Mandating Studies and Ignoring Results Because They Don’t Advance Your Agenda – The Real Florida Way

At the 4/17/23 House  Appropriations Committee meeting, Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Polk, sponsor of HB1259, was frustrated and angry. Why? Because the OPPAGA study, ordered by the Legislature in 2022, didn’t give her the data she needed to support distributing school district capital outlay fund on a per pupil basis. 

What did OPPAGA recommend instead? Their study recommended that the Legislature should “consider distributing capital outlay funding to charter schools based on demonstrated need, which would ensure that the most pressing construction, renovation, repair, and maintenance needs are addressed regardless of the type of public school a student attends.” They suggested school districts could work with charter schools to “evaluate and prioritize the use of capital outlay funds from all sources for the most urgent capital projects and maintenance needs for both charter schools and traditional public schools.”

Please don’t ask Rep. Canady about it because, as she told the House Appropriations committee, “the more time I spent on that OPAGGA study the angrier” she got that the study “didn’t give us the data we needed.”

Not to worry. The GOP supermajority will pass the bill regardless.

When Charter Schools were initially proposed, they said they would be more efficient and able to provide better education for less money so they would not need a share of local capital outlay funds. That was then, this is now.

Five years ago, a deal was struck allowing that ,if charter school capital needs were adequately funded from state revenue (PECO funds, or Public Education Capital Outlay), public schools would not be required to share the local capital outlay revenue from their discretionary 1.5 millage levy. Since then, virtually ALL K-12 PECO funds have gone to charter schools.

Last session, SB758  (sponsored by our now-Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr) created the Charter School Review Commission, revised some charter school provisions and requirements, and required the Office of Program Policy and Governmental Accountability (OPPAGA) to conduct an analysis of the distribution of capital outlay funds to charter schools. In addition to being a state senator, Diaz was employed by one of Florida’s largest and most profitable charter school chains, Academics.

Apparently, the Legislature expected the OPPAGA study to give them all the data they needed to force school districts to share their capital outlay funds with charter schools. SB758 even included language declaring: “It is the intent of the Legislature that charter school students be considered as important as all other students in this state and, to that end, comparable funding levels from existing and future sources should be maintained for charter school students.”  

This session, HB1259’s clear goal is to “consider charter school students as important as all other students” and give them access to local Capital Outlay dollars on a per pupil basis and Rep. Canady is very frustrated that OPPAGA suggested otherwise. During the House Appropriations meeting, Rep. Dotie Joseph asked Canady how her bill distributed capital outlay funding to charter schools based on demonstrated need, as recommended by OPPAGA.

You can watch Canady’s entire rant in response to Joseph’s question at 37:20 here. The entire bill discussion begins 13:20.

Essentially, Canady believes the study was “deeply flawed:” 

“OPAGGA was asked to evaluate, they were asked to do some math, they were asked to do a quantitative analysis comparing the ways that charters are currently funded and how they would be funded under school districts sharing millage. Instead of doing a piece of quantitative research, they got creative and they went qualitative… What a shockingly, incredible waste of time and resources. And the more hours I spent on that OPAGGA study the angrier I got because I hate two things: I hate bureaucracy and I hate waste. And it is very frustrating to read a report like that when they were asked to do some math … we asked for facts and they gave us feelings and my opinion about the OPAGGA study is that it was flawed and didn’t give us the data we needed.” 

Joseph responded “I can hear your frustration with the OPPAGA study… My question was how does your bill account for the need that may be disparate within public schools, whether they be charter or traditional public schools. Separate and apart from the OPPAGA study… I know you didn’t get the data you were wanting from them. Do you have any data that relates to that?”

The answer is NO. But in a GOP supermajority none of this matters. What does a supermajority do when the study it orders makes an alternate recommendation that the one they were expecting? Apparently they disregard the studies findings and move forward with their original plan.

This isn’t the first time the Legislature completely ignored the results of a study they had ordered. 

In 2017, the Legislature ordered a Middle School Study to examine the great decline in Florida’s national test scores between 4th and 8th grade. The study highlighted the need for increased funding for support staff for high risk students and noted the negative effects of student mobility in Florida’s middles schools (which, likely, is directly related to “choice). Thosee recommendations were completely ignored as well, choosing instead to further market and expand vouchers/Education Savings Accounts for its most at-risk students.

HB1259 does provide what they call “a 5-year glide path” to reduce the initial burden on school districts and provide for a transition to the required sharing of the 1.5 millage revenue. In 2023-23, 20% of the calculated share will be distributed, increasing by 20% each year until, by 2027-2028, and each fiscal year thereafter, 100 percent of the calculated share will be distributed. (You can read details regarding the glide path and other calculations here.) School districts would be required to distribute $55.9 million to eligible charter schools in the upcoming fiscal year.

On the Senate side, SB1328 was heard on 4/20/23 in Senate Appropriations.  Bill sponsor, Sen. Travis Hutson, amended his bill to match the House bill. Hutson responded to many questions from Senate Democrats regarding the need for prioritized funding for the most urgent capital projects and maintenance needs for both charter schools and traditional public schools. Hutson responded that SB1328 allowed “the money to follow the child” and would provide parity for all the students. He, too, was willing to ignore the OPPAGA recommendations.

Senator Jason Pizzo seemed to even sympathize with the situation colleague Hutson was in, saying “this amounts to a seed capital program fraught with loopholes, I don’t think I’m telling you anything you don’t know. I know this is somebody else’s bill and, since you’re the Dean in the Senate, you took it and you’re glide-pathing it through.” Pizzo describes how a school’s test scores can increase by dismissing students with low test scores and says “We are fostering a model that promotes and fosters larceny.”  

Watch Pizzo’s debate at 1:16:30 here.

The Senate bill is ready for the Floor. The House bill is on the Special Order Calendar for Tuesday, 4/25/23. The defunding of public education and the ignoring of expert advice will continue in Florida.