Florida "parent empowerment" bill gets revision before first committee stop
Heading toward its first hearings, Florida's proposed "Parent Empowerment Act" came uder blistering criticism from parent groups saying the initiative was a "scheme" to hand neighborhood schools over to private entities. Many parent groups immediately disavowed any input in the bill that supposedly is for them.
School district officials raised concerns, too, that a simple parent petition could override the reform decisions of elected school board members on the advice of their professional staffs. They also noted a provision barring students from having teachers with "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" evaluations in two consecutive years could prove difficult under new evaluation laws.
Bill sponsor Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, filed a committee substitute to deal with at least some of the concerns, as the bill moves into its first committee stops on Tuesday. The amendments were "based on feedback from school boards and other stakeholders," he said, and aimed at keeping the focus on giving parents a voice.