As we reported back in December, Florida lawmakers have proposed several new ways to expand charter schools, including a bill that would force school districts to share their capital outlay tax revenue with charters.

A coalition of parent groups that recently came out against a "parent empowerment" bill moving through the Legislature today blasted the charter school effort.

"These are funds from the taxpayer/voter supported millage levy specifically meant to keep publicly-owned school facilities safe and modern.  Voters never intended to use this revenue to improve, maintain, rent, build, or buy facilities for private people," they said in a joint statement. ... Read more

Heading toward its first hearings, Florida's proposed "Parent Empowerment Act" came under blistering criticism from parent groups saying the initiative was a "scheme" to hand neighborhood schools over to private entities. Many parent groups immediately disavowed any input in the bill that supposedly is for them.

School district officials raised concerns, too, that a simple parent petition could override the reform decisions of elected school board members on the advice of their professional staffs. They also noted a provision barring students from having teachers with "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" evaluations in two consecutive years could prove difficult under new evaluation laws. ... Read more

Florida lawmakers call it the "Parent Empowerment Act."

But parent groups around the state have told the Gradebook that they're not the ones asking for legislation — now filed in both the House and Senate — that would allow 51 percent of parents to demand overhauls to their schools. 

"Strong, established parent groups are opposed to the parent trigger law," said Rita Solnet, a Palm Beach activist and leader of Parents Across America. "It creates divisiveness in communities." ... Read more

In a recommendation that's set to go before the Pinellas school board for a vote Tuesday, Superintendent John Stewart is recommending that all school opening and closing times stay the same for the 2012-13 school year. That's not going over well with many parents at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School, where budget cuts and transportation costs led the school board to okay a much later start time this year.

At least 20 parents have emailed the board since Nov. 7. And we know there's an ongoing flurry of emails because we're being cc'd on many of them.

"Stick to the fundamental guidelines," wrote one, who mentioned a petition drive and requested a town hall meeting on the issue. ... Read more