Lawsuit: Amendment 8 summary 'misleading' about control of charter schools

The summary language of a proposed constitutional amendment that would revoke the exclusive authority of school boards to operate public charter schools is “affirmatively misleading” to voters, according to a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida against Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner.

Amendment 8 includes three proposals, which critics have said are unrelated: 

• Limit school board members to serving no more than eight consecutive years.
• Require the state to promote civic literacy.
• Allow school boards to control only the public schools they establish.  

The complaint filed July 12 argues the ballot title and summary “conceal(s) from voters the chief purpose” of the school board-related part of the amendment, which would grant the state or a designated private entity authority over charter schools. Charter schools in Florida operate on tax dollars but are privately run.

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The title of the amendment is “School Board Term Limits and Duties; Public Schools” and the full summary reads:

“Creates a term limit of eight consecutive years for school board members and requires the legislature to provide for the promotion of civic literacy in public schools. Currently, district school boards have a constitutional duty to operate, control, and supervise all public schools. The amendment maintains a school board’s duties to public schools it establishes, but permits the state to operate, control, and supervise public schools not established by the school board.”

The League’s complaint alleges this language fails to inform voters that the effect of the shift in authority “would be to allow for the creation of brand new, unnamed additional path(s) for the authorization, operation, control, and supervision of newly-created charter schools and potentially other unspecified public schools” and would permit any person or entity, public or private, authority over these schools.  

“The Amendment 8 language is blatantly, and unconstitutionally, misleading,” said Patricia M. Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida.

“Voters will not recognize that the real purpose of the amendment is to allow unaccountable political appointees to control where and when charter schools can be established in their county,” Brigham said in an emailed statement.

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Collier County School Board member and Constitution Revision Commission member Erika Donalds sponsored the charter school-related measure and the amendment in its entirety.

Donalds defended the summary as an accurate and complete description of the potential effects of the amendment and said she trusted the opinions of the attorney who approved the language.

Donalds said she thinks the League’s issue is with the amendment itself and not the summary language.

“(The League) frequently uses the courts to fight policies they don’t like,” she said. “I won’t be surprised if later they sue again to stop the amendment from being implemented.”

But some commissioners also have expressed concerns over the ballot title and summary.

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Constitution Revision Commission member Roberto Martinez, the former State Board of Education chairman, unsuccessfully proposed to add “Alternative State Supervision of Certain Public Schools” to the amendment title to reflect what he said would be a “game-changer” to public education governance.

“The title, it doesn’t sufficiently describe it. It’s a big deal,” he said at the April 16 hearing. “I think it is important that the public be informed that … what they are voting for is something that is significant, and it isn’t just about public schools, it’s something much more than that.”

Of the 13 proposals that will appear on the November ballot, Amendment 8 was one of the most controversial, due in part to the bundling of separate items.

The complaint argues the measures related to term limits and civic literacy are widely supported, while the school board section “was intentionally drafted to be vague.”

Each ballot measure must receive 60 percent of the vote to pass.