A.G. Gancarski
Change may be coming, eventually, in how Duval County chooses a School Superintendent.
A bill from State Rep. Jason Fischer that would create a pathway to make the (currently appointed) position elected gets its first hearing in a House committee Wednesday morning.
If the local bill (HB 1079) passes, Duval voters in November 2020 would be able to vote on whether they want an elected Superintendent, setting up a potential 2022 election to select a replacement for a position appointed for decades.
Fischer got the support of the Duval legislative delegation in a 6-2 vote last year. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry also supports the measure, which does have some opposition.
The Duval County School Board voted in unanimous opposition to the proposal. The Jacksonville City Council declined to pass a resolution opposing Fischer’s bill, deadlocking on the vote.
That lack of support has not been particularly meaningful in the process so far.
Mayor Curry thinks that a bill authorizing an elected School Superintendent could be on the November 2020 ballot along with a school capital sales surtax referendum proposal.
The Duval County School Board wanted that referendum this year, but the City Council would not authorize it. That matter is in the courts, but the time frame for a tax referendum that does not coincide with a general election has lapsed.
Legislation passed in 2019 requires that school sales tax referendums be put on a general election ballot.
Though other counties have moved forward with referendums without incident, that was not the case in Duval.
Charter advocates, both inside and outside Jacksonville’s City Hall, wanted carveouts for that sector and are not satisfied with the proposed allocation of sales surtax funds.
The concept has been discussed generally with Speaker José Oliva, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, as part of an ongoing conversation about education reform, Fischer said last year.
He offered a message for his critics that sounded like something Mayor Curry might have said in a different time.
“You can kind of chirp on the sidelines,” he said, “or get in the game over here.”
3 comments
Frankie M.
January 3, 2020 at 6:23 pm
Amazing that this shite can get rubberstamped no questions asked. Meanwhile the sales tax referendum is relegated to purgatory(much like Shad’s futbol teams) while it has been poked & prodded more than the BJP, pension reform, JEA shenanigans,etc. All thanks to some rich donor with MAJOR influence in the mayor’s office…looking at you Gary:)
“The Duval County School Board voted in unanimous opposition to the proposal. The Jacksonville City Council declined to pass a resolution opposing Fischer’s bill, deadlocking on the vote.”
The resolution opposing the proposal would have passed if Carlucci hadn’t given Fischer the benefit of the doubt by allowing him to explain it to the council in person. Of course Fischer was too chickenshit to make the 2 hour drive from Tally so he sent his lackeys instead. This is what passes for leadership these days…smh
Susan
January 5, 2020 at 12:05 pm
I am perplexed since the local bill manual says:
IV. REQUIRED HOUSE FORMS –REQUIRED LOCAL BILL FORMS
House policy requires hard copies of the original, signed
(1) Local Bill Certification Form and
(2) Economic Impact Statement Form
be filed with the Clerk of the House at the time the local bill is filed or as soon thereafter as possible. Under this policy, no local bill may be considered by the Local, Federal & Veterans Affairs Subcommittee or any other House committee or subcommittee without these completed forms. Upon filing, the Clerk of the House will scan the forms into the system in order to link the forms to the filed bill and make them generally available.
Neither of those forms are on the website for HB 1079.
Do you know the answer to the below questions?
1. Does the local bill manual say a local bill will not be heard in the committee and therefore will not be voted on until all the required forms are completed and submitted?
2. Am I correct that a proposed local bill will not satisfy the requirements of a local bill if the purpose of the bill can be accomplished at the local level?
3. If the bill doesn’t satisfy the requirements, then it can’t be moved forward, correct? Why is Fisher wasting people’s time? Doesn’t he care about the rules or the constitution?
Frankie M.
January 6, 2020 at 7:48 pm
Fischer is a dolt who would be out of his depth in a waffle house parking lot puddle. Somewhere a village is missing its idiot. Come and get him Mandarin if you still want to claim him.
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