State Supreme Court to Decide if the Legislature Provides Quality Education
May 2nd, 2018 by Jake StofanA lawsuit accusing the Florida Legislature of failing to adequately fund Florida schools will get a new hearing.
Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board of Education was first filed 9 years ago.
Previous rulings have sided in favor of the state, but education advocates will now get a chance to take their arguments to the state’s highest court.
“What this particular case is about is what does high quality mean,” said Executive Director of the Florida School Boards Association Andrea Messina. “And equally as important, is the state delivering on that constitutional mandate?”
The suit argues the Florida Legislature has failed to provide a “high quality” public education system.
“This year’s Legislative session was a perfect example of that with only 47 cents being added per student. Not even enough for the cost of a postage stamp,” said Luke Flynt with the Florida Education Association.
They also say students have been negatively impacted by policies like requiring state testing and grading schools on an A to F scale.
“We know that no child should be judged on just one test given on one day,” said Flynt.
In the two previous rulings that sided with the state. Judges said the lawsuit dealt with “political questions” that should be left up to lawmakers to decide.
But education advocates say properly funding education is anything but political.
“We believe that there is some room for the court to determine what quality looks like and what quality should be expected by the citizens of Florida,” said Messina.
The lack of funding has been compounded by the new school safety Legislation, which requires districts to have at least one resource officer in every school.
Citizens for Strong Schools has until May 21st to file their initial brief, although no date has been set for oral arguments.
At least two counties are considering increasing sales taxes to help pay for the officers.
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