School Choice Bills Making Headway in Capitol (FL)

May 2, 2011

Florida lawmakers are poised to pass a handful of bills that, combined, would expand charter schools, virtual schools, a voucher programs for kids with disabilities and the opportunity to transfer from struggling campuses.

The legislation fits with the agenda of Gov. Rick Scott, who campaigned last year on a platform to “modernize” and “transform” Florida’s education system by increasing school choice and moving away from “brick and mortar schools.”

They will allow Florida to offer a “customized education” to youngsters, who every year could choose from a menu of options to fit their academic needs, said Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Florida’s Future, started by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

But some of the proposals worry educators who work in and oversee those traditional schools.

“Certainly we’re all for choice options for children, but they need to be quality,” said Christine Moore, an Orange County School Board member whose own children have been homeschooled and enrolled in public and private schools.

“What I am worried about is that we’re opening the floodgates so much in the name of choice that we’re not going to have adequate controls,” Moore said.

With a week left in the 2011 session, all the bills are moving toward passage, though their status could change in the final days of lawmaking.

How much all these options will interest parents remains to be seen, but “our landscape is really changing,” said Darvin Boothe, a Seminole County lobbyist and former administrator.

Charter schools

This legislation would allow “high performing” charter schools — those graded A or B with clean financial audits — to expand. Such schools could add grades and boost their enrollment.& lt;br>
And “high-performing charter school systems” could even replicate their programs in other school districts. The bills also would limit a local school board’s oversight of such schools.

Charter schools are public schools run by private groups and freed from following some state regulations. About 6 percent of Florida’s public-school students attend charters.

Advocates of charter-school expansion say some 32,000 students are on waiting lists for A- and-B-rated charter schools, showing demand for their sometimes unique offerings.

“It provides for choices for the parents, different options for the children,” said Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, sponsor of the House charter bill, during a recent committee meeting.

The Central Florida Public School Boards Coalition, however, opposes these changes, arguing, among other points, that local board oversight helps maintain the quality of charter schools. Boards can deny applications for proposed charters they view as poorly designed and also can shut down schools that open and end up performing badly.

They also question how a system of charter schools could be considered “high performing” when earning a B average could mean half their campuses were graded C’s.

Virtual schools

Virtual, or online education, is just a tiny slice of the public education pie now, with less than 1 percent of the state’s 2.6 million students enrolled in such a class, state figures show.

But the bills aim to change that by requiring all students to take at least one virtual class to earn a high-school diploma. They also would allow the public Florida Virtual School, considered a national leader in online education, to expand by offering elementary-school classes.

School districts would have to expand their virtual offerings, and other “virtual p roviders” could offer classes statewide. Also, virtual charter schools and “blended” charter schools — ones that combine traditional and virtual classes — could be started. School districts also would have to open their virtual classes to students from outside their county.

McKay scholarships

This program provides taxpayer-financed scholarships to students with disabilities who leave public schools. These students get tuition vouchers to help pay for private school.

The bills would expand the pool of students eligible for McKay scholarships — now limited only to those with a confirmed disability and an official spot in the state’s “exceptional student” education program.

Students with so-called “504 plans” would be eligible for the vouchers, too, under these bills. Students with 504 plans have a disability — sometimes a temporary one caused by illness — as defined under federal law but do not typically need the kinds of interventions or accommodations that students in the state program need.

There are more than 51,000 students with 504 plans in Florida schools, so the legislation could significantly expand a program that now serves about 21,000 youngsters.

The 504 program does not have the same rigorous requirements as the state “exceptional education” program and students with those plans often have limited and short-term issues rather than life-long disabilities, said Boothe, the Seminole official.

“We sincerely believe it’s not in the spirit of the original McKay,” he said. “It’s not an appropriate use of state funds.”

Public school choice

Under Florida’s original school-voucher program, students can transfer out of struggling schools and go to better-performing public schools in their district.

The program allows transfers out of schools graded F two of the past four years. This year, students could leave 24 schools, including Evans and Oak Ridge high schools in Orlando.

The bills expand the definition of “failing school” and would allow students to transfer out of schools with a D or an F in the prior year and that meet other state definitions for struggling schools. This year, it would have allowed transfers out of an additional 121 other schools.

Students who took those transfers could also continue in their new school’s “feeder pattern” until they graduated from high school. That means they could transfer to a new elementary school and then move on to the middle and high school serving that area.

The bills also would also allow students to transfer to a higher-performing school outside their district, if there were room. Senate staff said that could have a financial impact on the state, as per-student funding varies by district based on cost of living.