In November, Floridians will be asked to vote on 13 ballot proposals. To add to the confusion, this year’s Constitutional Revision Committee created Amendments 6-12, which contain bundled or grouped proposals.  This means voters will now have to choose to approve or reject unrelated ideas that have been linked together into one amendment. For example, Floridians will have to decide if they want to ban both vaping indoors and offshore oil and gas drilling (Amendment 9) or if they want to require Miami-Dade to elect its sheriff, create a state counter-terrorism office and make the existing state veterans affairs department constitutionally required (Amendment 10). Bundling of proposals prevents each idea from being approved by the voters on its own merits and it is clear that some CRC proposals have been deliberately designed to trick voters into voting for something they might not otherwise approve.

The worst of these is Amendment 8. 

Amendment 8 links three otherwise unrelated education proposals and then attempts to hide radical policy behind term limits, which polls well.

Here is an analogy: Imagine you were presented with an ice cream sundae. It looks delicious and you want to take a bite. What if I told you there was a little poop mixed into that sundae… it still LOOKS delicious but should you eat it?

Amendment 8 is a Poop Sundae. It is composed of three ingredients. 

The first is mandatory 8 year term limits to all elected school board members. Does that sound good to you? Term Limits poll very high. They are the ice cream, cold creamy and delicious. A real crowd pleaser. (Personally, I believe school board term limits should be a local decision. In large districts, they might be a good idea; but in small districts like mine, we may run out of qualified candidates with a desire to serve. Call me “lactose intolerant” for this analogy.)

 Amendment 8 also requires the Legislature to “provide for the promotion of Civics education in public schools.” This isn’t really necessary, since students are already mandated to take Civics, U.S. History and Government courses, with state assessments in both Civics and U.S. History, but it is difficult to argue with. This is the cherry on top. The sundae doesn’t need it but it looks nice.

The last ingredient restricts duly elected school boards to only overseeing public schools that were “established by” that school board. What even does that mean? The language is a deliberate attempt to hide the real intent of the proposal. The real intent is to allow the state to create a system for authorizing and managing charter schools, or other private options, that would be outside the control of locally elected school boards.

Allowing charter schools (or other non traditional public schools) to be authorized or “established” by a process created by the legislature would completely bypass local control by duly elected school boards. Such language could allow corporate charter systems to create their own authorization pathway, eliminating any control at the community level.  An appointed board in Tallahassee may decide where and when new charter schools will be built in your neighborhood. In the meanwhile, local taxpayers will pay for these alternately authorized schools, whether your community wants them there or not. This is the poop mixed into that yummy looking sundae… the carefully crafted language makes it difficult to see but, believe us, it is in there.

We recommend you do not eat the sundae. 

Ask yourself: Who do you trust to establish and manage the schools, in your community, that your local tax dollars will pay for: corporate-owned bureaucrats and profiteers in Tallahassee or Washington or your locally elected school board? 

How important is local control of public education? Are you willing to give up local oversight of your community schools? We are not. We urge you to join us and vote NO on Amendment 8.

Don’t Eat the Sundae! #NoOn8

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ADDENDUM:

In July, the League of Women Voters of Florida filed a lawsuit asking Amendment 8 be remove from the ballot, claiming the “proposed ballot title and summary fail to inform voters of the chief purpose of the revision and are affirmatively misleading.” The lawsuit is scheduled to have its first hearing August 17th.

Former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Charles T. Wells, explained why he believes Amendment 8 is “misleading” and “deceptive” in an eight page opinion he sent to the League, linked here and summarized in the Tampa Bay Times here.

Editorial Boards across the state are declaring support for the League’s lawsuit and the removal of Amendment 8 from the ballot.

The Sun Sentinel wrote:  “Revision 8 does not even mention charter schools. Backers want the appeal of term limits and the feel-good idea of civics education to hide that chief purpose. The courts should see through this ploy and strike Revision 8 from the ballot.”

The Palm Beach Post wrote “This is so misleading you have to wonder if the deception was deliberate. The Leon County Circuit Court should quickly rule to strike this insult to voters from the November ballot.”

We will be following the lawsuit closely.