The Monday following the July 4th holiday weekend marked a significant time for public schools in Florida. With four weeks left until the new school year, school districts and public charter schools were on the final approach to announce their school reopening plans to parents and students.

Then they were hit with a bombshell.

Late that same Monday afternoon, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced an emergency order (EO-06) directing public schools in Florida to reopen in August and offer “the full panoply of services for the benefit of Florida students and families.”

The order also directed that “all school boards and charter school governing boards must open brick and mortar schools at least five days per week for all students.” There were even comments made by Department spokespeople that a reduction in funding is possible for schools that do not fully open as scheduled.

As school districts and charter schools researched and discussed school reopening options, the Florida Department of Education jumped into the school reopening pool. This caused school districts and charter schools to put the brakes on rolling out their nearly completed school reopening plans for the fall.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis backed the order to open schools in the fall fully.

Under the emergency order, school districts and public charter schools must submit their reopening plans demonstrating their adherence to all the directives outlined in the order. School districts must submit their proposals to the Department of Education for approval by July 31st. Public charter schools are required to submit their plans to their school district partners for approval by July 24th.

This order directing a full reopening of schools in the fall was a body blow for many local school leaders. After spending months getting input from parents and stakeholders, and continually monitoring CDC guidelines, districts and charter schools thought they had adequately threaded the needle and were ready to offer parents appropriate options for the upcoming school year.

The emergency order may have come from what should be an apolitical state agency but landed squarely in the political sphere when a few hours later, President Trump wrote on Twitter saying, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!”

Critical remarks followed this during a CNN interview from Fedrick Ingram, the head of the Florida Education Association, the 130,000-member statewide teacher’s union advocating for a slower return to fully reopening schools. Pointing particularly to Florida teachers aged 60 and over, Ingram criticized the plan saying, “…this is a matter of life or death,” and Governor DeSantis showed a “lack of leadership.” Ingram said what was needed was a plan that was “robust, comprehensive, and guided by the science” and referenced the most recent increases in COVID infections and hospitalizations in the state.

Some school districts have since reiterated they would not alter their plans, citing their constitutional authority granting them local control over schools within their district. Broward County Schools have said they would offer parents and students options, including continuing virtual education. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties school leaders have said they do not see how their schools can open for classroom instruction considering the levels of COVID infections in South Florida hot spots.

Unlike school districts, public charter schools do not have constitutional authority giving them control of their schools. They will have a more difficult task as they try to walk the line between directions from their particular school districts and trying to meet the requirements of the emergency order.

This issue will continue to be a politically hot issue for the next several weeks, and the final chapter of this story is still yet to be done known.

2020 Florida Legislative Season Mid-Session Update: Teacher Salaries and Retention

In this blog post, we’re examining the complex topic of teacher salaries and how they impact teacher retention, both in the state of Florida and across the nation.

In a series of reports issued in early 2019, the Economic Policy Institute examined the magnitude of the teacher shortage nationwide and the problems schools are having retaining credentialed teachers. The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought and U.S. schools struggle to both hire and retain teachers.

Who will be left to teach our kids? The teaching profession in K-12 education nationwide is shrinking and it is a matter of simple economics…supply and demand.

In Florida, close to forty percent of new teachers leave the classroom within the first five years in the profession, 15 to 20 percent above the national average. Working conditions play a big factor in their decision—conditions including how much we pay our teachers.

In our blog post last December, we reported on Florida’s Governor’s plan to allocate over $600 million in the upcoming year’s budget to increase the minimum salaries for Florida’s public-school teachers as a way to increase teacher retention. Since then, the Legislature has been working to find a way to achieve the Governor’s goal, or at least get as close as possible.

Explaining education funding in Florida would require a discussion far outside the confines of this blog post but suffice it to say that the state gives school districts specific money for specific purposes, and school districts are not allowed to use funds outside of those designations. Also, the state does not directly fund teacher salaries. They appropriate funds that school districts use at their discretion in collective bargaining negotiations with the teacher unions—which do set teacher pay.

Now that we are at the mid-point in the annual legislative session, both the House and Senate have published their initial budgets, and both have created a new funding silo specifically for teacher pay but each chamber has its own idea of how the money should be allocated.

In their respective budgets, both the House and Senate create a special allocation with the Senate allocating $500 million and the House allocating $650 million for school districts to use to increase the minimum salary for classroom teachers. However, they differ in the manner they are going to allow school districts to use this new funding silo.

