The state of Florida moved quickly to appeal the judicial decision to knock Amendment 8 off the November ballot.
The decision will be rendered by the state’s Supreme Court.
The Florida League of Women Voters filed suit against Amendment 8 because it bundled three different school-related issues into a single amendment to the state constitution. The case was argued by the Southern Poverty Legal Center. The circuit judge in Tallahassee said the language of the amendment was confusing and misleading.
Critics say the true intent of the amendment is to strip local school boards of their authority over charter schools, cyber charters, and other forms of school choice.
A circuit judge in Tallahassee on Monday ruled Amendment 8 was “misleading” and ordered it removed from the Nov. 6 ballot. He ruled in a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, which argued voters should not be asked to change Florida’s Constitution based on Amendment 8’s unclear and deceptive language…
The most controversial of the three deals with charter schools and the other two with term limits for school board members and the teaching of civic literacy.
The league’s lawsuit focused on the section of Amendment 8 that would add a phrase that says local school boards could control only the public schools they established. It was proposed as a way to make it easier for charter schools — publicly funded but privately run schools — or other new educational options to flourish. Now, charter schools need local school board approval to open, but that requirement would vanish if the proposal passed.
Circuit Judge John Cooper said that the amendment’s wording did not make it clear what it would do and that the three items should not have been packaged together.
Critics of Amendment 8 said it would unconstitutionally take power away from locally elected school boards and allow charter schools — some of which have private, for-profit management companies — to operate with little oversight. Proponents said it would allow the Florida Legislature to open the door to more charter schools and other options, giving parents more choices and a greater ability to decide the school best for their children.
The amendment is an effort by Reformers, led by Jeb Bush and his ally Patricia Levesque, a member of the Constitutional Revision Commission, to deceive voters into approving unlimited expansion of charter schools.
Despite their claims about the popularity of charter schools, they dared not be clear about their purpose. They tried to pull a fast one. Let’s see if the Supreme Court of Florida lets them trick the voters.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Five of the current seven justices were appointed by these governors (all Republicans): Jeb Bush, Charlie Christ, and Rick Scott.
It seems only two were appointed by Democratic Governor Chiles Lawton back in 1997 – 98.
The big question: Is the Florida Supreme Court stacked to rule for what Republicans want just like the GOP is attempting with the US Supreme Court?
In 2019, three of the justices must retire and all three of them were appointed by Chiles.
Peggy A. Quince was appointed by Chiles but she became a justice after Jeb Bush was elected governor. Unless Florida replaces Rick Scott with a Democratic governor, Florida will be lost for generations after 2019. The odds favor that every justice will be appointed by a GOP governor like Scott or Bush.
Scott can’t run for re-election this year because of Florida’s term limits. The Democrats have a chance to save the state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Justices_of_the_Florida_Supreme_Court
Scott is also running for Senate trying to replace Bill Nelson. Scott can do a lot of damage in this position as well. Crist, by the way, was a moderate Republican who got drummed out of the corps when he dared to hug Obama for coming to Florida after a hurricane. He is now a Democrat. I don’t know if Crist’s judicial appointees are moderate though.
I wonder if there is a centralized source that sticks to the facts and lists their rulings on specific issues.
THIS must be the next big thing: there is typically no way to find out quickly and simply about the judges listed for election on our state ballots
Look what I found:
Judicial Disqualification Resource Center
Recusal and Disqualification of Judges and Other Adjudicators
http://www.judicialrecusal.com/judicial-rulings-comments-conduct/
Finding Data and Statistics on Judges
“increasingly it has become possible to isolate data by individual judge and no
longer rely on more general information about the jurisdiction in which the judge practices.”
Click to access 53-4.pdf
How to find legal cases by particular judge or entity
“Looking for cases by a particular judge or involving a particular entity? The best legal research approach even for narrow searches is to start with the global search box on Westlaw, powered by WestSearch.
https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/how-to-find-legal-cases-by-particular-judge-or-entity
THANKS LLOYD great resource
Lloyd, You’re a research sleuth.
It didn’t take them long to come back. The fact that the crooked privatizers want it so badly indicates it has a lot of potential to undermine public education. It is about moving vast amounts of local public money into Tallahassee’s hands bypassing local authority and diminishing democratic input.
Our fragile democracy is at risk by those oligarchs who want slaves because they need slaves. Gentrification is about slavery just as charters are about Jim Crow. It’s all connected. Sick.
I am surprised to learn that FL, a state already deep into school choice, actually has a law on the books giving locally-elected school boards the prerogative to decide if they need/ want a new charter school. Most states I read about here have charter law that allows state DOEds to put new charters wherever they want. If I were a Floridian conservative, I would run not walk to my elected reps & demand continuation of local control via thumbs down on Amendment 8.
But this is a success story in that local orgs have forced the issue into the limelight via lawsuit – and the state appeal brings it back into the media for another look by the public; hopefully they’ll get a clue & keep pushing back against Bush, Levesque, et al frontmen for anti-democratic corporate predators.