Yesterday's action by the Tax and Budget Reform Committee reveals the committee for what it is, a group of ideologues bent on destroying public education in the state.
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Florida voters to settle voucher question

Classroom spending is at issue again, too
Leslie Postal | Sentinel Staff Writer
April 26, 2008

Now Florida voters get to decide whether they want their taxes to pay for private-school tuition.

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission decided Friday to put the voucher question on the November ballot, coupled with a measure asking voters whether school districts should be required to spend 65 percent of their money on classrooms.

The proposed amendment to the state constitution would, in essence, ask voters whether they want to undo a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision that killed the state's first voucher program. That program offered private-school scholarships to students at failing public schools.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who made vouchers a centerpiece of his administration, applauded the move.

"Florida voters, not activist jurists, will ultimately decide the best way to provide a quality education for all of our students," he said in a statement.

Bush said the voucher program had given families options and provided low-performing schools with an incentive to improve.

Supporters said the proposed amendment also would protect Florida's two other, never-challenged voucher programs. One is for low-income students, the other for disabled children.

Critics questioned whether the measure was legal, given the commission's authority is limited to tax and budget issues. But supporters said the measure is a financial issue because the remaining voucher programs save the state money.

The Florida Education Association led the charge against the voucher program and may consider legal action to keep the amendment off the ballot....
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School vouchers to be on November ballot

By Alex Leary, Times Staff Writer
Published Friday, April 25, 2008 9:52 PM

SCHOOL FUNDING/VOUCHERS: Directs the state to order that 65 percent of school funding go toward classroom instruction. Changes a provision of the state Constitution to allow for public funding for private schools through vouchers.

The debate over school vouchers is about to make a roaring comeback in Florida.

On Friday, a powerful citizen commission voted to put a measure on the November ballot that would provide legal protection for vouchers and could pave the way for the return of the Opportunity Scholarships championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush....

Friday's voucher proposal, which passed on a 19-6 vote, seeks to reverse a 2006 state Supreme Court decision that struck down Bush's program on the basis that the state Constitution calls for a "uniform system of free public schools."

If approved by 60 percent of voters, the Constitution would be amended to say the uniform system is "a minimum, nonexclusive duty."

The measure would allow for public funding of private school alternatives "without creating an entitlement," the ballot reads. Opponents strongly disagreed, saying it provides a mandate for private school funding.

The conflict that arose Friday provided a preview of the debate that will play out in the months to come....

In a statement, Bush applauded the move, saying it ensured "Florida voters, not activist jurists, will ultimately decide the best way to provide a quality education for all of our students."

Educators say public opinion polls indicate low support for school vouchers. But a little maneuvering Friday may have alleviated that problem.

The voucher proposal was merged with a far less controversial one that would require 65 percent of all school funding go for classroom instruction.

Most school districts already meet this standard, so the measure is symbolic and, some argued, unnecessary.

"It doesn't do anything. It's almost like a Seinfeld episode," said Democratic state Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, a nonvoting member of the commission.

But it will be used as a sweetener to get people to vote for vouchers. The innocuous 65 percent language will appear first on the ballot item, overshadowing the language paving the way for school vouchers. Nor does the word "voucher" appear on the ballot.

"It's terribly misleading," said commission member Les Miller, a former state senator from Tampa. He predicted lawyers will challenge it on those grounds.

Fellow commission member Patricia Levesque disagreed, saying the ballot language spelled out both issues clearly. She said they deserve to be combined because both are related to education.

Still, Levesque, who runs Bush's nonprofit education foundation, conceded that the 65 percent mandate could help vouchers.

On Thursday, the tax commission approved a related voucher measure aimed at overturning an appellate court decision on Bush's voucher program. The court said it ran afoul of a constitutional provision on state aid to religious programs.

If voters approve, the long-held "no-aid" Blaine Amendment would be replaced with the following: "Individuals or entities may not be barred from participating in public programs because of their religion."

Critics, including a teacher's union that challenged Bush's voucher program in court, are expected to campaign against the measures.

"For them to dabble in religious freedom and vouchers and not deal with the acute taxation and budget needs of the state for which they were created is a disappointment," said Ron Meyer, the lawyer who brought the lawsuit against Bush.

