Mitch Perry
The Florida Education Association (FEA) now says they will not appeal a legal challenge to Senate Bill 850. Their announcement comes six months after they initially announced a legal challenge, claiming it violating a constitutional requirement that each law be limited to a single subject.
FEA Vice President Joanne MCall said the union came to their decision following a series of meetings with Senate President Andy Gardiner.
“We have opened a dialogue with the Senate president on a broad range of issues, including testing, special needs students and other public education concerns of paramount importance to the FEA,” McCall said. “We look forward to working together for the benefit of our children.”
The FEA filed suit last July regarding the manner in which SB850 was enacted during the 2014 session. The final, 140-page bill that was passed on the last day of the session was originally just a five-page bill that expanded Florida’s collegiate high school program. During its travels through committees in the Florida House and Senate, additional provisions were added that were unrelated to collegiate high schools. It ultimately ended up career education, dropout prevention, hazing and middle-school reform. But the union objected to the inclusion of two contentious provisions, one that created personal learning accounts for students with disabilities and the other expanding the tax-credit voucher program. These bills, House Bill 7167 and Senate Bill 1512, both failed on the next-to-last day of the legislative session.
The FEA then sued, claiming that gave lawmakers insufficient time to review the proposal, and no time at all for citizens to review it.
The FEA said today’s actions are not related to another lawsuit they have filed in conjunction with other groups and individuals seeking to declare the tax-credit voucher program unconstitutional.
