Kids Deserve Better: Lawsuit Forcing State to Reassess Education
Editorial Board
Daytona Beach News Journal
Nov 23, 2009
The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida.
Except when it's not. Over the 10 years since Florida voters wrote that requirement into the state constitution, the Legislature has reduced state funding for education dramatically, shifting the burden of public schools to local taxpayers and reducing overall per-student funding. Between 2006 and the current school year, per-pupil funding dropped by nearly $1,700. And within the coming months, state lawyers will have to answer for their performance, thanks to a pair of lawsuits filed last week by disgruntled parents who contend the state has failed in its constitutional duty.
It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.
Start with the "all children" requirement. One of the lawsuits, filed by parents of children in Palm Beach County schools, claims that educational achievement is considerably lower for minority students, especially as measured by graduation rates. That suit points out that Florida has an abysmally low graduation rate, even using its own calculation method (which the U.S. Department of Education took exception to, leading the state to abandon it for next year). The state estimated that the graduation rate in Palm Beach County was 71 percent -- meaning one in four students didn't make it through high school. It's hard to see how the state can call that "adequate" -- especially since African-American and Hispanic students had significantly lower graduation rates.
Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools . . .
The plaintiffs claim that Florida fails on pretty much every provision of this requirement, pointing out the average teacher salary in the state is $5,400 below the national average. Some teachers aren't qualified to teach the subjects they have responsibility for -- for example, in 2006, 60 percent of the teachers in charge of reading classes weren't qualified to teach reading. In addition, the second lawsuit, filed by parents from Orlando and Duval County, cites U.S. Department of Justice figures showing that 8.6 percent of students "reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on campus in 2007" and 12.5 percent of students reported being in a fight in 2007. That makes Florida schools less safe than those in all but five other states and the District of Columbia, the suit argues.
that allows students to obtain a high quality education . . .
A final point worth nothing -- both lawsuits take issue with Florida's consistent reliance on high-stakes testing to prove educational achievement. They assert that the use of the FCAT and other standardized tests to make decisions affecting school funding and student advancement has endangered the state's ability to provide high-quality education. It's the same argument educational experts have made from the beginning -- standardized tests are useful when measuring individual student achievement, but dangerous when used to assess the quality of an educational system. Florida's poor performance on other key measures -- such as graduation rate -- demonstrate the folly of depending on standardized tests for definitive assessments of schools.
These facts and figures don't guarantee the parents a win in court. But they should get lawmakers' attention. Florida's schools are a key element in the state's economic success and quality of life, something voters acknowledged in 1998 when they approved the constitutional amendment declaring education's importance.