Ryan Ray
The Florida Association of School Administrators — a major plaintiff and arguably the least overtly political — has pulled out of a lawsuit challenging the legality of Florida’s corporate tax credit scholarship program.
“Following a full review of priorities, the Board made the decision to focus resources on FASA’s main objective – to ensure that the quality of administrative leadership within our schools continues to make Florida’s graduates competitive worldwide,” said FASA executive director Juhan Mixon in a prepared statement Friday.
“Having made our position clear with regards to tax credit scholarships through our participation in the lawsuit thus far, it is time to dedicate the resources of our 5,000 members on the priorities that are the heart of our organization,” Mixon concluded.
The lawsuit is at the heart of education interests, according to the plaintiffs, but the move is a sign of how controversial the lawsuit is proving to be.
Among those enjoining the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County to challenge the 13-year-old program are the Florida Education Association, League of Women Voters, Florida School Boards Association and Democratic Sen. Geraldine Thompson of Orlando.
The school administrators’ group dropping out of their ranks comes as a blow to their effort to have the scholarship program declared unconstitutional.
Sen. Jack Latvala, one of the most pro-union Republicans in the Legislature, penned a letter to FEA President Andy Ford last year asking the group to consider dropping the lawsuit and pursue adjustments in the program via legislative avenues.
“While I share your concerns about about the potential for unbridled expansion of this program and agree that expansion should be done prudently, I also believe that the action your organization has taken to derail the program entirely would place many Florida students at an undeserved, and unnecessary, disadvantage,” Latvala wrote in September.
Meanwhile, charter school advocates got yet another boost in their effort to expand their reach within Florida’s nearly $20 billion-dollar education apparatus when the House Educations Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Friday that could divert school district funds currently used for public schools to their for-profit cousins.
The co-defendants in the case — Gov. Rick Scott, the Cabinet, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart and the agencies that administer the vouchers program — are seeking to have the case dismissed. So far that motion has not been granted.
