School districts would have more discretion to manage incoming transfer students under a new rewrite of school choice legislation approved today by a Florida Senate panel.
The revamped public school choice program in SB 1552 would let districts decide which of their schools have room to accept new students, an effort to address some of the logistical issues they have raised. Students would still have more freedom to choose public schools, both within their school districts and across district lines.
While the bill easily cleared the Senate education appropriations panel on a 5-2 vote, the changes did not alleviate every concern. Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, said that if the state does not fund transportation for every student, he feared some, especially those from low-income families, might not be able to take advantage of the new options.
“A child should not have an opportunity denied to them because their parents can’t afford to get them to whatever school,” he said.
Jesse Jackson, the superintendent of the well-regarded charter school system in Lake Wales, spoke in favor of some of the charter school provisions in the wide-ranging bill, including one creating a new charter school institute at Florida State University.
He said the schools in his network provide transportation to their students, sometimes at the expense of their operating budgets.
“There really has to be an effort to look at student transportation as a part of any conversation about choice,” Jackson said. “It really does make a difference.”
The latest Senate rewrite would clarify that districts have the option of providing transportation to students who take advantage of the expanded choice options, as some districts already do.
Montford, who also heads the state’s association of school superintendents, said there were still logistical issues that need to be ironed out.
“I do believe that this will encourage us to think way outside the box, and that, in itself will be good,” he said.
Democrats who opposed the bill raised the issue of financial planning. What happens if a school district invests in a school building, and parents wind up leaving for a neighboring district?
Sen. John Legg, R-Trinity, said parents could choose other schools for a range of reasons, from academic opportunities to a need to place their children in a school near where they work. He said parents shouldn’t be denied those options.
“I sympathize with that school district. I really, really do,” he said. “But I sympathize with that parent a whole a heck of a lot more.”
