A Republican senator has revived an education bill that sharply divided the caucus in 2012, potentially sparking a renewed fight over how big of a say parents should have in school overhauls and testing the newly conservative bent of the chamber.
Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, filed a new version of the legislation, commonly known as the “parent trigger bill,” on Wednesday. The proposal (SB 862) would allow parents to petition their school board to adopt a specific turnaround option for any school that drew an “F” on state report cards for two straight years.
If a majority of parents were to sign the petition, the district would either have to implement the plan or submit both the parents’ plan and its own choice to the State Board of Education, which would then choose one of the proposals.
“When you give parents the opportunity to get involved and do what’s best for their kids, it’s a win,” Stargel said Wednesday.
Supporters are hopeful that the measure will pass this year. Retweeting a blogger’s question about whether the bill might have a better chance in 2013, House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, added one word: “Yes.”
But opponents say the bill is meant to increase the number of charter schools in Florida and allow deep-pocketed companies to fund campaigns allowing them to essentially take over public schools.
“We should focus our efforts on improving public schools, not giving up on them by handing the keys to a for-profit corporation,” Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, said in a statement. “Our teachers, our children, and our public schools are not for sale.”
In a rare move for legislation that has not even been heard in committee, the Florida Democratic Party issued a statement blasting the proposal.
“This bill is nothing more than the same failed education policies that have drained millions of tax dollars from our public schools, and given these dollars to out of state corporations and for-profit companies who seek to profit off our children’s education,” said Scott Arceneaux, the party’s executive director.
Similar legislation died in the final days of the 2012 session, victim to infighting in the fractious GOP majority in the Senate. Eight Republicans broke ranks with party leadership and killed the bill on a tie vote, despite support for the legislation from Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush.
But five of those Republicans are gone — former Sen. Mike Fasano is now in the House — and several of them have been replaced by lawmakers believed to be less willing to buck party leadership. Even if the remaining GOP renegades voted with a larger Democratic minority again, the bill would pass unless additional Republicans jumped ship.
And it’s not entirely clear that every lawmaker who voted against the bill in 2012 would vote against it again. Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, was a cosponsor of the parent trigger bill last session but voted against it on the floor, reportedly after Senate leaders refused to allow a vote on a worker’s compensation bill Hays backed.
Hays said Wednesday he would not commit to supporting the new legislation, but did seem open to it.
“If it’s the same language, I’m likely to be a cosponsor again,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stargel said she’s tried to help the bill by keeping some of the same changes that were made in an effort to swing votes in 2012.
“I didn’t reinvent that wheel,” she said. “I picked up the compromises that were made last year that were good compromises and I think bettered the bill, and we started there.”
By Brandon Larrabee
