The lawsuits addressing Florida's failure to provide high-quality schools have stirred the pot. Here is a summary of the recent print media coverage.

As usual, thanks to Mark Pudlow for the clips and the leads.

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“The Florida Constitution requires a ‘high-quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high-quality education.’ A lawsuit filed last week in Tallahassee on behalf of a coalition of public school parents and students claims the state has failed to meet that obligation by not spending enough money, misusing the FCAT, failing to ensure school safety and keeping teacher salaries too low. It points to a number of education measures where Florida ranks well below average, much less high-quality. While the prospects of a court victory are debatable, the lawsuit can galvanize Floridians to demand better and put pressure on the Legislature to respond. The Legislature has failed to treat the education of Florida's children as the ‘paramount duty’ enumerated in the Constitution. Nine years ago, the state share of public education money was 62 percent, the suit notes. Now it is 44 percent, as lawmakers have shifted more of the burden from the state to local taxpayers. Districts have been coping by cutting programs and reducing staff. Only federal stimulus money has prevented thousands of layoffs and full-fledged cash crisis. The issue is not simply money. Parents are awakening to the problems of public schools and are learning they must push Tallahassee to do the right thing by their children -- by coordinating their efforts regionally, by supporting fair legislative redistricting and by voting for candidates who will be good stewards of public education.” -- St. Petersburg Times editorial
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials...schools/1053305

“A final point worth nothing -- both lawsuits take issue with Florida's consistent reliance on high-stakes testing to prove educational achievement. They assert that the use of the FCAT and other standardized tests to make decisions affecting school funding and student advancement has endangered the state's ability to provide high-quality education. It's the same argument educational experts have made from the beginning -- standardized tests are useful when measuring individual student achievement, but dangerous when used to assess the quality of an educational system. Florida's poor performance on other key measures -- such as graduation rate -- demonstrate the folly of depending on standardized tests for definitive assessments of schools.” -- Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJour...OPN16112309.htm

“The action has been a long time coming. Maybe we missed it, but we don't think Florida has a constitutional mandate requiring lawmakers to keep taxes as low as possible at the expense of our children.” -- Gainesville Sun editorial
http://www.gainesville.com/article/2009112.../911211002/1017

“But this will require an extraordinary act of judicial activism. Writing the school budget each year could become a two-step process: The Legislature passes it; the courts review it to make sure it is ‘high quality.’ If our Legislature is hostile to education, it is still the Legislature elected by the people of Florida. To be sure, our election system is biased by campaign money loopholes and rigged voting districts. If we addressed those factors, we might have a different Legislature. But that is hard. To an extent, filing a lawsuit like this is asking the courts to do the work of democracy for us.” -- St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legi...usy-job/1053567

“A lawsuit that accuses Florida of running shoddy schools is a half-baked, politically motivated crock. And that's too bad because it begins by making an excellent point: State lawmakers have shirked their responsibility to fund public schools by shifting that burden to property taxes. Less than half the funding for public schools now comes from the state. That needs to stop. And that's where the lawsuit should stop.” -- Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...000,full.column

an interview with plaintiffs and attorneys in a Florida high-quality schools lawsuit http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2009/11/...ls-lawsuit.html