WE ARE THE FIRST FLORIDA PARENTS TO EXERCISE OUR RIGHT UNDER PARENT TRIGGER LETTER LAW OF 2004. (1002.33 3(B) . THIS LAW ALLOWS PARENTS TO CALL A VOTE TO CONVERT A DISTRICT SCHOOL TO CHARTER RUN SCHOOL . WE HAVE CHRONICLED & EXPOSED THE LAWS FLAWS THROUGH TRAVAILS AND TRIAL OF LEGAL PROCESS TO CALL THE VOTE . IT MUST BE AMENDED SO TEACHERS CAN NOT HOLD SCHOOL CHOICE PARENTS HOSTAGE .THIS IN ESSENCE RENDERS THE FLORIDA CLASS SIZE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT MEANINGLESS. THIS IS OUR STORY
This another example of Republican majorities in the Florida Legislature wasting time coalescing with opposition to School Choice by adding unnecessary bureaucracy to approve covenent at the State level. Would it be more accountable to let Prent convert District-run schools without having to pay rent as Charter school board do? Support the Parent Guardianship School under governing school act. Log on to GoverningSchool. com waiting for action for amending a un-American voting law state statute 1002.33 (3b) since we set the legal precedent 2013. Changing the 'and' to 'OR' is so elementary to avoid the abuse of children of Parent Proponent by teachers in the classroom knowing UTD and other like-minded teacher's union who relish in the fact that they have veto power in present law by majority rule standard in two separate Intraschool ballot boxes on the election day The below article dies very little to accelerate school choice in Florida. The Judge delays the Socialized school system celebrates! Bring it. ó
PS: Get real Speaker Oliva and the rest of Florida Legislative Republicans you are allowing trampling of Parents civil rights in the application of this un-American Florida Parent Empowerment as written. AMEND IT!!
Judge removes three-item education amendment from Florida’s ballot
A Leon County judge ordered Monday that Amendment 8, the measure that seeks to create a pathway for the state to oversee charter schools and bypass local school boards, be removed from the ballot.
Circuit Judge John Cooper wrote in a summary judgment that the amendment’s ballot title and summary “fails to inform voters of the chief purpose and effect of this proposal.”
The judge agreed with the plaintiff, the League of Women Voters, that the ballot language was “misleading” and that the Constitution Revision Commission intentionally bundled three separate education proposals into one “to increase, in its view, their chances of passage.”
The CRC meets every 20 years to propose amendments to the state Constitution. In drafting Amendment 8 for the November ballot, the commission combined the charter school provision with two others — one that would impose term limits on school board members and another that would constitutionally require civics education in public schools.
League of Women Voters Florida President Patricia Brigham called Cooper’s ruling a “terrific piece of news to wake up to on a Monday morning.”
“It’s a victory for the people of Florida,” she said. “That measure was meant to confuse voters. It did not show the intent was to take away home rule from the districts. ... The judge saw right through it.”
Erika Donalds, a prominent school choice advocate and the CRC commissioner who proposed the amendment, called the ruling “disappointing” and driven by ideology, not the law.
“The group suing to remove Amendment 8 from the ballot fundamentally opposes empowering families to choose the education setting that best fits their child,” she said. “Despite the bunk they’ve spread, I hope voters will be able to make their own decision in November. It is disgusting how many misrepresentations the opposition is willing to put forth to block student-centered choice options.”
When asked about the ruling during his tour of schools on the first day of classes in Miami-Dade County, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said, “In any democratic society people ought to have the ability to vote on the issue without being confused by the format. There’s still time to address both.
“I’m a strong believer in the format of public education and duly elected constitutional officers as school board members.”
Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State, said the state will appeal. The courts must reach a final decision on whether Amendment 8 will be on the ballot by Sept. 4 in order for election officials to have enough time to print ballots for November.
In a hearing Friday, the League’s lawyer, Ron Meyer, argued that the amendment’s ballot summary and title did not let voters know that voting “yes” could result in massive change to Florida’s schools.
