A lawsuit challenging Florida's newest school choice legislation hit a roadblock Wednesday, as a Leon County circuit judge found the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case.
Judge Charles Francis dismissed the case from the bench after a brief hearing, but gave the people challenging the law 15 days to rework their arguments.
The plaintiffs, including a public-school history teacher from Lee County, could not show they were harmed by a law that created new Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts and expanded access to the state’s tax credit scholarship program, along with a number of other education-related measures.
As a result, they had to argue SB 850 fell under an exception, which allows taxpayers to challenge laws that violate constitutional limits on the Legislature's authority to tax or spend.
Ramya Ravindran, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, argued parts of the new law, including the creation of new school choice accounts for special needs students, "arise under the Legislature’s taxing and spending power."
But Jonathan Glogau, a lawyer for the state, argued if that rule applied to SB 850, it would apply to just about any legislation, since most bills that create new programs have some bearing on the state budget.
Francis agreed.
A judge should leave Florida's newest school choice legislation intact, lawyers for the parents of special needs children argue in court papers filed Friday.
The parents are intervening to defend the state's new Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts program from a lawsuit challenging the legislation that created it.
The suit, backed by the statewide teachers union, argues lawmakers violated the "single-subject" rule in the state constitution by inserting multiple education issues into one bill on the last day of this spring's legislative session.
The parents' legal filing argues that passing last-minute legislation with multiple provisions tacked on is a common practice. Their lawyers estimate that since 1997 the state has passed some 27 pieces of legislation that - like SB 850 - were described simply as "an act relating to education" and in many cases included a wide range of education-related provisions.
"The single subject rule does not provide a vehicle to second-guess the Legislature’s broad power to provide opportunities to Florida students," their brief argues. "A judicial action nullifying this law would not only arrest the Legislature’s ability to address the complexities and challenges of education in the 21st Century, but also would deprive thousands of Florida schoolchildren of the opportunities provided by this law."
The brief was part of a barrage of recent filings in the case, which will be argued Wednesday in a Tallahassee circuit court.
The state has questioned whether the lead plaintiff, a Lee County public school teacher, can even bring the case, arguing he can't show how the new law causes him any harm. The plaintiffs responded to those arguments Friday, and the state also filed a separate defense of the school choice legislation, which notes among other things that "the Legislature routinely enacts legislation with numerous sections."
The Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts for special needs students are administered by organizations like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.
Parents of students with significant special needs, including autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, are taking on the Florida teachers union over a new educational choice program. Six families from across the state on Thursday are filing a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed July 16 by the Florida Education Association.
The teachers union is seeking to nullify SB 850, the bill passed by the Legislature last spring that created a new type of K-12 scholarship called a Personal Learning Scholarship Account. The scholarship accounts are limited to students who fall into eight disability categories, and the Legislature set aside enough money to serve roughly 1,800 students.
The families are being represented by Clint Bolick, an attorney with the Goldwater Institute who is nationally known for his work on school choice cases.
SB 850 also modestly expanded the state's tax credit scholarship program for low-income students. Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog, is authorized to administer both programs.
A press conference on the filing is scheduled for 11 a.m. today in Tallahassee. For updates, check back here and/or follow @redefinEDonline and @travispillow on Twitter.
