I never ceased to be amazed at the agility of Florida’s governor and legislature when it comes to getting around court rulings. They are so very good at it. Jeb is going to keep his vouchers, come hell or high water.
I find myself wondering just how much the private schools, particularly religious ones who are getting public school money, will really like being regulated by the public school system. That should really go over in a big way.
Bill would expand corporate program, increase regulation of private schools.
TALLAHASSEE — About 700 children in a voucher program that the Florida Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional could remain in private schools at taxpayer expense under a bill that cleared a House committee Friday.
The measure also would increase state regulation and accountability for private schools that take voucher students under two remaining state programs, including a requirement for fingerprinting and criminal background checks of teachers and other staff.
The Republican-dominated House Education Appropriations Committee approved the bill 164. The opponents, all Democrats, praised the accountability standards but objected to letting students receiving unconstitutional “opportunity scholarships” shift to another voucher program for poor children.
Here is more about the previous court ruling.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program, a keystone of Gov. Jeb Bush’s 1999 school accountability overhauls, provided vouchers to students from public schools graded F by the state for two years out of four.
The Supreme Court ruled the program violated a provision in the Florida Constitution that requires a uniform system of public schools, and that it must cease at the end of the current school year. The justices found it created a separate system for voucher schools that are exempt from many rules and requirements that public schools must meet.
Jeb and his friends recently had a voucher rally in Tally. Here is a picture. It is rather blatant in its attempts to appeal. He is shameless.
Now if the judges had just ruled that giving public school money to private religious schools was wrong, this could not happen.