The House’s Plan

The House special allocation sets aside $500 million and would allow districts to use their share of that allocation to increase the minimum base salary for beginning full-time teachers and ensure that no minimum base salary on the district’s salary schedule is less than the new minimum set for beginning teachers. If a school district’s salary schedule has no base salary below $50,000 for a full-time teacher, then they can use any remaining funds from their allocation for other instructional personnel and educational support employees.

The additional $150 million in the House special allocation would be available for districts to use for salary increases to teachers who did not receive a salary increase as a result of the district increasing the minimum base salary.

The Senate’s Plan

The Senate offers a different plan allowing districts to use 80% of their allocation to increase minimum salary for full-time teachers to a goal of $47,500. If the district achieves this goal or is already at or above that minimum salary but has not increased salaries by 10%, then they must use the remaining dollars from the 80% allocation to increase salaries by at least 10%. The other 20% of the allocation is to be used to provide salary increases for other instructional personnel including certified prekindergarten teachers.

The final details will be worked out between the two chambers when budget conference meetings begin in a few weeks, but however it turns out in the end, teachers—including teachers in public charter schools—could see more money in their pocket very soon.

2020 Florida Legislative Season Kickoff Update: Teacher Pay

2020 Florida legislative season update: Could mean big things for teacher pay.

Florida is ranked 26th in the nation. No, not in college football, but in teacher pay.

According to statistics from the National Education Association in Washington, DC, Florida’s average starting teacher pay at $37,636 ranks 26th in the nation. In early October, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rolled out a legislative proposal to change that statistic by giving a pay raise to over 100,000 teachers in public schools across the state.

The Governor is recommending the state invest over $600 million to increase the minimum salary to $47,500 that would raise Florida’s ranking to 2nd in the nation.

But much like football, governing is a team sport, and in this case, not all the players are working from the same playbook.

Shortly after the Governor’s announcement at a traditional public school in Clay County, the Speaker of the Florida House responded by issuing a press release that said the Governor’s request will be “properly considered” during the upcoming Regular Legislative Session—not exactly a ringing endorsement. Following the Speaker’s press release, the leadership at the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, issued their own press release calling the proposal a “step in the right direction” but that more attention (and money) should be directed to veteran teachers. Again, lukewarm support (at best) of DeSantis’s pay plan.

In addition to restructuring teacher pay, the Governor has also proposed eliminating the current state-funded teacher/principal bonus programs and reallocate those state dollars to a new bonus scheme that focuses more on learning gains and retaining highly effective teachers in Title I schools.

So, what does this all mean for charter schools?

First, the good news. Any legislative policy and/or appropriations addressing salary and performance bonus payments for public school teachers also applies to teachers in public charter schools. This means that under the Governor’s proposal, teachers in public charter schools (currently making less than $47,500 per year) would be eligible for a salary increase the same as their traditional district school counterparts and would also be eligible for bonus money if they meet the eligibility requirements.

But the flip side of the coin is not as rosy.

In order to fund teacher’s pay raises, the legislature would have to appropriate state dollars to school districts who negotiate teacher salaries with local teacher unions through a collective bargaining process. Current legislators are not able to bind future legislators, so any money in the next year’s budget for teacher salary is not necessarily guaranteed in future years.

This could mean charter schools that give pay increases to teachers using potential one-time money would then have to fund those increased salaries in future years without government funds if the state does not provide this appropriation in future years. This could potentially put a charter school in an awkward position of having to rescind salary increases or make cuts in other areas such as operations or capital improvements to continue to fund the personnel costs.

We all love payday, but in the case of the 2020 Florida legislative season, the devil is in the details and legislators have some tough decisions to make in the upcoming session when it comes to teacher pay.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $2 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

LEARN MORE

Florida Legislative Update for the Start of 2020: School Security

Here is your Florida Legislative Update:

Since the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine’s Day in 2018, the Florida Legislature has been grappling with some very weighty issues regarding school security.

Prior to the events in Parkland, Florida lawmakers had not considered serious changes regarding K-12 school security other than annually funding the Safe Schools Allocation incorporated into the state’s FTE school funding. Since then lawmakers have spent the last two legislative sessions crafting new policy and adding additional state funds to provide resources to harden school facilities, increase mental health services, provide better law enforcement tools, and increase school resource officers on school campuses.

