Portions of the two wide-ranging education bills in the Florida Senate have been merged into one.
The Florida Senate late Friday completed a rewrite of HB 7029, which would would bring big changes to Florida public schools. Among other things, it would:
- Create new rules for charter school facilities funding, aimed at outlawing “private enrichment” and creating financial incentives for charters to serve large numbers of low-income and special needs students.
- Enact other charter school reforms, like barring them from counseling out students for low academic achievement.
- Expand public-school open enrollment, allowing parents to send their children to any public school in the state that has room. Districts would still be able to set their own policies governing open enrollment.
- Require all districts and individual public schools to publish a detailed breakdown of what they spend per student.
Senate Education Appropriations Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said the bill would not provide any additional funding for charter school facilities, but that question will be answered in state budget negotiations, and “I hope they get more.”
The bill would short-circuit many of the criticisms that have dogged charter school facilities funding. Among other things, Gaetz said, it would put an end to the kind of arrangement in which a charter school’s facilities are owned by a real estate group “that’s the same as the charter school group that’s being enriched by public dollars.” It would also provide larger funding amounts to schools whose student bodies are at least 75 percent low-income students or at least 25 percent students with special needs.
“This is a values statement — a message to our friends in the House of Representatives,” Gaetz said. When the state sets aside money for charter school facilities, “let’s make sure it goes disproportionately to those charter schools who help those who need help the most.”
The wide-ranging bill could come up for a final Senate vote next week, and would still need final approval from the House, which has passed some, but not all, of its provisions through other bills.
A measure creating a principal autonomy program to turn around public schools and one creating competency based learning pilot programs in school districts around the state both landed on the cutting room floor, but standalone versions of those bills will be available to pass in the final week of the legislative session.
