The Fort Myers News-Press is reporting that Governor Rick Scott is including in his legislative agenda a parent trigger proposal. St. Pete Times reporter Jeff Solochek is a bit skeptical of the effectiveness of parent-triggered charters, but there’s another issue:
The [local] school board shall operate, control and supervise all free public schools within the school district and determine the rate of school district taxes within the limits prescribed herein.
That’s from Article 9, section 4(b) of the state constitution, and in previous decisions state courts have been willing to overturn statutes that appear to infringe on the constitutional authority of local school boards, including authority over issuing charters. A previous state statute that created a state-level authorizing body was thrown out on this basis–right now sponsors can appeal decisions of a local school board, but that’s different from a state-level authorization. This idea for a parent trigger for Florida would appear to do an end-run around that constitutional authority.