These policy changes and additional state funds were certainly needed and were put in place to protect students and teachers and ease parent’s minds about sending their children to school each day.

The problem is that most of these changes cost money, and in many cases much more money than the Legislature is able to appropriate, leaving it to school districts and charter schools to figure out how to pay for these new mandates. Charter schools feel the biggest pinch of all when it comes to financial resources, and now it may have cost a school its charter.

Since 2018, Florida law has required all schools have a sworn law enforcement officer or trained guardian on school premises during school hours. Championship Academy of Distinction in Davie was having issues with securing a full time, certified security officer the first day of the school this August.

After investigating the situation, Broward County Schools determined Championship was in violation of state law and voted to immediately terminate the charter contract with the school’s governing board and assume its operations. This is the first time a Florida school district has terminated a charter school contract for this reason and in such a quick fashion.

Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran was critical of the board’s action and sent a letter to the Broward School Superintendent recommending alternatives to immediate termination, but at the present the School Board has not altered its position and continues to run the charter school as a district school. The charter school governing board has filed an appeal and has asked for an expedited hearing, but the case has yet to be taken up by the Division of Administrative Hearings.

This unprecedented decision by the Broward County School Board to take over a charter for security reasons, while arguably allowed under current statute, is sending a chill throughout charter schools around the state and is bound to have statewide ramifications regarding school security.

This has also caught the attention of a number of state legislators.

The Florida Senate President sent signals in early August that he intends to pass some form of gun legislation this session and has said all options are on the table as his chamber reviews the various factors involved in mass shootings. The school security issue is sure to factor into these major policy discussions in the upcoming legislative committee weeks leading up to the regular legislative session beginning in January.

There is no disagreement over the importance of school security. How the state achieves the proper balance of “stick versus carrot” in achieving a suitable outcome still seems to be further into the future. Let’s hope the state legislature can find that balance sooner rather than later for the good of all of us involved with ensuring that our public K-12 education system supports the needs of all students.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

LEARN MORE

End of Session Florida Legislative Update: Some Good News for Charter Schools

Here’s your Florida legislative update:
The 2019 Regular Legislative Session in Florida ended in overtime as budget negotiations went several hours longer than anticipated in the last week forcing lawmakers to extend the session by one day. But in typical “last minute” fashion they finalized what would end up being some of the most significant education policy in recent years.
In the final weeks of the session, policy and budget negotiations between the House and Senate began to merge, with the final days leading to a tennis-match-like back and forth between the two chambers. Lawmakers would take up bills, add amendments and send them over to the other chamber to be passed. Many times, the members in the other chamber wanted different language, so they would add amendments of their own and send it back to be considered. This “bouncing” of bills back and forth in the waning hours of session can be quite unnerving. It is possible for the session clock to run out before compromises are agreed upon and an identical bill passed by both chambers, which can lead to the bill dying in the process before it can be passed by both chambers.
This happened with one bill in particular that included some significant language pertaining to funding Florida charter schools.
Over the last several years, voter-approved special referendums have become very popular with Florida school districts as a means to collect additional tax revenue to benefit public schools. Most of the districts going this route have in one manner or another excluded public charter schools from benefitting from these tax-payer approved referendums.
Seeing this pattern of exclusion, the House proposed language in its annual tax package (HB 7123) that would compel school districts to share with charter schools tax revenues from special tax referendums approved by voters. This requirement would not only apply to future referendums but those that had already been approved by voters. The House voted this bill out and sent it over to the Senate on April 26.
The Senate took up the bill on the last scheduled day of session (May 3), but some Senate members were not in favor of the House referendum language, particularly applying to levies already in effect. They amended the bill that essentially said nothing prevents districts from sharing revenues but did not compel them to do so and “bounced” the bill back to the House to accept and approve.
The House didn’t approve and was adamant that school districts be mandated to share this revenue with charter schools. However, in the spirit of compromise, they did agree to throw the Senate a bone and make the provision prospective and not retroaction, which meant the mandate would apply only to future referendums and not those that had already been approved by voters.
The House then “bounced” the bill back to the Senate with this compromise language to accept and approve. This time the Senate relented, accepted the new language and approved the bill, just as time was running out.
The Florida Legislature passed a number of major education policy initiatives that expanded Schools of Hope, increased access to school choice scholarships, enhanced career, and workforce education and provided bonus’ for the best and brightest teachers.
But the most significant single policy change for charter schools is the special referendum language passed in HB 7123. This alone could provide significant financial stability to many Florida public charter schools so they can continue to offer quality choice in K-12 education.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

