Florida Education Association
News Service Florida
TALLAHASSEE – Saying that “nothing in the emergency order requires any teacher or any student to return to the classroom,” a state appeals court Friday overturned a ruling that said Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran violated the Florida Constitution when he issued a July order aimed at reopening schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, in a 31-page decision, flatly rejected the conclusions of Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson, who in August sided with teachers unions that challenged Corcoran’s order. The unions argued, at least in part, that the order violated a constitutional guarantee of “safe” and “secure” public education.
The appeals court said the plaintiffs in the case lacked legal standing and were asking courts to decide “non-justiciable political questions.” Also, the panel said the union’s arguments would require courts to violate the constitutional separation of powers and that they failed to show Corcoran’s order was “arbitrary and capricious.”
In addressing the standing issue, the appeals court said the plaintiffs “have not shown a causal connection between their alleged injury and implementation of the emergency order.”
“Their alleged injury — being forced to return to the classroom — stems from decisions made by school districts,” Judge Lori Rowe wrote in a decision joined by Judges Thomas Winokur and Harvey Jay. “School districts decide whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction. School districts assign teachers to classrooms and approve or deny their requested accommodations. And school districts decide whether to offer students the choice of online instruction.”
Rowe also wrote that Dodson’s ruling “reveals the perils of judicial decision-making in this policy-laden arena.”
“To measure whether the public school system is ‘safe’ and ‘secure,’ the trial court would need to identify standards to make that measurement — beginning by evaluating the risks posed by COVID-19,” Friday’s decision said.
“And even if the trial court were qualified to isolate and weigh the safety risks posed by the virus, whether it is safe enough to reopen schools is not a binary question answered with a simple yes or no based on the latest public health metrics on COVID-19. The court would still need to consider many other factors to determine whether the state met its obligation to provide for safe and secure schools.”
Corcoran issued the order as he and Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for schools to reopen after being shuttered in March because of the pandemic. Students in the spring were shifted to online learning, but Corcoran and DeSantis argued that students and families should have a choice of in-person or online learning during the 2020-2021 school year.
The Florida Education Association statewide union and other plaintiffs, however, argued that teachers could be placed in unsafe situations if required to return to classrooms. Plaintiffs filed two lawsuits, which were subsequently consolidated, that challenged the constitutionality of the order.
A key issue in the dispute involved part of the order that dealt with the way public schools are funded. The order effectively conditioned a portion of money on school districts submitting reopening plans that included the use of brick-and-mortar classrooms, in addition to offering online alternatives.
In his Aug. 24 ruling granting a temporary injunction, Dodson said the order left school districts with “no meaningful alternative” about reopening classrooms.
“An injunction in this case will allow local school boards to make safety determinations for the reopening of schools without financial penalty,” Dodson wrote. “This is what the local school boards were elected to do. Every witness testified that any decision to reopen schools should be based on local conditions.
Reasoned and data-driven decisions based on local conditions will minimize further community spread of COVID-19, severe illness, and possible death of children, teachers and school staff, their families, and the community at large. Such local decisions unequivocally serve the public interest.”
But Rowe in Friday’s decision wrote that the state “presented multiple rational reasons for reopening schools, including evidence that many students would suffer educational, mental, and physical harms if they were unable to return to the classroom.” Also, the decision backed Corcoran on the financing issue.
“The offer to provide increased state funding to school districts that reopen for in-person instruction is also rational,” Rowe wrote. “Without action by the Legislature or statutory waivers under an executive order, school districts would receive funding under existing statutes and rules that tie funding to student enrollment and offer lower reimbursement for online classes. But because the commissioner exercised his discretion to provide waivers from the funding statutes and rules, school districts were eligible to receive increased funding. Even if student enrollment decreased and the number of students enrolling in online classes increased.”
Amid the legal battle, classrooms have opened at schools throughout the state, while many families have opted to have their children learn online because of the pandemic. The appeals court decision said Corcoran’s order gave school districts discretion about how to handle the situation.
“Nothing in the emergency order disturbs a school district’s discretion to determine when to reopen schools and whether to offer in-person instruction,” Rowe wrote. “In fact, the emergency order does not require school districts to do anything. Rather, school districts retain the discretion to continue to offer students the choice of in-person instruction, to require teachers to report for duty under their contracts, and to determine teaching assignments. And so, whether a school district assigns them to in-person or online instruction is a matter between those teachers and their employing school districts.”
The only good option is a dead option!
At the conclusion of one of the most criminally underappreciated very bad movies of all time, the 90210 kids-turned-space-marines of “Starship Troopers” capture a “brain bug.”
Neil Patrick Harris as Col. Carl Jenkins uses his mind-reading powers to intuit the thoughts of the hulking killer space roach monster. As luck would have it, this alien from the other side of the galaxy thinks in English.
“It’s afraid…” Jenkins says softly at first. “IT’S AFRAID!!!!” he then exclaims triumphantly to the cheers of the gathered troopers.
(You can watch this masterpiece of cinema here.)
Evidence of pandemic pod fear among the K-12 traditionalist left is everywhere. Listen to this Soho forum debate for instance. Or read this Arizona Republic article that interviews a single parent as representative of a micro-school organization with thousands of parents. This single parent admits being dissatisfied with public and private schools and is a known associate of an anti-choice activist group, a small detail that went unmentioned.
“While pandemic pods may seem relatively harmless, they are part of a growing trend towards education privatization that undermines public education and democracy” another critic asserts.
So, what to take away from this?
If there is a nefarious plot out there to damage public education, one need look no further than the decisions of NEA affiliates like the Florida Education Association to find the most effective practitioners. The FEA has been in court trying to prevent the reopening of schools that a large percentage of Florida families clearly desire.
Any ability of villains such as myself to promote micro-schools simply are dwarfed by the far grander efforts of the Florida Education Association to encourage their adoption. Those of my tribe should simply pull up a couch, eat some popcorn and wonder at the bizarre choices being made by the opponents of educational freedom.
Teachers, after all, have a great deal to gain from this trend. A small but growing number of teachers who didn’t find operating in huge impersonal bureaucracies their personal cup of tea have found joy in running their own small schools. There is a large pool of potential teachers out there unwilling to teach in big-box schools but who might return to the profession if they get to be in charge of their own school.
This trend seems popular among both families and teachers, which I find thrilling, and alas, the education tradionalists find fearful.
“The only good bug is a dead bug!” is a catchphrase from the dystopian, quasi-fascist world of “Starship Troopers.” It is a shame these folks apparently view it as inspiration for what seems to be their guiding philosophy:
“The only good school is a zoned, unionized school!”