Founded on the heels of a lawsuit threatening to take away the tax credit scholarships of nearly 70,000 students statewide, a group of four school board members from across the state have banded together to form a grassroots organization to tackle public education issues, the group announced in a call Monday morning.
The Florida Coalition of School Board Members aims to be an "alternative" to the Florida School Boards Association, which consists of representatives from 67 of Floridas school districts statewide.
Its becoming very clear the school boards collectively and individually are really losing influence in Tallahassee, said Collier County School Board member and founder Erika Donalds.
The FCSBMs founding members include Donalds, Bridget Ziegler and Jeff Bergosh of Sarasota County and Shawn Frost, an Indian River County School Board member most well-known for knocking FSBA president and two-term incumbent Karen Disney-Brombach out of her position on the board. Frosts campaign honed in on Disney-Brombachs support of Common Core.
We have voices we feel arent being heard, said FCSBM leader Bergosh. We want to work with legislators, and I think most of us are dissatisfied with the way tax money is being utilized to fight school choice.
FSBA President Wayne Blanton, who is set to retire later this month, however, said school board members need to show face at meetings if they want to see any real change within the organization.
If they want to change this organization, they need to get active within this organization, come to the meetings and apply for positions of leadership," he said. "We have no problem with that. We work for the majority of the board members in the state of Florida."
The new coalition of school board members aims to form a more cooperative working relationship in Tallahassee. The FCSBM will also continue its opposition against the FSBAs support of the lawsuit against the states Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers for students from failing or low-performing schools (who are usually minority, low-income students) to attend a different school.
The FSBA joined the Florida Education Association, thestate's largest teachers' union,in suing the state over the program, questioning the legality of the program and contesting it takes away money from public schools.
The issue has risen to a fever pitch in recent weeks -- last week, state lawyers asked a a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
The FCSBM is starting out small, but Bergosh said he hopes the organization will expand to around 50 members in the next few weeks.
Reach Tampa-based reporter Allison Nielsen by email atallison@sunshinestatenews.comor follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