“It doesn’t key you in to the fact that we’re taking away control of public schools,” Meyer said. “You’re obviously saying that there’s some class of schools we’re going to take away from the locally elected school board, but nowhere is that defined.”
Meyer cited the discussions during the CRC’s drafting of Amendment 8, during which commissioners talked at length about charter schools.
The word “charter,” he noted, was not included in the amendment text, title or summary. The ballot summary instead said that the state would have permission to “operate, control and supervise public schools not established by the school board.”
While the Republican-controlled state government has expanded vouchers and charter school options, some local school boards have been unfriendly toward charter schools, which are publicly funded schools managed by private organizations or companies.
Meyer also argued that, in bundling the three education proposals together, the CRC was intentionally “putting sparkly things around a pile of mud” to “distract you from the unintelligible part in the middle.”
On the other side, Blaine Winship, the state’s lawyer, argued that “the ballot summary couldn’t be clearer.”
He argued: “The local school boards have a monopoly of the control and supervision [of schools] and that’s all that we’re trying to get around.” Winship said the word “charter” was not included in the amendment language because the types of schools created in the school choice era are constantly evolving.
“In another five years,” he argued, “who knows what the nomenclature will be?”
Responding to Judge Cooper, who bemoaned the legal tug of war over who controls schools in Florida, Winship said the amendment settles all of that.
“That problem will no longer be coming to your desk if this passes, your honor,” he said.
Also at issue is whether the amendment would apply to existing charter schools or only ones established in the future. Neither Meyer nor Winship could answer that, saying that would likely be the next step if the amendment passes.
“This is simply giving the voters the chance to make this kind of decision, and then the question of who is establishing these schools — and therefore who has the right to control them — would be something that would presumably be up to legislation,” Winship told reporters after the hearing.
Monday’s ruling is a defeat for school choice advocates like state House Speaker Richard Corcoran but is only one of several challenges to the CRC’s amendments.
In the state Supreme Court, arguments from the state were due Monday in a separate challenge to six CRC amendments, including Amendment 8. In that case, former chief justice Harry Lee Anstead argues that the amendments are misleadingly bundled.
DuMiami Herald staff writer Colleen Wright and Tampa Bay Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek contributed to this report.
All these financial arrangements by municipalities and their affluent residents are not necessary if and only if, Parents can convert any district-run school to Parent Guardianship School by simply firing a Trigger Letter forcing an intraschool vote by direct ballot as proposed by TheFiscals. Log on for more details to amend the Florida Parent Empowerment Law 1002.33 (3b) at GoverningSchools. com https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article165219207.html
Want your kids in the best public schools? Wealthy cities look to buy a way in
Henry S. West Laboratory is the kind of school every parent wants their kid to attend.
Nestled in a lush green patch in Coral Gables, the public K-8 center better known as West Lab boasts a German language program, a middle school curriculum focused on science and math, and a partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Education.
It’s so popular that there are nearly 400 students on the waiting list — more than the school’s entire population. But although West Lab is located in Coral Gables, it’s a magnet school, meaning that anyone in the county can apply.
That’s why the city of Coral Gables is considering paying $4.2 million to create seats just for the children of residents. The money would pay for extra classrooms to accommodate about 180 students, who would be mixed in with the rest of the student body. For a one-time fee of roughly $23,000 per student slot, Coral Gables residents would be guaranteed the slots in perpetuity.The proposal would help fill a need for more spaces at high-quality schools, city officials and residents say. It’s something other cities in Miami-Dade — many of them affluent — have also done to create more local public school options, pitching in millions of dollars to pay for extra seats at popular magnet schools or to fund advanced programs. Some cities have even created their own municipal charter schools.
IT’S ABSOLUTELY TRUE THAT IT’S GOING TO AGGRAVATE SEGREGATION.
Osamudia James, a Coral Gables resident and UM law professor
But some of the municipal investments could make Miami-Dade schools more segregated along racial and economic lines, experts say — and divert money from other nearby public schools.
