The Orange County School Board wants to build a new school to relieve overcrowding, but it has to jump through local zoning hoops that don’t apply to charter schools in the same way.
The Orlando Sentinel breaks it down.
School leaders had strong neighborhood support for the relief school. But Orange County commissioners turned it down, relying partly on an ordinance drafted about 20 years ago requiring a middle-school campus to be at least 25 acres.
The district’s parcel, originally pegged as an elementary-school site, was a little more than 16 acres.
Despite an outcry from neighbors, neither proposed charter school is likely to face the same scrutiny from the county.
This doesn’t seem fair. And this is hardly the only case where school districts complain they face bureaucratic hurdles that charter schools do not. Officials in South Florida districts have questioned why they face more stringent building codes, for example. During a recent policy workshop, Broward school board members questioned why they can only build new schools if enrollment projections show they need new space.
While districts have to contend with more rules, charter schools receive significantly less — and less-certain — funding for their buildings. And yet, charters’ growth has spared some districts the need for new construction, creating at least the potential for cost savings in school districts. What’s more, municipalities in other parts of the state have proposed special restrictions for charter and private schools.
Lack of access to facilities has become a perennial barrier for new charters looking to open.
It should be possible to create a system that is fairer for all public-schools, and by extension public-school students, by giving districts more flexibility and charters more funding, or better access to facilities.
Some top education thinkers support the concept of independent facilities commissions, which would provide buildings to schools, charter or otherwise, based on need and qualifications. If that’s not the answer for Florida, what does a fairer system look like?
