Florida’s Charter Aggrandizement Act (also known as HB 7069) is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Broward County School Board. (For those who live elsewhere, Fort Lauderdale is probably the best-known city in Broward County. And yes, Florida has only one school district per county, strange as that may seem to people from the Northeast.)
HB 7069 is the one that, in addition to providing extra incentives for new charter schools, also requires all Florida school districts to share their capital funding to help underwrite the construction of those new schools. In addition to specifically challenging the law’s charter school giveaways, Broward County’s suit seeks to have the entire law declared unconstitutional because of its shotgun approach to school reform. HB 7069 includes provisions dealing with everything from mandatory elementary school recess periods to standardized testing to teacher bonuses—in violation of Florida’s constitutional requirement that every bill be limited to a single subject.
Observers expect several other counties’ school boards to join in the suit, notably including Miami-Dade County. It could be fun to watch.
George McDermott 