“I understand that parents want more options, but at the same time it does create these disparities, and it is often wealthier communities that do this,” said Osamudia James, a Coral Gables resident and law professor at the University of Miami who specializes in education issues. “It’s absolutely true that it’s going to aggravate segregation.”
School Board member Steve Gallon shares similar concerns, saying in an email that such proposals “could result in the creation of systems and structures that could impede such access to poor children and those of color to a world-class education based on their ZIP codes.”
Fewer poor students
Take MAST Academy on Virginia Key, for example, a popular science and technology magnet school that draws students from across the county. The Village of Key Biscayne paid about $10 million to expand the school in 2012 in exchange for first dibs for residents at two new academies within the school.
If nothing else, the investment certainly changed MAST’s demographics. The proportion of low-income students fell by half, from 37 percent of the student body in 2012 to about 19 percent during the most recent school year, according to state data. The percentage of black students also decreased, from almost 10 percent of the student body in 2012 to less than 3 percent this year, school district data shows. The overall proportion of minority students dipped only slightly because of an increase in the percentage of Hispanic students.
Other cities have opted to open their own charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately managed.
Miami Shores was one of the first places in Florida to create its own municipal charter school, approving a $5 million bond in 2003 to build Doctors Charter School for residents in grades 6-12.
The result: Just two percent of Doctors Charter students are low-income, according to state data. Before the charter school was created, the neighborhood public high school options for Miami Shores residents were North Miami and Edison high schools, where at least 90 percent of the student body is poor.
Doctors Charter offers the kind of education students could expect at a private school. More than half of the teachers have a master’s degree or higher, according to the school website, and students can choose from advanced computer science courses and the types of literature classes you might find at a liberal arts college.
Doctors Charter school was created by Miami Shores Village for residents in grades 6-12.
Evan Berkowitz Evan Berkowitz/for the Miam Herald
Further north, the city of Aventura runs its own K-8 charter school, known as ACES. Aventura is currently in the process of opening a new charter high school — something parents, local politicians and business groups have been advocating for years. They argue that Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School in north Miami-Dade, the public high school serving Aventura residents, is too far away for some families.
Aventura residents will get first dibs at the new high school, which is slated to open in 2019. Although other county residents will be able to apply for empty seats, city manager Eric Soroka said that based on interest from residents, he doesn’t think there will be any.
Instead, some area residents are concerned that the charter high school could segregate the area, pulling affluent Aventura residents out of Krop along with the added resources, like fundraising contributions, that wealthy students tend to bring with them.
“Personally, I think there’s a benefit to having a diverse school population so that especially high school-aged kids can become friends with kids from other ethnicities,” said Aventura resident Ivy Ginsberg. “By saying that all the slots are going to go to Aventura residents only, it’s like giving Aventura residents their own private school.”
Soroka said that’s not the city’s intention. “The only thing we’re providing is another educational choice for our residents at this point,” he said.
A ‘win-win’ for residents
School districts are under a lot of pressure to keep wealthy families in the public school system because these families typically have other options. For every child that leaves the school system, the district loses money.
“Wealthier parents get to use their market power to create more choices for themselves,” said James, the UM law professor. “The bargain we make with wealthier parents to keep them from leaving and going to private schools is we give them these options and opportunities and they’re supposed to stay, but in exchange for staying they hoard resources.”
School districts also face stiff competition from charter schools, and many have created specialized programs like magnets in an effort to keep students, said Elena Silva, the director of the Pre-K-12 education policy program at New America, a D.C.-based think tank. This is especially true in Miami-Dade, where enrollment in charter schools has more than tripled over the past 10 years. In response, the school district has created more than 500 so-called choice programs, which include both magnet schools and specialized programs within neighborhood schools — everything ranging from forensic science and conservation biology to international finance and robotics.
But ensuring equal access to magnet schools can be difficult, Silva said, because low-income students often struggle to find transportation if the schools are far from their homes.
