Vouchers and the 65% Solution rear their ugly heads again thanks to guess who.

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Keep ideological fights out of state constitution

Palm Beach Post Editorial

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Some members of the state's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission are trying to put destructive and frivolous measures into the Florida Constitution.

What's destructive? An attempt by former Jeb Bush education adviser Patricia Levesque to renew the battle over giving public money to private religious schools. What's frivolous? A proposal by Greg Turbeville - another former policy adviser to Jeb Bush and now a lobbyist - that would require school districts to spend 65 percent of their budgets on "classroom instruction, rather than on administration."...

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Voucher vote discredits tax panel

By Randy Schultz, Editor of the Editorial Page

Sunday, March 30, 2008

For Jeb!, a very personal issue

In 1999, at Gov. Bush's urging, the Legislature allowed students at "failing" schools to get vouchers to attend religious schools. One of three voucher programs in Florida, it drew a lawsuit, on the grounds that it violated the Florida Constitution ban on public aid to religious institutions. In January 2006, the Florida Supreme Court threw out that voucher program as unconstitutional.

Two months later, at Gov. Bush's urging, some legislators tried to pass a bill that would get around the court ruling. They failed. Once Gov. Crist took office last year, the effort died. For Gov. Crist, the voucher issue isn't ideological and personal, as it is for Jeb Bush.

Ah, but the ex-governor had another option. After Mr. Bush left office, new House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, hired some of Mr. Bush's former aides. Based on Mr. Bush's glowing foreword to Rep. Rubio's book about new policy ideas for Florida, Rep. Rubio had become Mr. Bush's surrogate.

One of Rep. Rubio's duties last year was naming seven people to the 2007-08 Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. One of his appointees was Patricia Levesque, who had been Mr. Bush's top education adviser. Ms. Levesque proposed an amendment that would allow public money to religious schools. It wasn't about political payback, she insisted. It was good policy. It would end senseless discrimination in Florida against religious institutions. Right.

Who cares about conflicts of interest?

The proper response for the other commissioners would have been to give Ms. Levesque a courteous hearing, then move on. Article XI, Section 6, Paragraph D of the Florida Constitution starts off this way: "The commission shall examine the state budgetary process, the revenue needs and expenditure processes of the state, the appropriateness of the tax structure of the state, and governmental productivity and efficiency."

Nowhere does the constitution say that the commission should get into social issues, such as public aid to religious schools. Yet last week, 17 of the 25 commissioners - the minimum number needed for approval - supported Ms. Levesque's amendment. It will go to voters in November, advertised as correcting religious discrimination in Florida that doesn't exist.

When finished, the commission may have put several amendments on the ballot. Maybe some should be approved. But the idea of having such a commission is that non-politicians can deal with the tough tax and budget problems that never would get through the Legislature. Instead, this commission let Jeb Bush revenge politics get in the way of its mission: tax and budget reform.

Ms. Levesque, a non-lawyer, tried to argue last week that the constitution needs this change. Voting against her were Martha Barnett and Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, two former presidents of the American Bar Association. You decide who knows constitutional law.

Ms. Levesque directs the foundation dedicated to preserving Mr. Bush's education legacy of FCAT obsession. Another commission member, Brian Yablonski, is a foundation board member. Given that obvious conflict, they should not have voted on the voucher amendment, which then would have failed. They will offer no apologies.
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