Politics
Bill to ease charter school conversions, block public school districts from buying land clears first House hurdle
Legislation with the potential to significantly change Florida’s educational landscape has cleared its first House hurdle after its sponsor heard concerns about its potentially negative effects.
The Education Administration Subcommittee voted 13-5 on party lines to advance the bill (HB 123), which would exclude School Boards, teachers and school administrators from votes over whether to convert public schools into charter schools.
That decision would fall instead to parents with children enrolled at the school in question, whom current statutes already give a vote. Approving a charter conversion would require a 50% vote by parents, the same threshold given to teachers now.
Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade, the bill’s sponsor, said parents — not elected officials or unelected educators — are “the most reliable metric for a school’s performance.”
“Who cares more about that child than that child’s parents?” he said.
Local governments would still have some say. Andrade’s measure would create a new provision under which cities could — but wouldn’t have to — seek a charter school conversion for any public school that has received a grade below an “A” from the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) for five consecutive years.
The bill would also restrain school districts. It would require School Boards that want to buy or acquire real estate property to submit a five-year plan for it at a public meeting.
More notably, if a school district has seen its enrollment decline over the preceding five years, it would be prohibited from buying more property and must instead sell land or buildings the State Board of Education deems surplus.
That property would then have to be given priority for conversion to a charter school; affordable housing for teachers, first responders and military personnel; or for local recreational facilities.
“This bill is fiscally responsible,” Andrade said. “It focuses on a real-world issue that we’ve seen where school districts with a declining population and no need for surplus property are holding onto property because they’re afraid of more competition.”
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns with the standards Andrade’s bill uses.
Hollywood Democratic Rep. Marie Woodson and Tampa Rep. Susan Valdés, a former School Board member who in December switched her party affiliation to Republican, noted that a “B” rating still denotes a good school.
Woodson cited a July 2024 press release in which FDOE lumped “A” and “B” graded schools together. Valdés, who voted “yes” on the bill, said blocking school districts from buying land would prevent them from cost-effectively planning for their future, since property values are likely to continue rising.
Democratic Rep. Wallace Aristide, a longtime educator from Miami, said teachers at conversion-targeted schools could see their accrued retirement funds, vacation days and sick leave evaporate.
Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat who works in higher education, called the measure “another way to cause a slow death to our public education system” and decried the bill’s removal of teachers from the voting process.
“Schools work best when parents and teachers work together,” she said. “If we pass this bill, in a few years we’ll be coming back having to repeal and fix it.”
Miami Beach Republican Rep. Fabián Basabe disagreed and ascribed his Democratic colleagues’ concerns to “partisan-controlled narratives” and their failure to thoroughly read the legislation.
Teachers would still be participants in the process, Basabe said, regardless of whether they have an actual vote, since it’s their work — through the school’s grade — that would allow for charter conversions.
“Their work is always represented, and if it’s not where it needs to be, we need to consider there are great employees and underperforming employees,” he said. “Making our public schools more accountable for the overpaid bureaucracy while, mind you, I think our teachers are underpaid … is an opportunity.”
As of February 2024, Florida had 23 conversion charter schools, accounting for about 3.2% of the state’s 726 charter schools. Most were previously low-performing public schools that parents and teachers agreed to convert.
HB 123, which would go into effect July 1, is an updated version of legislation Andrade unsuccessfully carried last year that also aimed to change who could vote for a charter conversion and limit school district land purchases. It also comes less than a year after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping education package (HB 1285) that among other things created a route to speed up the conversion of failing traditional public schools — that receive two straight “D” or “F” grades — into charter schools.
Florida’s school vouchers program, which lawmakers expanded in 2023, is projected to divert nearly $4 billion this year from public education to provide students financial assistance for school costs, including private school tuition.
Representatives from several government and educational advocacy groups signaled support and opposition to HB 123. Proponents included the Florida Citizens Alliance, Americans for Prosperity and the Foundation for Florida’s Future.
Detractors included the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards, the Florida Education Association and Orange County Public Schools.
Karen Mazzola of the Florida PTA said that while Andrade’s bill has no listed fiscal impact, it will nevertheless come at a potentially large cost to community stakeholders whom the measure aims to exclude.
“Schools affect our property value, affect why we want to live in a certain area of town,” she said. ‘Those people need to be part of this decision.”
She said School Boards today buy property based on community growth and future needs, and limiting their ability to do that will cause problems. There are other unconsidered expenses, from the cost of redistricting when a school is converted to potential increases in busing needs that could put added strain on Florida’s less well-to-do areas.
And what happens if the new charter school doesn’t perform any better — or does worse — than the public school it replaced?
“There’s nothing in this bill,” she said, ‘that says, ‘How do we revert back?’”
HB 123 will next go to the PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee, after which it has one more stop at the Education and Employment Committee before reaching a House floor vote.
Its Senate analog (SB 140) Pensacola Republican Don Gaetz awaits a hearing at the first of three committees to which it was referred.
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Attorney General James Uthmeier is using the “full force of law” in an “active criminal investigation” of Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate.
“These guys have themselves publicly admitted to participating in what very much appears to be soliciting, trafficking, preying upon women around the world,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recently appointed AG.
