Parents, students, educators, school board members, civil rights organizations, and representative groups chosen by educators, today have filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Education for their failure to uphold the constitution in ensuring every child in Florida has access to a “uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public schools.”
The suit, brought forth by individual parents and the Florida Education Association, alleges that the Department of Education, the Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas, and the State Board of Education along with its individual members, have not upheld their duty to ensure schools receiving taxpayer dollars are held to the same standards, oversight and level of accountability. Instead, the state has created a system of educational opportunities that are all held to different standards, resulting in an inconsistent and unequal system of education for students.
No matter the method in which a child receives their education, the Florida constitution demands a basic set of uniform standards, expectation and transparency. The impact of this non-uniform system cannot be ignored.
Approximately $5 billion a year of public tax dollars are now being siphoned away from public schools in order to prop up charter and voucher systems that are often managed by out of state, for profit management companies who make a profit off every child and often lack consistent basic educational standards and transparency.
- Nearly a quarter of the state’s education budget goes to voucher programs that a majority of the time serve students who were already attending private school.
- Florida ranks #50 in the nation in average teacher salary, and over 60% of education staff professionals make less than $35,000 a year
- Florida ranks #41 in the nation in per student funding, a metric that additionally has not kept up pace with inflation
