Florida charter schools would be certain to lose “high-performing” status when their letter grades fall below B’s under legislation proposed in both the state House and Senate.
The legislation would clarify an issue at the center of a legal dispute between the state and a Central Florida charter school, decided earlier this month by an appellate court.
Charters with strong academic ratings can receive a high-performing label, which gives them certain privileges. They can expand and replicate more easily. They pay lower administrative fees to school districts. They can enter 15-year charter contracts instead of the usual five.
A 2013 law change required the state education commissioner to review the state’s high-performing charters each year to make sure they still met all the criteria, which include earning at least two A’s and no grades below a B in the three most recent school years.
Right now, 167 of Florida’s more than 650 charter schools are classified as high-performing. The number has risen, even as dozens of charters lost the label due to falling grades.
Last year, Imagine Schools at South Lake was one of 10 schools stripped of high-performing status after their state-issued grades slipped to a C. The non-profit overseeing the school, Educational Charter Foundation of Florida, took the state Department of Education to court.
The foundation argued a conflicting provision in state law allowed charter schools to remain high-performing as long as they received only one C. A Leon County circuit court — and earlier this month, the First District Court of Appeal — both sided with the school after finding no evidence lawmakers intended to take the provision off the books.
The proposed legislation would do just that. A major charter school bill in the state House, and a somewhat similar bill in the Senate, would delete provisions from state law that refer to C schools remaining high-performing.
A legislative staff analysis of the House bill, which the Choice and Innovation Subcommittee is set to take up Wednesday, notes:
Because a high-performing school loses its status once its grade falls below a “B,” the provisions regarding consequences for receiving a “C” are obsolete. Accordingly, the bill repeals provisions regarding consequences for “C” grades.
The House bill would make it easier for high-performing charter schools to replicate if they target areas with large numbers of low-performing schools. They would also be able to submit replication applications to a new Institute for Charter School Innovation at Florida University. In other words, maintaining top academic marks would offer even more advantages.
