more here. 

HB7095 (Aloupis): Expands Schools of Hope (enticing out of state charter chains to establish networks in Florida) and Florida Opportunity Zones, allows funding for executive directors, regional directors, leasing… this is the massive real estate grab (at tax payer expense) that was outlined in Governor DeSantis’ implementing bill. The bill would allow “Hope Operator” charter chains to open in “opportunity zones” regardless of whether the local public schools were failing… there are “Opportunity Zones” in EVERY school district in Florida, even the high performing, A+ districts., greatly expanding potential locations for these so-called Schools of Hope charter schools.

SB1470 (Diaz) changes the name of the Charter School Appeal Commission to the Charter School Commission, allowing Hope Operators and other qualified corporate charter chains to bypass local school board approval of charter schools by going directly to the state for approval.  The local school districts will still be required to provide services and oversight to these schools, which will share local funding with the district. This is a direct attack on local control by duly elected school boards and paves the way for alternate charter school authorization that was sought in the ill-fated 2018 ballot proposal, Amendment 8. 

Attacks of Science/More Religion in Schools

HB195, filed by Representative Daniels, would require all public (high) schools to offer an elective course studying the Bible. The sponsor specifically does not want such a course to include other great religious books or discuss comparative world religions. This bill has moved through House committees but does not have a Senate companion. Recall, however, that last session, Rep. Daniel’s controversial “In God We Trust” bill ended up attached to the final education train bill (HB7055) and signed into law, despite never having a companion in the Senate so anything could happen…

Representative Hill’s HB855 (SB1454), written by the Florida Citizen’s Alliance (a group intent on suing local districts for “objectional material” which they claim “indoctrinates” children and destroys “family values”), has been watered down by amendments removing much of its initial focus on pornography and “deviate sexual intercourse” but does include increased regulatory oversight of supplemental instructional materials and seeks to ensure the ability for the public to review (and then sue for their removal?) “library materials, books included on summer reading lists, and books available for purchase at book fairs.” 

Senator Baxley’s Academic Standards bill, SB330 would require                    “Controversial theories and concepts” to be “taught in a factual, objective, and balanced manner.” This bill is yet to be heard in committee and does not have a companion.

SB770/HB661 seek to expand career and technical offerings (which were lost when cash-strapped districts were required to focus on No Child Left Behind and other state-mandated testing requirements). These bills, in addition to establishing apprenticeship programs, etc., allow certain industry certifications to replace requirements for basic science and math courses. While the need for Career and Technical Ed certainly exists, one should question whether allowing a student to substitute an “industry certification in 3D rapid prototype printing” for high school Geometry (even if it is “equivalent in rigor”) is wise for the long term career potential of anyone interested in 3D prototyping. More educator input is needed on these bills.

Further Defunding:

HB 5 (DiCeglie) would make it more difficult for local communities to pass school funding referenda by requiring 2/3 vote to authorize local discretionary sales surtaxes.

SB562 – Originally written to exempt certain homesteaded property owners, 65 and older, from paying taxes for local public schools, the sponsor of the bill (Manny Diaz, Jr.) has admitted he has no idea what the fiscal impact of the bill would be. Currently, the state requires local school boards collect a prescribed “Local Required Effort” via a property tax millage. If some property owners are exempted, then the rest of the property owners would be left to pick up the slack or the school’s would go defunded.

HB9197 (Altman)  – Appropriations request, by Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, to appropriate $4 million annually, from the Education budget, to Step Up For Students to provide security, including armed personnel for Accredited Nonpublic (Private) Schools. While school safety should be a priority, we question why the safety and security of our children (whether they attend public or private schools) isn’t a Law Enforcement funding issue.

SB1028 (Hutson)  Requires local school districts to share local taxes raised by referendum, in a proportional manner, with non district managed, choice schools. This bill is yet to be heard before a committee.

Again, What Are You Waiting For?

This is by no means a complete list of the 2019 bills that might negatively affect public schools in Florida, but they give a pretty good idea of the range of attacks. Please contact your legislators and demand they support our public schools.