JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Duval County School Board is meeting tonight to discuss potential changes to Florida\u2019s controversial Schools of Hope law. <\/p>\n
The statute allows charter schools to move into vacant, underutilized, or underperforming public school buildings at no cost to the charter operator.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Action News Jax has been tracking opposition to the policy for months, as education leaders and parents across the state have raised concerns about local control, accountability, and the long-term impact on public schools.<\/p>\n The discussion comes after Duval County Public Schools confirmed that charter operator Mater Academy has rescinded plans to move into 23 of the 25 district schools it initially targeted. The district received those letters back in October, prompting widespread concern and public backlash.<\/p>\n Despite that reversal, the state statute still leaves school boards with little room to push back, and that\u2019s why board members are now considering formal action to seek reform.<\/p>\n RELATED: Northeast Florida parents concerned over Schools of Hope student information policy<\/a><\/p>\n Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, criticized the law and the role of for-profit charter operators.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic schools are your schools, they\u2019re my schools,\u201d Spar said. \u201cThey\u2019re your schools if you\u2019re a parent, an aunt or uncle, a grandparent, a taxpayer, or a small business owner. And the fact that public schools are your schools means you control them.\u201d<\/p>\n Spar argues the Schools of Hope policy strips that control away.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cThese are corporate interests who are looking to make billions of dollars off the backs of kids,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to take over your schools, and we shouldn\u2019t allow that.\u201d<\/p>\n School board members are expected to discuss several proposed changes, including refining how underperforming schools are identified, updating how school space is measured, and preserving the authority of locally elected school boards. <\/p>\n Another proposal would seek to remove what the board describes as potential \u201cunfunded operational or administrative burdens\u201d placed on school districts.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n While Spar said he appreciates the board\u2019s effort to add guardrails, he believes the law itself is fundamentally flawed and should be repealed altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality of it is the concept is ultimately flawed, and I think we should be calling on lawmakers to repeal it,\u201d Spar said. \u201cIf that\u2019s not successful, then protecting students in our schools and protecting public taxpayer money is vitally important.\u201d<\/p>\n District officials say the board can vote to approve the proposed language, modify it, or determine that additional review is needed.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Duval County School Board is meeting tonight to discuss potential changes to Florida\u2019s controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14189,982,5228,55577,9286,7840,1040,12909,18583,794,25176,55578,1130,116,118,117,2816,634,16866,55579,6176,7842],"class_list":["post-108507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_jacks","tag-andrew_spahr","tag-ben","tag-ben_becker","tag-dcps","tag-deja","tag-deja_mayfield","tag-duval","tag-duval_county_school_board","tag-florida_education_association","tag-jackson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jax","tag-local","tag-matter_academy","tag-schools_of_hope","tag-south_bank","tag-tanika_hughes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}