LEARN MORE

Florida Legislative Update: Mid-Session Hope for Schools of Hope

In the past two years, the Florida Legislature passed some of the most sweeping charter school policy since the original charter school legislation was signed in 1996. As Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Richard Corcoran orchestrated the revamping of the formula for calculating and appropriating capital funds to charter schools, expanded timelines for planning and opening new charter schools, created a state-sponsored scholarship for struggling readers in grades 3-5. But the most sweeping change that will play for years to come is Schools of Hope.

Schools of Hope

Schools of Hope were established as a means of closing the opportunity gap and improving student performance. The Schools of Hope legislation provided an expedited approval path to entice national high performing charter schools to become Hope Operators and open charter schools within the attendance zones of Florida’s persistently low-performing traditional public schools.
Since then, two nationally known charter school operators (KIPP and IDEA Public Schools) have received the Hope Operator designation from Florida Department of Education and have announced plans for new schools in Miami and Tampa.

A Plan to Expand

Fast forward to the present. Shortly after his inauguration in January Governor Ron DeSantis named former Speaker Richard Corcoran as Secretary of Florida Department of Education, and he is now on a mission with supporters in the Florida Legislature to expand the Schools of Hope program even further.

Legislative Negotiations

At the beginning of legislative session last month the Florida Senate offered a plan that cut funding for the existing Schools of Hope program ($140 million) as well as reclaiming money from the previous two years and increasing Hope awards available to school district’s efforts at improving those persistently low-performing schools on their own. This idea did not sit well with House members who felt the Schools of Hope was the best solution after years of failed attempts by school districts to improve performance at these low-performing schools.
The House plan cuts Hope awards available to public schools from $2,000 per student to $500 per student and shifts more money into the Schools of Hope program. Negotiations between the two chambers on policy soon began and now the policy is beginning to come together.

Senate Bills

This past week, the Senate amended its school choice bill to more closely resemble the House version and its provisions for Schools of Hope expansion.
Both bills (HB 7095 in the House and SB 7070 in the Senate) would revise the school grade requirements in the definition of “persistently low-performing” that could potentially expand the areas available for Hope Operators to open new schools. It would also provide state funds for lease payments and other costs until the school is fully enrolled.
The House version further amends the definition of “persistently low-performing” to include Florida Opportunity Zones created by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, signed into law last December. This could add an additional 200 communities available for potential Hope Operators to consider for new school sites.

What it All Means

Both versions of the bill will continue to move closer to one another as the last two weeks of the legislative session come to a close. Regardless of what the specific language that is finally approved, this expansion of the Schools of Hope program will continue to solidify school choice and will only mean more options for closing the opportunity gap in Florida’s K-12 education system.
See our previous Florida Legislative Update here.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

LEARN MORE

Florida Legislative Update

Editor’s Note: Here’s your Florida legislative update!
We try to do our best to make sure you have the most up-to-date information on what’s happening in the Florida Legislature and what pieces of legislation may affect education and, even more specifically, charter schools across the state.

Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings

Every state legislature has its own unique ways when it comes to conducting its business. And Florida is no different. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings.

Interim Committee Weeks

One of the constants for the Florida Legislature is what is referred to as interim committee weeks. Prior to the official start of the 60-day Regular Legislative Session, House and Senate leadership schedule five to six weeks – over a three-month period – to have legislators and staff travel to Tallahassee and hold committee and subcommittee meetings.
While some bills are actually brought up and debated in the later weeks, the majority of the meetings are centered around who does what, how they do it, and how much it costs each year to do whatever it is they do. These meetings are where lawmakers get a better understanding of how the proverbial sausage gets made.
In education, this is the time for those of us in the process to find out who got promoted and what this year’s BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) will be. Having just completed the final interim committee week, we are now getting a sense of legislative BHAGs for K-12 education.

