Absent a crystal ball, government at all levels will have to be nimble and flexible in accommodating new ideas when it comes to school choice.
The Florida Supreme Court may have struck down a proposed education amendment to the state’s constitution, but the issue the measure raised can’t be easily dismissed.
In a 4-3 decision, the court last week removed from the November ballot Amendment 8, which would have given the state the authority to establish and operate public schools, bypassing local school districts. The four justices affirmed a lower-court ruling that the amendment’s language was misleading because it “fails to inform voters of the chief purpose and effect” of the measure.
Although Amendment 8, which was placed on the ballot by Florida’s Constitution Revision Commission, bundled three different education-related proposals into one ballot item, opponents objected to the part that would permit the state “to operate, control, and supervise public schools not established by the school board.” Critics argued that the vagueness of that statement was meant to obscure its real purpose: to transfer the power to create charter schools from local school districts, where they often encounter opposition, to the state, which has been more receptive of charters.
