Districts ready to sue over class size fines

By Kim MacQueen

A legal fight could be brewing over soon-to-be imposed penalties against school districts that have failed to meet class size restrictions. That's because the Department of Education is initially recommending nearly $41 million in penalties against those districts that did not meet the requirements.

For the first time this fall, school districts were required to comply with limits put in place by voters in 2002, capping individual classes in kindergarten through third grade at 18 students each, fourth through eighth grade classes at 22 students and high school classes at 25 students. Lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment that would have relaxed the limits but it was rejected by voters.

The department's spreadsheet targets 38 different school districts for a total of nearly $41 million, ranging from small (Washington County Schools will owe only $1,308) to large (Duval County would be assessed almost $6.4 million). The state's charter schools would collectively lose $2.3 million. This would be the largest amount of penalties imposed since the amendment took effect.

According to a Department of Education spokeswoman who stressed that the findings were preliminary, 28 out-of-compliance districts have already filed appeals with Commissioner Eric Smith, and more were expected to appeal in advance of the Jan. 18 State Board of Education meeting in Pensacola. Beffore the penalties can be imposed, however, the action must be approved by the Legislative Budget Commission.

Meanwhile, 20 school districts and the School Boards Association have already prepared a suit to stop the penalties. Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer said his office will take action if and when any district is asked to pay penalties. He said 20 school districts signed up to sue "some months ago, when it became apparent that some school districts wouldn't make the class size goals because of inadequate funding from the state."

"The state constitution makes funding the school districts a state obligation. They didn't give the funds that were needed to do this. How can they now hold the districts accountable for what they didn't fund?" Meyer said.

Meyer also suggested that the board's process for penalizing school districts has never been worked out in detail, and would require new rules -- which he maintains are subject to Gov. Rick Scott’s executiver order that bars any new rulemaking.

"I'm optimistic that the State Board of Education, the Department of Education and, ultimately, the Florida Legislature will take steps to undo this penalty scheme, which was put in place to create a crisis that would help Amendment 8 pass," Meyer said, referring to the amendment that voters rejected last November. "It didn't pass, and now they're stuck with the mess they created."

Originally published in the Florida Current - exclusively distributed via Lobbytools - Florida's Premiere Legislative and Media Monitoring Service.

http://fltrib.com/districts-ready-sue-over-class-size-policies