The Florida House’s effort to create new “Schools of Hope” in struggling areas has rocketed to the top of education agenda in this year’s legislative session.
Its backers may find support for charter school recruitment and aggressive school turnaround efforts in interesting places, like a “warning” flagged last year by a Leon County judge.
The legislative analysis of the House bill points to Ciruit Judge George Reynolds’ ruling that dismissed a wide-ranging “adequacy” lawsuit, which took aim at a vast swath of education policies, from funding to high-stakes testing to school choice.
Reynolds tossed out the claims en masse in a sweeping ruling hailed by education reformers as a vindication. But legislative staff note the one issue where the judge seemed most sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ claims that Florida was not meeting its constitutional oblication to provide a “high-quality” public education system.
He indicated the presence of schools that languish for years with low academic performance gave him pause.
In Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board of Education et al, the trial court stated that “[t]here can be little doubt that allowing a school to remain in F status for an extended period of time raises serious issues regarding the constitutional acceptance of such an event. While the Department of Education’s hands may be tied by the legislation that it is required to follow, the Legislature is not similarly situated.” While “the State cannot be held liable for ineffective operational, control, and supervisory decisions at the local level, the court would be concerned about how long the Legislature would tolerate a local school board’s ineffectual operation that involves the presence of long term “F” schools.”
Reynolds still concluded the plaintiffs still had not made their case. He also noted local school boards — not just the state — bore some responsibility for the condition of Florida’s public schools, but hadn’t been targets of the lawsuit.
“The evidence presented, while not rising to the level of a constitutional violation, should serve as a warning not to be complacent about a local districts failure to address long term “F” schools,” he wrote. “This is especially true since the Defendants own evidence shows that an “F”s school can be turned around without additional resources being provided.”
The plaintiffs in the case have appealed Reynolds’ ruling. The First District Court of Appeal has paused the case while the Legislature is in session.
