Our Opinion: Education violation
Lawsuits seek reliable data, then progress
In 1998, when 71 percent of Florida voters endorsed a constitutional amendment to make it a "paramount duty" of the state to provide quality education to students in our public schools, it was anticipated that several years might pass before this well-intended concept had enough meat on its bones to be enforceable.
That's fundamentally the intent of two "adequacy cases" filed in Florida courts this month, said Jon Mills, former House speaker, former University of Florida Law School dean and one of the authors of the amendment. "One of the good things that comes through litigation," he said, "will be to more thoroughly evaluate 'high quality' and the reliability of the facts and data."
Mr. Mills, one of the attorneys in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Leon County Circuit Court, was on the Constitution Revision Commission that sent this amendment to the voters and introduced this specific one. Similar lawsuits have been filed in 45 states.
Following a decade of FCAT scoring and tests that grade schools on their progress, and reward high-achieving schools, Florida remains 47th in the nation in graduation rates — despite some very good school districts, including Leon's, and excellent, if underpaid ($5,000 below the national average), teachers. Its per pupil spending is among the worst in the nation, with the state's share of school districts' budgets dropping from 62 percent in 2000 to 44 percent this year.
Students drop out in frustration before they even enter high school; minority students are too often on the down side of the achievement gap, entering school unprepared to learn, and the digital divide exacerbates economic and social inequities that are irrefutable despite data manipulated to win political gold stars.
The lawsuit filed in circuit court here by Mr. Mills, a Democrat, prominent Republican attorney Thom Rumberger and the Southern Legal Counsel represents a bipartisan trio of Orlando moms. It echoes a suit filed Nov. 5 by the American Civil Liberties Union in West Palm Beach, both accusing the state of violating its own constitution by not keeping this commitment to public education, the great equalizer.
These suits follow the threat of one in 2002 by the Florida Schools Boards Association, which never went forward with litigation, and the significant Bush v. Holmes interpretation of the constitutional requirement in 2006 by the Florida Supreme Court, which said that private school vouchers were diverting money away from the public schools....
-----
Read the entire editorial and post a comment on tallahassee.com.
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/2009112...ation-violation