School budgeting: The Pinellas County School Board approves a preliminary budget of $1.5 billion that includes a slightly lower tax millage rate. But higher property values will raise tax revenues by more than $4 million. Tampa Bay Times. The Lee County School Board approves a $1.4 billion budget. It set a lower tax millage rate, which are more than offset by higher property values. The district expects 92,000 students. Fort Myers News-Press. The Polk County School Board approves a $1.2 billion budget that keeps the reserve fund at 5 percent. Lakeland Ledger. The Manatee County School Board approves a $608 million tentative budget. Bradenton Herald. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Collier County School Board tentatively approves a $972 million budget, an increase of $85 million from last year. Naples Daily News. The Leon County School Board approves a $498 million budget, which school officials are calling tight. Tallahassee Democrat.
New school programs: Fourteen Duval County schools are getting new programs for the upcoming school year, the district announces. The goal, says Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, is to give neighborhood children a reason for choosing their local schools instead of going to private schools. Florida Times-Union.
Virtual school ads: Florida Virtual School nearly doubles its advertising budget in an effort to bring in more students. The system is adding $1 million to its advertising budget for TV and radio spots and billboards. About 5,600 students are now enrolled. Orlando Sentinel.
Strong sales tax: St. Johns County School Superintendent Joe Joyner says the extra half-cent sales tax is on track to bring in $17 million this year - almost $4 million more than originally forecast. The tax helps the district with construction, technology upgrades and security improvements. St. Augustine Record. (more…)
Florida voters will be asked in November to remove the Blaine amendment from their state Constitution, but, despite some assertions to the contrary, this vote is not about private school vouchers.
The amendment was placed on the ballot by two legislators – Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, and Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood – who have said repeatedly they want to protect religiously-based social services. Their interest was piqued by a lawsuit, Council for Secular Humanism v. McNeil, that challenges a prison ministries program, and by the fact that the director of this New York-based Council has called it “a springboard to mounting other challenges.”
In turn, the pro-Amendment 8 campaign is being led by a coalition of community-service providers and religious leaders who have raised less than $100,000 to date. They are honorable people who simply want to protect the broad assortment of services that is currently delivered without controversy by faith-based providers. Their position is understandable: If the secular humanists will sue over prison ministries, what’s to stop them from challenging government contracts with the Catholic Charities, Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services or the YMCA? Are Catholic hospitals safe? After all, the constitutional language at issue is quite explicit: “No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
Though parental choice advocates have previously pushed for changes to the no-aid clause, they were not involved last year in the legislative effort to put this issue on the ballot and are not raising money for the campaign. This is not to suggest they oppose the amendment – most school choice advocates support the role of faith-based service providers – but it reflects the extent to which state and federal court decisions have minimized the relevance of this issue for school choice.
First, the no-aid clause is irrelevant to Florida’s current judicial precedent on school vouchers. The state Supreme Court, in its 2006 Bush v. Holmes ruling, found Opportunity Scholarships to be unconstitutional because they violated Article IX provisions requiring a “uniform” public school system. The court, in fact, steered clear of a lower court ruling that invalidated the scholarships based on the Blaine Amendment – a decision that may well have been influenced by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 Zelman v. Simmons-Harris decision. In Zelman, the U.S. Supreme Court found parents could use public funds to pay for religious schools provided the parents were making a genuine and independent choice. In all of Florida’s private school choice programs, parents control which school receives the public funds. There is no government coercion.
Second, the largest private learning option in the state, tax credit scholarships that served 40,249 low-income students this past year, is constitutionally distinct from vouchers. (more…)
