Court rules against Florida Schools of Excellence

Local school districts no longer have to worry about charter school applicants doing an end run to the state to win the right to operate.

Florida's First District Court of Appeals found the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission "facially unconstitutional" in a series of opinions issued this morning. (See the main one, Duval County School Board v. State Board of Education.)

The law establishing the FSE is in fatal conflict with Article IX of the Florida Constitution, the court states, in that it creates a "parallel system of free public education escaping the operation and control of local elected school boards." Several school districts, including Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando, challenged the law.

The court cites Bush vs. Holmes, which struck down the state's voucher system, as precedent. It continued:

"The further arguments that the statute authorizes the Department of Education to permit the districts to retain exclusive control over the chartering of schools and permits districts to retain control over charter schools sponsored by district boards provide no salvation as the statute also provides the vehicles to remove that authority, relegating local boards to essentially ministerial functions."

FSE executive director Frank Atkisson told the Gradebook that the decision was "not unexpected." Atkisson said if the group is allowed to continue, he intends to take the commission in a new direction.

"My thought is the FSE needs to be taking a different approach to granting charters," Atkisson said.

The goal will be to come into areas where a public school is chronically failing, analyze the educational needs there and determine whether competition might help. The commission would then create a franchise, if necessary, and seek charter companies to bid on coming in as competition to the school.

Another effort would entail the commission bringing a charter operator in to take over the school itself for a limited time, perhaps up to five years, on the argument that the students there are not receiving a high-quality public education.

"At what point do we tolerate in our society the continued operating of a school that is consistently failing?" Atkisson wondered.

The FSE has discussed remaining a chartering agency for districts that seek out its services. So far, Brevard and Alachua have inquired about contracting the commission to grant charters for them.

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Comments

[CenterForEducationReform]

Yesterday's Florida First District Court of Appeals ruling striking down the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission (FSE) is dead wrong and demonstrates a political opinion rather than a judicial opinion. Since Florida's original charter school law was passed by the legislature in 1996, special interest groups have sought to repeal it.

The Florida Schools of Excellence Commission (FSE) was created by law in 2006 as an alternative public entity to authorize and manage quality charter schools. Courts in other states with similarly structured authorizers have upheld that these are constitutionally acceptable public entities. Florida's constitution permits the legislature to create and fund public education. School districts in Florida do not have exclusive franchise over schools they do not create.

[Bob Richardson]

Just a momentary setback in the fight against a socialist economy imposed on our kids' education; the truth will prevail and the seed of competition will continue grow nonetheless.

[terminator]

7:00
ok bureaucrat, don't get your shortpants in a wad.
you won one.
next stop Florida Supreme Court.

I guess that goes to show that terminator was wrong, again. Big surprise!

We told this group how to move forward almost two years ago in a truly constitutional way. Instead, they decided to flaunt their full "legal" powers under the unconstitutional law. Now, can the SPT find out how much money was wasted by the state on administration for the FSE without a single student in the entire state getting services. When you get that number, multiply it by 100 to discover about how much in total (including wasted school district dollars in trying to apply for exclusive authority and protecting the constitution with lawsuits) to find out just how serious the Republicans are about getting money "into the classroom."

Come on SPT! Ask them for an accounting of all funds spent by the FSE. They have been in the law for three years now. What have they done other than cost money? Expose the real waste in government . . . please.