“Many of these victims are coming forward, some of them minors. People can spin or defend however they want, but in Florida, this type of behavior is viewed as atrocious. We’re not going to accept it.”
The Tates, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, arrived Thursday in Fort Lauderdale after authorities lifted travel restrictions on the siblings. Their departure from Europe happened soon after Donald Trump envoy Richard Grenell reportedly met with a Romanian official earlier this year, seemingly easing the way for their return to the U.S.
“They chose to come here and set their feet down in this state, and we’re going to pursue every tool we have within our legal authority to hold them accountable,” Uthmeier said.
“So we are in the process today. We have secured and executed subpoenas and warrants, and we’re going to continue to move forward with full force of law. This is an ongoing criminal investigation and we’re going to use every tool we have to ensure that justice is served.”
During a press conference last Thursday, DeSantis denounced the Tates and said then Uthmeier is exploring “what state hooks and jurisdiction we may have to be able to deal with this.”
He also expressed “confidence” that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem “will be looking at that,” though it’s not immediately clear what the federal officials might do.
“Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air, and I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved, we were not notified. I found out through the media that this was something that was happening,” DeSantis said Thursday at Camp Blanding.
The Tates — who are dual U.S.-British citizens — were arrested in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they allegedly were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny the allegations.
In December, a court ruled that the case could not go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors. The case, however, remained open, along with another ongoing investigation against them in Romania.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a request to change the travel restrictions on the Tates, but it did not say who made the request.
Andrew Tate, a 38-year-old former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He and 36-year-old Tristan Tate are vocal supporters of Trump.
Andrew Tate contrasted Trump, who was “such a boss” in facilitating his travel, to DeSantis, who he claimed overstepped his authority.
“I don’t know why Ron’s answer wasn’t, ‘He has an American passport. The judicial system in Romania, which I know absolutely nothing about, decided to let him fly, and he’s flown to his home country. As far as we’re concerned, he’s broken no laws,’” Tate said on the PBD Podcast, as transcribed by The Associated Press.
“Instead, what he did was say: ‘We’re going to get our attorney general to try and find some laws he’s broken and wreck this man who’s done nothing inside of the United States ever.’”
Tate’s statement does not seem to have dissuaded DeSantis and Uthmeier from taking decisive action.
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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Republished with permission.
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While Gov. Ron DeSantis called for expanding gun rights, no open carry legislation was filed for consideration this year. That has Second Amendment activists angry at lawmakers who voiced support for such a change in the past.
Specifically, groups like Florida Gun Rights have critiqued Rep. Monique Miller, a Brevard County Republican who said she intended to file an open carry bill but did not do so before a deadline ahead of the Legislative Session.
“Rep Monique Miller refused to file an open carry bill this session after she promised to do so,” said gun rights activist Matt Collins. “She sent the bill to the legislative drafting department but did not actually file it prior to Friday’s deadline. Insiders report that Rep Randy Fine instructed her not to actually file the bill as part of his spat with Governor DeSantis (who supports open carry).”
The group incorrectly identified Fine as a member of the House. He is now in the Senate.
Miller, for her part, said she remains a supporter of allowing individuals to open carry firearms, but said there isn’t a viable path for the bill this year.
“I am a staunch advocate of open carry,” Miller said. “I recognize it will take a concerted effort over time to get it done, and I’m in it for the long haul.”
Miller was the second lawmaker to commit to open carry legislation in the House. Former Rep. Joel Rudman, a Navarre Republican, filed such a bill ahead of Session. But it and all of his legislation was withdrawn after he resigned to run for Congress.
Senate President Ben Albritton reiterated as much on the first day of Session, making clear that the upper chamber of the Legislature won’t consider open carry legislation this year. He warned that Florida is very diverse with a wide range of “how society would accept that.”
“Orlando is not Pensacola, and certainly Tallahassee is not Okeechobee,” Albritton said following DeSantis’ State of the State.
“Another complication is Florida brought in more than 140 million visitors last year. We’re a tourism state. That matters. So I’m working through that in my mind because the most important thing I want to do is to do what’s right. And certainly, the most important thing I don’t want to do is make a mistake.”
But DeSantis has said he would sign an open carry bill if it made it to his desk. While he didn’t specifically say anything about that in his State of the State address on Tuesday, he did suggest the Legislature revisit restrictions put in place after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting under then-Gov. Rick Scott.
“We need to be a strong Second Amendment state,” DeSantis said. “I know many of you agree with it, and so let’s get some positive reform done for the people of this state of Florida.”
Miller, for her part, said she will fight this year to expand gun rights in Florida.
“I am delighted to sponsor three important bills this session to advance gun rights in Florida,” she said.
“HB 6025 will fully repeal the unconstitutional ban on sales of firearms and ammunition sales during declared emergencies. If passed, Floridians will be able to protect themselves, their families and their homes, in times of crisis, when needed most. Additionally, I sponsored HB 491, which will ban the use of AI cameras to detect concealed firearms, and I co-sponsored HB 759 which will restore the gun rights of young adults, age 18 to 20.”
That hasn’t eased frustrations of gun groups or conservative activists.
“Gun Owners of America backed Rep. Monique Miller and she promised to file our open carry bill,” posted Luis Valdes, Florida State Director of GOA. “She now says it isn’t the right time. If the Founders had that attitude, we’d be Canada.”
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