The Legislative BHAGs

Family Empowerment Scholarship:
Legislative education leaders rolled out the Family Empowerment Scholarship, a voucher-type scholarship funded with state dollars and designed for children in low-income families to attend an eligible school of choice.
Florida Tax Credit Scholarship
Legislators want to create this program to help reduce the number of children on the waiting list for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, a program that pays for scholarships using corporate tax credits for contributions to non-profit organizations.
Addressing Statewide Teacher Shortage
Legislators also want to take steps to address Florida’s teacher shortage by making it easier for school districts to retain their most effective teachers. This policy would allow teachers more time to demonstrate their mastery of general knowledge, allowing for three years instead of the current one year. They also want to direct the State Board of Education to restructure examination fees for certification exams as well as fees for exam retakes to assist in removing financial barriers for teachers wishing to remain in the field.
School Facilities Regulations
Another major legislative initiative will be a change to regulations regarding school construction and facility improvements when school districts use only local funds, including ad valorem revenue, for facility construction. The legislation would no longer require school districts to file an educational plant survey recommendation before beginning facility construction as well as eliminate cost per student station restrictions for construction.
Investing in School Safety
Lastly, legislators are looking to improve on efforts regarding school safety and mental illness that were taken last year in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FL. Legislation has already been filed that will implement recommendations made by Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission that created last year to review deficiencies in school and student safety statewide. Funding will also be included to give schools greater flexibility to transfer funds for school safety expenditures and to sustain investments made in school security enhancements.

These broad education initiatives will benefit both traditional public schools and public charter schools in Florida who face similar problems in recruiting and retaining quality teachers and dealing with facility costs, particularly those aimed at school safety and school hardening.
No one – not even the Florida Legislature – takes great pleasure in meetings, meetings, and more meetings. But sometimes the results are worth the effort.

Florida Elections: State of the State

Elections Matter.
For the last several years a common phrase has been used by winning candidates everywhere. Elections matter. And that could not have been any more significant for school choice advocates in Florida than the most recent statewide elections.
In 1996, Jeb Bush partnered with community leaders and opened Florida’s first charter school in Liberty City in Miami-Dade County under legislation signed by then Democrat Governor, Lawton Chiles. Bush, a Republican, would go on to become Florida’s Governor in 1999 and together – with the Republican-controlled state Legislature – would control two of three branches of Florida’s state government for the next nineteen years. This Republican control resulted in legislation advancing school choice, particularly charter schools and charter school expansion.
During this time of Republican control, school choice opponents sought relief in the state’s court system to attack and beat back legislative policies favorable to school choice and charter schools. Over the past several years, the liberal-leaning Florida Supreme Court has been a major stumbling block to expanding school choice and charter schools in Florida. That all changed this past November.
Former Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis was elected Governor in November, and with it came the opportunity to appoint three new members of Florida’s Supreme Court. These appointments resulted from the vacancies created by three justices reaching the mandatory retirement age just as DeSantis was inaugurated as Florida’s newest Governor. These retiring justices were first appointed by previous Democrat Governors and helped keep the Court a more liberal body that routinely sided with school choice opponents in a number of high-profile cases it heard.
Most recently, the Court struck down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have set term limits on elected school board members. The amendment would also maintain the school board’s duties to public schools it establishes but would permit the state to operate, supervise, and control public schools not established by school board (charter schools or other schools of choice).
Shortly after his inauguration, Governor DeSantis appointed three very qualified, conservative justices to the Court, and as some observers have said, created one of the most conservative state Supreme Courts in the country.
When speaking about these appointments, newly elected Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez said, “(these appointments) will single-handedly be the most important thing for the future of this state that we have ever seen.”
Shortly after naming the three new justices, Governor DeSantis also selected former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Richard Corcoran, a staunch charter school proponent, as the new Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education.
These executive appointments signal a sea change in the state’s political landscape and send a clear message that Florida’s new Governor is serious about K-12 education, and even more serious about advancing school choice options in the state. His rhetoric on the campaign trail has translated into action, and charter school proponents in Florida should be very pleased with what they see over the next several years.
The recent Florida elections – and subsequent changes in leadership – are a great example of how much elections indeed matter.
About the Author: Larry Williams is the owner/principal at Larry Williams Consulting LLC. They offer comprehensive consulting and lobbying services in the legislative and executive branches of state government as well as state agencies. Larry Williams Consulting LLC has established a network of relationships within the legislative, executive, cabinet and government agency arena as well as extensive knowledge of the issues.

LEARN MORE