Sarasota County won’t be joining the multi-district lawsuit against the state’s recently-passed, controversial education package, HB 7069.
In a unanimous vote held Tuesday evening, the Sarasota County School Board voted 5-0 to end “all consideration” and “further allocation of resources” towards the support of any potential litigation challenging HB 7069, which was signed into law earlier this summer.
Sarasota County is the first county to officially speak out against the lawsuit, which has quickly gained steam from school districts displeased with the education law.
Last month, the Broward County School Board voted to file a lawsuit against the state over HB 7069, a sweeping education reform package which opponents say gives charter schools an unfair advantage over traditional public schools and would “totally dismantle” the state’s public education system.
As part of the 274-page law, nearly $100 million would be set aside for charter schools to cover things like construction costs and maintenance projects -- money shared with public schools.
Sarasota County currently already shared money with charter schools before HB 7069 became law.
Four other school districts -- Bay, Lee, St. Lucie and Volusia -- all voted to join the suit and they’re not the only ones.
The number of counties joining in could skyrocket this month, with several other school boards -- at least 14 more -- holding votes to determine whether they, too, want to take their opposition of the bill to court.
Sarasota County, however, won’t be one of them.
Board members said Tuesday they felt joining the suit would be a waste of time and resources, as estimates for legal fees on the suit continue to grow.
“We need to focus on what we can do as local school board members to move this district forward,” School Board member Bridget Ziegler told Sunshine State News.
All together, the school boards have already pooled nearly $100,000 to cover the cost of litigation. That amount would only put a dent in the estimated price tag of the suit, which could end up costing nearly $300,000.
Sarasota County School Board members said they also feared joining in the lawsuit would result in a strained relationship with state lawmakers, who overwhelmingly supported the legislation as it made its way through Tallahassee earlier this year.
“We don’t want to be branded with those people who decided to sue,” School Board member Eric Robinson said. “I want our partners to know we value our partnership and hopefully we can sit down and talk. If things need to be changed, we can do that, but it’ll be awful hard to do that while they’re suing [lawmakers].”
Ziegler, a founding member of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members which supported HB 7069, agreed with Robinson.
“It's high time we set a precedent saying we want to work with our partners in the legislature and locally,” she explained. “ It's time that we change [the] divide and focus on making sure that discussion is solely focused on the students versus spending money in the courtroom.”
Other school board members around the state contend, however, that the newly-passed law is unconstitutional and believe approaching the issue will be more effective with more counties joining.
“There are a number of provisions I believe violate that constitutional guarantee,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told WIOD last week. “The board recognizes that there is greater power in partnership and alliance rather than approaching it individually.”
Ziegler said she hoped other districts would take note and join them in taking a stand against the lawsuit.
“It speaks volumes that we are rising above and will focus on Sarasota County and won't get caught in the minutiae of politics,” she said.
School board members like Robinson said, however, that the move to sue against the state is merely part of a distracting “political ballgame.”
“It’s a red herring,” Robinson said. “We should be concentrating on what lessons we can learn and how we can get our school grades up, what allocation of resources we should concentrate on. Nobody wins when you [battle with the state legislature].
“Does suing the state legislature help Johnny read?” Robinson asked. “Clearly the answer is no. It’s just people furthering their ideology.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
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