Florida’s academically “high-performing” charter schools would be allowed to increase their reach more quickly under legislation passed unanimously by the state Senate.
The upper chamber voted 38-0 for a sweeping education bill, focused mainly on paring back standardized testing.
The revised HB 549 includes a few provisions from wide-ranging charter school legislation that passed the House and surfaced this week in the Senate.
One key change would lift existing caps on high-performing charters that want to replicate.
Charter schools that earn mostly A and B grades and keep clean financial audits can receive high-performing status. That gives them access to certain perks, including a streamlined application process to open similar schools in new locations. The law currently limits them to one replication per year, but the bill would allow them to open multiple schools if they target areas served by struggling schools in the midst of a state-mandated academic turnaround process.
What else is in the bill? Everything from mandatory recess for elementary students to a new, professional mentorship-based path to a statewide teaching certificate.
The Orlando Sentinel runs down some of the higher-profile issues in the legislation.
Most other charter school provisions, including contentious proposals to shift control over federal funding from district offices to individual school leaders, appear to have fallen by the wayside. But this might not be the end of the story.
For one thing, the House would still have to accept the Senate’s rewrite before tomorrow’s end of the regular legislative session.
And Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, alluded to another possibility. He said rumors are flying around the capitol that other education policy issues could surface in the final rounds of budget negotiations between the two chambers, which will extend into Friday and possibly beyond.
Two key charter school issues are definitely part of late-stage budget talks: A House-Senate compromise on “Schools of Hope,” and a plan for charter schools to share local property tax revenue to pay for facilities. Whether other issues else get added remains to be seen.
