Last week, the president of the Florida Education Association (FEA) filed a lawsuit seeking to eliminate Florida’s heralded and widely used charter and private school choice programs.
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One man versus one million families exercising their choice to find the best school for their kids — it feels a little lopsided.
Teachers union, parents sue Florida over vouchers, charter school funding
This litigation is a direct assault on the progress we have built over decades. It aims to revisit the unfortunate 2006 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in Bush v. Holmes, a decision that struck down the Opportunity Scholarship Program — the first statewide voucher program in the country, established in 2000 to serve students trapped in failing schools.
Back then, the court spun up a narrow and flawed interpretation of the state’s duty to provide a uniform system of free public schools. They argued the state’s constitutional requirement to provide a free system of public schools was not a minimum requirement of the legislature, but a maximum limit on their authority.
I disagreed then, and the evidence over the last 20 years — along with landmark court cases that have gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — offer myriad reasons why choice should be available to all families.
Education is not about a building or a collective bargaining agreement. It should be centered around the delivery of knowledge and the cultivation of a child’s potential. When Florida expanded school choice, we did so under the simple belief that if a school is not meeting the needs of a student, the parent of that student should have the right to take their education dollars to a place that will. That freedom to choose has been an incredible catalyst for improvement within our traditional schools. When parents have options, the entire system is forced to rise to the occasion.
The FEA wants you to believe that choice diverts money from public education, but that is a tired and inaccurate trope. Florida funds students, wherever they decide to be educated. Florida’s public schools today enjoy record per-pupil investment, record investment in teacher salary increases and record graduation rates — all while families enjoy access to a record amount of education opportunities. Florida has proven that a robust choice environment lifts up all students by empowering them to find an option that works.
The idea that public funds must stay within a single, government-run delivery model is an antiquated and severely flawed view of how education can and should be delivered in the 21st century. We don’t apply this legal principle to healthcare or higher education. Pell Grants and Florida’s unique Bright Futures Scholarship program are available to students who attend both public and private universities. We don’t even apply this same legal principle to our Voluntary Universal Pre-Kindergarten program, which allows state funding to follow early learners to public or private programs. K-12 education should be no different.
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I’m an optimistic person who believes there’s good in everyone, and I don’t want to be cynical about this lawsuit. I don’t want to think that a union that is supposed to represent educators in our classrooms would undermine the opportunities Florida teachers have to teach in so many different schooling types. I can’t imagine why any entity that supports public education would want to harm the more than 300,000 students that attend Florida’s public charter schools, which are clearly flourishing in so many of our communities. I struggle to come up with one good reason why we’d want to turn back the clock to a time when students were assigned to schools based on where they live instead of being able to choose a learning environment that matches their needs and God-given potential.
And so I choose to believe this misguided lawsuit is borne not of actual malice against Florida families and students, but of the need to make a few headlines. I can forgive a shameless publicity stunt, but that’s where this must stop.
The FEA should drop this lawsuit immediately. If they choose to pursue it, then it’s time for the Florida Supreme Court to fix the mistake it made 20 years ago in the Bush v. Holmes decision.
Floridians should stand strong against any attempt to litigate away the dreams of our children. Our state has become a beacon for the rest of the nation because we put students first. Student performance moved from the bottom of state rankings to the top because we embraced school accountability, transparency and, above all, choice.
I trust that our courts will recognize that the Constitution’s promise of a high-quality education is fulfilled, not frustrated, by giving parents the power to choose. Florida must remain focused on the future of every child, and I believe our families, not special interest groups, will always prevail.
Jeb Bush served as the 43rd governor of Florida and is the chairman of the Foundation for Florida’s Future.
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