RELIGION: A constitutional ban on direct and indirect state financial aid to churches and religious organizations would be repealed.

TAX SWAP: A state-required local school tax would be repealed, lowering overall property tax bills by 25 percent. The Legislature would be required to make up the lost school money by raising the sales tax 1 percentage point, repealing sales tax exemptions and cutting other spending. The proposal also would give nonhomestead properties a 5 percent cap on annual assessment increases.
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School voucher amendment headed to voters in November

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS

The citizen panel empowered to put amendments before voters ended its first meeting in 20 years with a bang Friday, asking Floridians to defy the state Supreme Court by allowing tax money to pay for kids to go to private schools.

The proposal to allow the state to pay for private school vouchers was the last constitutional amendment -- one of seven -- the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission agreed to put on the November ballot.

If 60 percent of voters agree, the measure will undo a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that threw out the vouchers as unconstitutional. The vouchers were the brainchild of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, who wanted the state to pay to send students in low-performing public schools to private schools.

''The purpose of this amendment is to protect charter schools, to protect virtual education . . . and the alternatives that exist to the public school system,'' said Pat Levesque, who runs Bush's pro-voucher foundation and sponsored the amendment.

But opponents said it will establish a private school entitlement to public money and scolded the commission for introducing a nonbudget-related, ideological proposal into the agenda.

''You'd be the first state in the union to create a right, an obligation and mandate to have publicly financed private schools,'' said state Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and nonvoting member of the commission, who called the amendment ``ideological pork.''

The voucher proposal will be rolled into one amendment with the so-called 65 percent solution, which would force school districts to spend at least that percentage of their budgets in the classroom.

Both ideas have been repeatedly rejected by the Legislature, blasted by critics as far removed from the panel's mission and rejected as recently as two weeks ago by the 25-member commission.

But when the commission gave final approval to its hallmark piece of tax reform on Thursday -- a plan to lower all property taxes by about 25 percent and force Tallahassee to make up the money with sales taxes and other revenue -- key opposition to the education schemes disappeared.

Three members switched their votes, including tax swap author John McKay, and the panel voted 19-6 for the voucher amendment. It takes a supermajority of 17 votes to put an amendment to voters.

The voucher amendment is the second proposal the commission has placed on the ballot designed to reverse the court ruling in Bush v. Holmes, the landmark voucher case. The other proposal would remove language from the Constitution that bans using tax dollars for religious-based schools and institutions.

The voucher amendment focuses on adding six words to Article IX of the state Constitution, spelling out that the state's fundamental duty to provide education to all children will be ``fulfilled at a minimum and not exclusively through adequate provision by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality system of free public schools.''

The words ''at a minimum and not exclusively,'' the commission believes, will invalidate the high court ruling, which rejected the vouchers as violating the constitutional mandate for uniform public schools....
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Voters to weigh proposal allowing school vouchers
By DWAYNE ROBINSON

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, April 25, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — A constitutional amendment is slated to appear on November's ballot that would reauthorize school vouchers and possibly allow public money to fund religious and secular private schools.

Supporters say the measure, approved Friday by a powerful commission, is meant for vouchers and other programs such as Bright Futures scholarships, but opponents say it could open the door for legislators to directly finance private schools - possibly a first in the country.

Another first would be approving vouchers on a ballot if Florida voters do so Nov. 4, say advocates and opponents of school vouchers.

And the prospects here are, perhaps, greater than anywhere else.

That's because on Friday, voucher supporters topped that measure with one likely to be widely supported - requiring 65 percent of all education dollars to be spent in the classroom, not on administrative or bureaucratic costs.

Both items will appear as a single ballot question in November, with the so-called 65 percent solution first.

"I do understand what bait-and-switch means," said former state House member and American Bar Association President Sandy D'Alemberte, who sits on the commission. "When you combine two different measures and give them (voters) only one chance to vote, you're not giving them a chance to vote against something."

Three weeks after the proposal before the Taxation Budget and Reform Commission failed by one vote, the board approved the plan 19-6, two more votes than the two-thirds majority it needed.

The only means to remove it from the ballot is a legal challenge, according to a Department of State spokeswoman. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida Education Association, which represents teachers, said Friday that they intend to fight the vouchers but have not decided whether to file lawsuits....

