Lawsuit challenges education amendment on Florida ballot

TALLAHASSEE --A constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would allow charter school organizers to bypass school boards to get approval is "intentionally misleading" because it doesn't directly explain to voters that the amendment is designed to circumvent local control and intentionally leaves out the word "charter," a lawsuit filed Thursday in Leon County Circuit court claims.

The League of Women Voters, and two individual voters, are asking the court to remove the amendment, known as Revision 8, from the November ballot after it was placed there by the Constitution Revision Commission.

"The ballot title and summary fail to inform voters that a chief purpose of the revision to Article IX, Section 4(b) is to eliminate the long-standing, exclusive authority of local elected school boards to operate, control, and supervise all public schools, including charter schools, in their respective school districts," the complaint states.

The charter-school proposal was approved by the 37-member Constitutional Revision Commission after it was bundled together with two less-controversial ideas into a single amendment, now known as Amendment 8. Grouped with the charter school plan was a provision that will limit school board members to eight-year terms, and a proposal to direct the Legislature file legislation to "promote civic literacy in schools." Voters have to approve all of them with a single vote for any of them to take effect.

Florida law requires all constitutional amendments to provide an accurate summary of the "chief purpose" of the proposal, and the suit says the amendment should be removed from the ballot because it violates that law.

The suit claims the ballot title and summary for the amendment "were deliberately crafted and sequenced so as to fail to inform voters that the revision actually consists of three distinct, unrelated proposals, and to conceal from voters the chief purpose of the portion of Revision 8 pertaining to the authority of local elected school boards."

The proposal was sponsored by a member of the CRC, Erika Donalds, a charter school activist who serves on the Collier County School Board. She argued that the proposal will encourage innovation in Florida schools and was needed to update an "antiquated" constitution. Donalds is a founder of Mason Classical Academy, a Hillsdale College public charter school in Collier County, and is helping to expand the program by starting schools in other parts of the state.

Donalds told the Times/Herald on Thursday she is confident the language in the amendment is clear and hopes the court rejects the challenge.

"The challenged proposal adds just six words to Florida's Constitution,'' she said. "The ballot explanation is 45 words, one of the longest of all CRC proposals. This language was crafted and reviewed by the state's top constitutional attorneys and was overwhelmingly approved by the Style and Drafting Committee and the full CRC. Florida voters should have the opportunity to vote on Amendment 8 in November."