'Regents amendment' has high court review

TALLAHASSEE -- Supreme Court justices peppered a lawyer with questions Thursday about why a plan to restore a separate governing board for the state university system should not be on the November ballot.

Lawyer Steve Turner argued that the measure violates a rule that proposed constitutional amendments deal with only a single subject because it would affect both the executive and legislative branches of government by creating a new board of governors.

"If we adopt that rationale, everything would fall under multiple subjects," Justice Fred Lewis said.

Supporters of the change, led by U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, want to create a new two-tier system modeled after one in North Carolina. It would revive a version of the former Board of Regents but retain boards of trustees for individual universities.

"There's nothing unusual about this," said Robin Gibson, lawyer for the group Education Excellence for Florida. "It's standard stuff."

Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican-led Legislature abolished the Board of Regents last year and gave oversight of the state's 11 public universities to the Florida Board of Education, which has responsibility for all education from kindergarten through postgraduate studies.

Graham, the state's senior elected Democrat, opposed that change and says the state's system will lead to greater political fighting among the universities and duplication of programs. He is critical of Bush, who is running for re-election as the education governor, and says the state is fostering a poor education system that threatens Florida's economic future.

Education Excellence still needs to gather more than 100,000 signatures before Aug. 6 to get the question on the Nov. 5 ballot. The group has collected 385,000 of the 488,000 signatures needed. Almost 145,000 have been certified.

For a proposed amendment to get on the statewide ballot, the Supreme Court must find that the ballot language is about only one subject and the wording is clear.

Justices, who heard oral arguments in the case Thursday, will make that determination later.

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