Supporters say the measure is not just about vouchers; they're trying to salvage other popular programs such as Bright Futures.

"This is about any alternatives to the public school system, which charter schools are, virtual schools are and other programs that the legislature wants to authorize," said Commissioner Patricia Levesque, a former deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Filled with a number of former Bush aides and appointees, the commission implicitly embraced a concept that a 2006 state Supreme Court decision striking down Bush's vouchers - the Opportunity Scholarships - also jeopardized other educational programs. The ruling states that the legislature must fund only public schools, so anything outside that sphere, including private schools or even the Bright Futures Scholarships to private colleges, is in danger, according to voucher supporters.

The proposed constitutional amendment states that the legislature must fund the public school system at a minimum but not exclusively. And new language added Friday does not require that the lawmakers pay for private education programs if they don't want to - a move that got two commissioners to change their votes in support.

While the amendment would set funding public schools as a floor for the legislature, it's unclear what its ceiling would be or the limit on its authority to pay for private education.

Opponents suggest the legislature could be free to directly budget money for nonreligious private schools, along with the public variety. (Some say the state risks violating the First Amendment's prohibition against establishing religion by doing the same with religious schools.)

Backers, including commission Vice Chairman James Scott and Commissioner Bobby Martinez, said that was not the intent, but they acknowledged they had not considered that possibility....

Florida Education Association attorney Ron Meyer said the amendment does open that door and condemned the commission for doing so.

"I think the commission ran amok and got into areas it had no business getting into just to please Jeb Bush and his various appointees to the commission," Meyer said.

The idea that the commission overstepped its constitutional authority by wading into education waters likely would be one of the grounds for challenging the ballot initiatives. Another may be the coupling of vouchers with the so-called 65 percent solution for classrooms - a maneuver that voucher proponents said they hope would improve the voucher proposal's prospects at the ballot box.

"I certainly wouldn't want to put anything on there that would make it harder," Levesque said.
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If passed, tax panel's proposal would reinstate Jeb Bush program

By Joe Follick

TALLAHASSEE — In a move that will almost certainly revive legal battles over using taxpayer money for private schools, a commission voted Friday to give voters a choice to essentially reverse a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision that found then-Gov. Jeb Bush's prized voucher program unconstitutional....

The panel's last meeting ended in a haze of mystery. Bush allies on the commission succeeded in passing a plan that would end the constitutional ban on using taxpayer money for K-12 education anywhere other than the public school system. To help sweeten the measure for voters, the proposal was abruptly joined with an unrelated plan that requires school districts to spent at least 65 percent of their revenue on "classroom instruction rather than on administration."...

The 2006 court decision ended Bush's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provided vouchers for about 700 students in low-performing public schools to attend private schools. The court said the vouchers violated the state's constitutional requirement for a "uniform" system of education by using taxpayer money at private schools that did not have to meet the same standards as public schools.

In a rare public statement, Bush applauded the plan....

"Unfortunately, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the successful program partly under the tortured reasoning that a better education from a private school was unconstitutional because it was different than the education provided by a public school," Bush said. "Thanks to the good work of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, Florida voters, not activist jurists, will ultimately decide the best way to provide a quality education for all of our students."

The TBRC had defeated the voucher plan this month. But it mysteriously came back to life this week and was approved, leading some to wonder if votes were being traded among panel members for support on other plans.

"People didn't vote for this on the basis of merit, they voted on the basis of deal-making," said Ron Meyer, a teachers' union attorney who won the 2006 Supreme Court case. "That's not a good way to amend the constitution."

Gelber, the House Democratic leader, said the commission had overreached its constitutional duty to focus on taxes and spending.

"I think if you asked the average Floridian whether the people they were hoping would provide relief and reform to Florida's dysfunctional and inequitable tax system spent a minute of their day on vouchers, they would be shocked," said Gelber. "I think this is as wrong-headed a proposal as the commission could come up with."

The clear centerpiece of the TBRC's work was the "tax swap" that, if approved by voters, would cut property taxes by about 25 percent in exchange for an unknown increase and expansion of the state's sales tax.

But that plan, like most of the others approved by the TBRC, did not need constitutional changes and could have been passed into law by the Legislature.

The TBRC "became the commission where if people couldn't get things done legislatively, they brought it to this commission," Miller said.
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