At last we see them plain. The radical Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives have come out from behind the curtain. They aim not to improve the public schools but to destroy them.

Vouchers for everyone. No matter how good the public schools, how wealthy the parents, or how exclusive -- or unaccredited -- the private schools to which Florida's tax dollars would be siphoned off.

That's the transparent purpose of HB 1587, which House leaders are speeding to the floor with such indecent haste that the only committee to hear it took less than two hours Thursday to complete its assignment, sparing only eight minutes for testimony from the public, which had been given only two days' notice that it would be taken up.

Such jackboot tactics would reveal this to be bad legislation even if it weren't so obvious on its face, and so fraught with violations of Florida's own Constitution, which prohibits even indirect aid to religious schools and requires a "uniform system of free public schools."

School boards electing to allow private school vouchers would be exempt from most state budgetary restrictions and accountability requirements, including the school grading system, based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, that is the heart of Gov. Jeb Bush's A+

plan. School boards opposing vouchers would not. That's a dual system by any definition.

To sugar-coat vouchers with such inducements is pungent cynicism -- doubly so because the sponsors stole the title, "No Strings Attached," from another school-flexibility bill that has nothing to do with vouchers.

The sponsors of HB 1587 apparently didn't check with Bush, who said Thursday ". . . At this time, that proposal is not the proper one." That should be enough to kill it for this year even if the Senate were receptive, which it isn't.

But this year isn't necessarily the message that Speaker-designate Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, and other sponsors, are sending. That message is more about Florida's future, and to that extent the people of Florida should appreciate the warning.

More immediately, it appears to be an obvious riposte to the Senate's tax reform bill, as well as a tactic to distract House Democrats, who will have to spend less time fighting for more public school dollars so that they can resist HB 1587. If there is an even more sinister purpose, it would be to identify House Republicans who are insufficiently obedient to Byrd and mark them for punishment with unfavorable districts or committee assignments.

If so, it would behoove them to remember that their oaths are to the Constitution, not to Byrd, and that it is not to him that they owe their loyalty, but to the people. Rep. Heather Fiorentino, of New Port Richey, showed them the difference Thursday when she cast the only Republican vote against the bill in the Council on Lifelong Learning. Let none of the others mistake it for a meaningless vote on a bill that isn't going anywhere. We now know Byrd's vision for the public schools. With their votes, the rank-and-file will be revealing theirs.

Back to Opinion

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times
Opinion page