School panel ponders code changes

It plans to suggest legislators cut by 25 percent the state's body of school laws. But hot-button issues are off-limits for now.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 14, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's new Board of Education is ready to recommend that the Legislature trim the state's school code by about 25 percent, eliminating a number of obsolete or unnecessary laws.

But the board is not yet ready to make a recommendation on many of the hot-button school laws taken up by the board's appointed workgroups.

For instance, the board put off making a recommendation on whether to give universities more authority for setting tuition and fees -- an issue that has vexed the state for years.

"Don't think of this as . . . we don't want to deal with it," said Education Secretary Jim Horne, speaking after a board workshop Thursday. "It would be easy to do this piecemeal. But we need to do it right."

The board, which oversees kindergarten through graduate school, recently monitored a line-by-line review of all of Florida's laws related to schools -- some of them controversial, some mind-numbingly obscure. One workgroup member referred to the process as "excruciating."

At a workshop Thursday, the board reviewed the series of recommendations. It is expected to vote on the school code revisions at a meeting today. Any changes to Florida's school laws must be approved by the Legislature.

The board didn't even discuss some changes, because many are simple housekeeping matters that revise the state's law to reflect the major changes to Florida's education governance structure -- the same laws that created the Board of Education earlier this year.

Dozens of changes were not controversial.

But several proposed changes touched off hours of debate among workgroup members over the last three months.

For instance, should the state eliminate laws requiring that districts instruct students about the Holocaust, African-American history, the proper display of the flag, kindness to animals and the elementary principles of agriculture?

Some workgroup members felt those requirements do not need to be mentioned in state law. After Assistant Secretary of Education John Winn listed those requirements, Board Chairman Phil Handy said: "When you said, "kindness to animals and principles of agriculture,' you weren't kidding, right?"

The board agreed with Horne's recommendation to leave the requirements as they are. As Handy put it, "it's a politically volatile issue."

The issue of universities setting their own tuition has been a challenge to the state for years. University presidents say their newly appointed boards of trustees must have that authority. The issue is a tangle of complications, affected by the state's Bright Futures and Prepaid Tuition plans.

"There needs to be something going to the Legislature on tuition this year," said Jack Wheat, special assistant to University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft. "We thought perhaps the new Board of Education would be able to do that. The board has had a lot put on its plate in a very short time."

Handy said the board might have a recommendation by mid 2002, which would put it before the Legislature by 2003.

"This group will have a voice in it," said board member William Proctor. "We don't want to piecemeal the issue. We'll address it head-on, the way it ought to be dealt with."

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