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Six Reasons Conservatives Should Believe the Defeat of Amendment 8 Was Correct

September 11, 2018 - 10:00am

As the Florida Supreme Court considered and ultimately removed Amendment 8, the education constitutional amendment, from the November ballot, there was a debate occurring among Florida conservatives over both the wording and the merits of the proposal.

Part of the amendment allowed entities other than duly elected school boards, to authorize education alternatives, charter schools being chief among them. Some well-meaning conservatives have been arguing that opposition to Amendment 8 was limited only to liberals. These conservatives also said that opposition to Amendment 8 was a “vote for the status quo” where half of students, especially poor students, can’t read at grade level.

The truth is that there were many Floridians who opposed Amendment 8 specifically and are concerned about the rapid expansion of charter schools for conservative reasons. Here are the six most important:
 
Loss of Local Control

When has moving control of anything farther away from the local level increased parent or citizen control? Putting charter decisions in the hands of Tallahassee legislators or bureaucrats, many funded by the very charter corporations viewed with suspicion by Floridians, will not improve parental or local decision-making. The majority of charters are not high-performing like the Hillsdale classical charter in Collier County. They are corporate charters, the boards of which may not be in the same state or even country (think the controversial Turkish Gulen Harmony Schools), much less the same city or county as the schools they control. The same establishment groups and individuals that gave us Common Core and data mining were promoting this amendment. Neutering and or eliminating duly elected school boards has been on their to-do list for decades.
 
No Improvement in Curriculum – Still Common Core

While Florida parents may be under the impression that charter schools offer children a superior education, this is often not the case. The curriculum in the majority of charters follows the same Common Core standards used by Florida’s public schools, rebranded as the Florida Standards, and students are tested using the same invasive, Common Core-aligned assessments.  
 
Lack of Financial Stability

Many charters have proven to be fly-by-night operations that go belly-up without warning, abandoning the kids they are supposed to help. These charters leave  local taxpayers on the hook for all of the land, building, and equipment costs - $70 million through 2015. Despite this fact, taxpayers have little to no oversight or decision-making at these schools. 

Poor Academic Performance

The academic performance at charters is on the whole no better than public schools, especially at the low end, with data from Texas and Florida showing the same or greater percentages of disproportionally failing charters compared to public schools. These schools often refuse to serve children who need help the most - the poor and disabled. Looking at the demographics of high-performing charter schools, they do not include many of the children who were “waiting for Superman” - they have the kids who are already doing well.
 
Lack of Transparency

Regardless of one's opinions of charters, if the ideas behind the charter-related provisions of Amendment 8 were so fabulous, why weren’t the title and language made more clear so that there could be a reasonable debate? Incredibly, the amendment didn't even mention the word “charter.” Why was this piece of it bundled with two other issues more favored by voters? If 8 was so great, shouldn't it have been able to plainly stand on its own?
 
Excessive Government Strings

Co-mingling public funds for other education alternatives mentioned by Amendment 8 proponents would have opened the door widely to further government control of standards, curriculum, testing, and teaching. All parents would get in the end is a choice of location, not a choice of what their kids are taught. Conservative parents who want a true alternative to public schools want real choice without government strings, just as much as public school parents do not want public funds supporting private alternatives.

For these reasons and more, the courts were right to reject Amendment 8. Even if the courts had kept it on the ballot, voters should still have rejected it. Florida’s families deserve better.

Karen R. Effrem, M.D., is executive director of The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition.

Comments

Ok, I hear a lot of legitimte arguments about the corruption of charter Schools, However there are exceptions, along with ones mentioned, an extreme exception and very sucessful K-12 school here in Collier County, I didn't see mentioned above, is Mason Accadamy! A very Conservative and highly accademic school! Matter of fact, I understand it was rated the #1 K-12 school in the entire Nation! BTW it does get far less State funding then Public schools and has to rely heavily on donations and has been a very sucessful school for quite some time! A Hillsdale College sponcered school also. Founded by a very dedicated, magnificent Women, Kelly Mason Lichter.

The negatives about Charter Schools, including them having basically the same curriculum as public schools, do not apply to the already approved Treasure Coast Classical Academy. TCCA is a Hillsdale College Affiliated Classical Charter School with the following key features: A school culture requiring virtue, decorum, respect, discipline, and studiousness among students and faculty; a goal to develop exceptional American citizens possessing the Founders' ideals of personal & political self-government; the significance of the Western tradition in the study of history, literature, philosophy, and fine arts; a focus on American literary, moral, philosophical and historical traditions; proven explicit phonics and grammar instruction; methodical mathematical instruction with a track record of success; and a focus on learning from primary source documents and original texts. Name one public school that has a curriculum like that. Moreover, there are many successful Hillsdale College affiliated Charter Schools across the nation. And a fairly recent article in the Stuart News, "3 Treasure Coast Schools Named Florida's Best" listed no public schools. The 3 best included two Charters: Indian River Charter High and Clark Advanced Learning Center (Charter). I look forward to TCCA opening in August 2019. Check it out at treasurecoastclassical.org and hillsdalecharter.com.

nice pitch Principal Hewson....doooh!

This is 100% common sense thinking from Dr. Effrem! Hope the folks that need to read this article will. Thanks to SSN and Nancy for recognizing and sending out real information. Very important for reasonable folks and decision makers at all levels.

Charter Schools take funding away from the Public Schools.

EXCELLENT ARTICLE ! (If ONLY it is read by the "Electorate",...before it is too late ! )

...and FULLY understood the "downside" of the words "Constitutional Amendment", and the machinations used by "Special Interest Groups" to wield, and wrest, them away from "public sunlight..!

Dr. Effrem is wise beyond her years...

very good article, it should be noted that over 90% of charter schools fail w/i 3 years. This is the cash cow of those in favor of this... You cannot put enough emphasis on the fact that amendments should be able to stand on their own merit. This whole bundling fiasco is exactly that...

NO "for profit" charter schools! Period. NONE! Nada! Nyet! No mas!

Excellent article. I'd be for charters if they were accountable but too many are scams now getting money from the state to buy buildings, land, etc taken from funds counties needed to repair, build what they need and got $0 last yr...………………..The scam part is they run the charter for a couple yrs, go belly up and sell the building at a profit. ………….As a fiscal conservative wasting taxpayers money to republican donors, corporate welfare, is not what I want to see...………….Nor do I want any taxpayers $ go where it isn't accountable as corruption follows.

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