{"id":2964,"date":"2017-11-24T10:08:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T15:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2964"},"modified":"2017-11-24T10:08:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T15:08:36","slug":"education-a-target-for-constitution-revision-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2964","title":{"rendered":"Education a target for Constitution Revision Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every two decades a commission is charged with reviewing the Florida constitution and suggesting changes to it. I admit that I know very little about the process, so I will rely on you folks to educate me and guide all of us through the process. I do know that the commission has held public hearings and after some deliberations generated a list of proposed changes to the constitution. This Sun-Sentinel article lists the final 103 proposals<\/a>. There are quite a few items that target education. For instance, here’s a couple of proposals:<\/p>\n

4.\u00c2\u00a0Deleting language barring state funds from going to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153aid of any church, sect or religious denomination.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

59. Allowing the state to use taxpayer dollars to fund private, religious schools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wrote about that part of the state constitution in chapter eight of my book Going Ape<\/a>. When Jeb Bush was governor he made many significant changes to the education system. In 1999 he worked with the state legislature to create the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which was a voucher program that allowed students who attended consistently failing public schools to either transfer to a high-performing public school or use state funds to attend a participating private school. The program was quickly challenged because the majority of participating private school were religious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>“Many of the parents bring their kids here because they want a Christian education,” the principal of a voucher-accepting private school told the Palm Beach Post<\/em> in 2005. “And a Christian education does not include evolution.”<\/p>\n

The ACLU and the National Education Association sued to have the\u00c2\u00a0Opportunity Scholarship Program stopped. They had several problems with the program, one of them being that public money going to private religious schools violated Article I, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution, which states “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.”<\/p>\n

After several years, the final court decision was that the\u00c2\u00a0Opportunity Scholarship Program was in violation of the state constitution. The part of the constitution cited in the ruling, though, was one that requires the state to provide a “uniform, high quality education.” In other words, the private schools could use any curriculum they wanted and didn’t have to adhere to any particular education standards, which doesn’t live up to the constitution’s mandate of “uniform” education. Lower court rulings did say the program violated the “aid to sectarian institution” prohibition but the Florida Supreme Court didn’t offer any opinion on that matter, instead focusing on the “quality education” argument. Thus, that program was finally killed.<\/p>\n

But there are many other education-related proposals on the commission’s list, such as this:<\/p>\n

45. Changing the wording of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public education\u00e2\u20ac\u009d section of the constitution from requiring a system of free public schools that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153allows students to obtain a high quality education\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to one that allows \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for the opportunity for each student to obtain a high quality education.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Also lays out that nothing in this section prevents the Legislature from creating other educational opportunities in addition to free public schools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Florida does currently have other voucher programs, but not ones that were so wide open as the\u00c2\u00a0Opportunity Scholarship Program was. It’s obvious, though, that there is a determined effort to return to the good ol’ days of vouchers for everyone. Will the\u00c2\u00a0Constitution Revision Commission’s proposals be a step in that direction?<\/p>\n

There are other education-related items on the commission’s list:<\/p>\n

10. Requiring civic literacy to be taught in schools.
\n25. Creating a 17-member board of directors for the state college system, which will oversee all community colleges and state colleges, but not universities.
\n32. Taking away any compensation except travel and per diem expenses from members of the state board of education, school boards, university boards of trustees and the university system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board of governors.
\n33. Ending election of school superintendents and making all of them appointed by county school boards.
\n43. Preventing people from running for school board if they have been on the board for the previous eight consecutive years.
\n44. Requiring the vote of nine members of a university board of trustees and 12 members of the university system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board of governors to increase fees or tuition at a university.
\n71. Adding to the section on school boards in the constitution that nothing within the section limits the Florida Legislature\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to create alternatives to school boards for the establishment of charter schools.
\n82. Preventing school boards from setting the opening day of school more than a week before Labor Day.
\n83. Creating a State College System under the Florida Board of Education.
\n89. Stating that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it is the intent of the people to provide high quality and affordable postsecondary education opportunities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n90. Changing the maximum class size for a public school of 22 to an average class size of 22 within the school. Additionally, any funds leftover from those appropriated to maintain class size would go toward increasing teacher pay to the national average.
\n93. Allowing a school board, by a vote of the board or county voters, to turn a school district into a charter school district that is exempt from the same rules and regulations as a charter school.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you want to track any of the proposals, go to the Constitution Revision Commission website at www.flcrc.gov<\/a>. And I encourage anyone who knows more about this revision process than I to please volunteer to be our guide. It will be sincerely appreciated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every two decades a commission is charged with reviewing the Florida constitution and suggesting changes to it. I admit that I know very little about the process, so I will rely on you folks to educate me and guide all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-LO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3256,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3256","url_meta":{"origin":2964,"position":0},"title":"Constitution Revision Commission Update III","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Public hearings were held across the state by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission during which hundreds of concerned citizens voiced their opinions about the changes that should or should not be made to the Florida constitution. We've been watching this process closely because some propositions, if approved, would open the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3256#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/crc.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2975,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2975","url_meta":{"origin":2964,"position":1},"title":"Here’s an opportunity to sound off!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I told you about the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, charged with making recommendations for ways our state constitution can be revised. I pointed out that one suggestion filed by the commissions was this: 4. Deleting language barring state funds from going to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153aid of any church, sect or\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2989,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2989","url_meta":{"origin":2964,"position":2},"title":"News Roundup 12\/3\/17","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a quick roundup of events and news from the past few days ... Textbooks A couple of newspaper columnists seized on the news article produced by the Associated Press recently (I wrote about it in my previous post\u00c2\u00a0Teaching that global warming is caused by human activity is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blatant indoctrination\u00e2\u20ac\u009d).\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3195,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3195","url_meta":{"origin":2964,"position":3},"title":"Constitution Revision Commission Update II","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science board member David Campbell sent in the following update on the work of the Constitution Review Commission: As if Proposition 4\u00c2\u00a0 (which deletes the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No Aid\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to religious institutions clause) wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough reason to communicate with the members of the commission we have Proposition 45. Prop\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2985,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2985","url_meta":{"origin":2964,"position":4},"title":"Another “controversial theories” bill filed and other bad news","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My sincere apologies, folks. I have a laundry list of bad news to tell you about. Let's get right to it. \"Controversial Theories\" bill I've already told you about Senate Bill 966, introduced by Sen. Dennis Baxley, that proposes allowing school districts to adopt their own sets of educational standards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3191,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3191","url_meta":{"origin":2964,"position":5},"title":"Constitution Revision Commission Update","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a post sent in by Florida Citizens for Science board member David Campbell: The Constitution Revision Commission has finished its committee work and has a slate of final proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution that it must vote on for final approval no later than May 10.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2967,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions\/2967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}