Bathroom access: The Florida ACLU files a sex discrimination complaint against the Marion County School District after it suspended a transgender student for his bathroom choice. The student, born female but identifying as a male, used the boys bathroom after the district passed a rule restricting students to using the bathrooms of their birth sex only. Ocala Star Banner. Politico Florida. Florida Politics. The Obama administration is telling all U.S. school districts to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity or face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid. New York Times.

Playoff changes: The Florida High School Athletic Association wants to change the high school football playoffs for the 2017 season. Instead of playing in district, schools could play anyone they wanted to, with points awarded for strength of schedule. The top point-gatherers in each region would earn playoff spots. The FHSAA hopes to have a decision by the fall. Miami Herald.

Girls football game: Plans for the Powder Puff tackle football game between Jupiter High School seniors and junior girls are proceeding, now that the town of Jupiter has agreed to rent the high school stadium for the event. The tentative game date is May 27. The game had been canceled by school officials, who cited safety concerns. But the players and others at the high school persisted, and the town stepped in to assume some responsibility in the school's place. Palm Beach Post.

Early education: One-third of all children in Escambia County are unprepared for kindergarten, and most of them live in poverty, speakers tell attendees at the fourth annual Early Education Summit in Pensacola. Pensacola News Journal. (more…)

Amendment 8 debate. Video at the Naples Daily News. Featuring Jim Towey, Ave Maria University president, and Howard Simon, Florida ACLU executive director. The Naples Daily News also runs this op-ed in favor of 8.

Drug-sniffing dogs. The U.S. Supreme Court considers arguments in two cases, including one in Florida, with potential implications for the use of drug-sniffing dogs in public schools, reports Education Week.

U.S. Rep. Brown

Request for investigation. U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, wants an investigation of online education provider K12, reports StateImpact Florida.

Online growth. Lake County appoints its first virtual school principal, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Growth in tax credit scholarships. From redefinED (with speadsheet showing district-by-district growth over the past eight years). From Gradebook.

Vouchers and the Florida Supreme Court. Critics of the three justices up for a merit retention vote say their 2006 ruling on vouchers is evidence of liberal judicial activism, the Washington Post reports in a broader story about the campaign against the justices.

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…)