“One of the biggest issues with these choice programs writ large is the question about whether everybody has equal access,” she said. “If you’re putting magnet programs in wealthy communities and then you’re reserving seats at that school, is that helping to address the inequities in the county?”
District officials said Miami-Dade has made an effort to create choice programs across the county to ensure students in low-income neighborhoods have access to the specialized programs.
IT’S A WIN-WIN FOR OUR COMMUNITY AND OUR RESIDENTS.
Iraida Mendez-Cartaya, head of the school district’s office of intergovernmental affairs
And from the school district’s perspective, collaboration with city governments helps raise much-needed funds.
“It’s a win-win for our community and our residents,” said Iraida Mendez-Cartaya, who oversees the school district’s office of intergovernmental affairs. “You have two government agencies come and leverage resources, providing more access to communities.”
Mendez-Cartaya disagrees with critics who say that creating extra seats at magnet schools for some residents could have a negative impact. She emphasized that proposals like the one in Coral Gables aren’t taking away seats from anyone else. “That’s what the discussion is about, adding to and not carving out from the existing” school, she said.
The collaboration doesn’t always involve paying for seats at magnet schools. Sometimes cities just want to invest in their neighborhood schools.
Sunny Isles Beach financed a $4 million expansion at Norman S. Edelcup/Sunny Isles Beach K-8 Center in 2011, for example, and Miami Beach has pitched in for programs at its public schools, including rigorous International Baccalaureate programs.
And it’s not just the wealthy areas that have teamed up with the school district. Homestead’s redevelopment agency helped pay to transform West Homestead Elementary into a K-8 center, and Miami Gardens is in the process of creating a science and math center near Carol City Middle School.
$1 billion in school taxes
In some parts of the country, cities run their own school districts. This can lead to vastly different schools in neighboring cities because the amount collected from property taxes — the main source of local funding for public schools — varies from place to place.
That’s one argument in favor of countywide school districts, like the ones in Florida, said Mike Griffith, a school finance expert at the Education Commission of the States. “One of the benefits of having a county-wide district is that you can share your resources,” he said. “But the negative is you’re sharing your resources.”
At a June meeting in Coral Gables to discuss the possibility of paying for extra seats at West Lab, Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli pointed out that the city contributes $1 billion in taxes to the school district every decade — about $100 million a year.
THEY THINK WE ARE FILTHY RICH AND WE DESERVE TO GIVE AND NOT TO GET BACK WHAT BELONGS TO US AND TO SEEK SCHOOL PLACES FOR OUR KIDS.
Raúl Valdés-Fauli, mayor of Coral Gables
“I am very wary of the seriousness of the school district in dealing with Coral Gables because they think we are filthy rich and we deserve to give and not to get back what belongs to us and to seek school places for our kids,” Valdés-Fauli said.
The details of a possible agreement with the school district are still under negotiation, and city officials are considering other options, said Gables Commissioner Patricia Keon. “I think we need to look at where do we get the most for our money, and if it turns out to be a charter, maybe we need to think that way, too,” she said.
Coral Gables has discussed the possibility of paying for seats at West Lab since at least 2015and has held several meetings to get input from residents. Keon said more input is needed before the city votes on any proposals.
Some residents say they hope Coral Gables will work out a deal in time for their children to attend West Lab.
“They have an excellent language component,” said Carmen Manrara Cartaya, a Coral Gables resident who has two preschool-aged children. “In this community of Miami, having a second language is like having an additional degree.”
Manrara Cartaya is among the residents who say there is a need for more seats at top-notch schools like West Lab. “I think one of [Coral Gables’] missing links is having excellent public school education for its residents,” she said. “The parks are great, the downtown is great, the zoning is great, but then there’s this huge gap.”
Barbara Soto Pujadas, the principal of Henry S. West Laboratory school, prepares for the upcoming school year.
Roberto Koltun rkoltun@miamiherald.com
Of the two neighborhood elementary schools open to Coral Gables students, the one with the highest state grade — Coral Gables K-8 Preparatory Academy — is full, according to district figures. The other school, George W. Carver Elementary, got a B on its state report card and is about 84 percent full. Residents also have access to a limited number of seats at Sunset Elementary, another A school.
“We don’t have enough high-quality elementary school seats for residents within the city of Coral Gables,” said Keon.
West Lab has long been on the cutting edge when it comes to innovations in education. It was the county’s first magnet school, created as a partnership with UM’s School of Education. Last year, the school made headlines for ending mandatory homework. It has also consistently gotten an A on its state report card, a grade that is determined in part by student performance on standardized tests.
“West Lab has always had an amazing reputation,” said principal Barbara Soto Pujadas, adding that parents are also drawn to the school’s small size.
Keeping the balance
At the June meeting in Coral Gables, Samuel Joseph, a consultant who serves as the chair of the city’s School and Community Relations Committee, saidresidents don’t want to change West Lab’s make-up. “It is absolutely critical that we keep that balance” of children from across the county, he said. “Frankly, the reason West Lab is the excellent school that it is is because it doesn’t serve just one population.”
But if the demographic change at MAST Academy is any indication, keeping the current mix of students at West Lab will likely prove difficult. The school will have around 360 students next year, and Coral Gables has proposed adding 180 residents at some point in the future, meaning that city residents will make up as much as a third of the student body.
The biggest likely change: a smaller percentage of poor kids. Now, the school district reports that about a quarter of West Lab’s students are classified as poor, compared with roughly 8 percent of Coral Gables residents, according to census figures, although they don’t define poverty in exactly the same way. West Lab also has a higher proportion of black and Hispanic students than Coral Gables.
A classroom at Henry S. West Laboratory school in Coral Gables photographed on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. The city of Coral Gables is considering spending $4.2 million to create seats for residents at West Lab, a popular magnet school that is currently open to anyone in Miami-Dade.
Roberto Koltun rkoltun@miamiherald.com
For some critics, the prospect of more affluent communities paying for seats at exclusive schools or running their own charter schools further tips the social scales against poor kids.
“You’re creating an advantage for kids who live in a wealthy area,” said school finance expert Griffith. “The kids you want to help the most are those low-income kids.”
And, he said, wealthy communities are buying seats in premier schools at a bargain one-time price.
Griffith said that according to his calculations, Coral Gables’ proposed $4.2 million contribution would likely only cover the price ofconstructingthe new classrooms and at most a year and a half of the extra costs associating with educating more students. But once the money from the city runs out, “the rest of the people in the school district are on the hook for paying for those wealthy slots for the community,” Griffith said.
Mendez-Cartaya from the school district’s office of intergovernmental affairs disagrees. She said that because most school funding follows the student to whichever school he or she chooses to attend, the extra costs associated with educating more students would be covered by the district’s standard per-pupil funding.
But while the overall amount of funding in the district wouldn’t change, the way the money is distributed would. The magnet school would likely see more funding, while the neighborhood school the child would have attended would see less. That doesn’t include the costs of repairing and, decades from now, perhaps rebuilding the additional classrooms, Griffith said.
“What they are doing is paying a small amount forward and requiring money to come from other people in the district to cover the rest of the costs,” he said.
One possible solution would be for municipalities that want to partner with the school district to share the wealth with schools in other neighborhoods, Griffith said. The school district could require municipalities to use part of their contribution for schools in poor areas, for example, or to expand magnet programs for everyone, without guaranteeing seats for residents, he said.
“I get what the people within the district are saying, which is, ‘We raised the money, we brought it into the district, we deserve something for that,’” he said. “But it can quickly create haves and have-nots, and we’ve seen those haves and have-nots divided along racial lines.”
Miami Herald staff writer Lance Dixon contributed to this report.
The campus of Henry S. West Laboratory school in Coral Gables. The city of Coral Gables is considering spending $4.2 million to create seats for residents at West Lab, a popular magnet school that is currently open to anyone in Miami-Dade. Roberto Koltunrkoltun@miamiherald.com
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