More on Florida voucher referendum

By Jim Stergios
July 9th, 2008

Massachusetts is supposedly in a “new era of education reform,” according to many a press release from the Governor’s office. I like the merit/differential pay idea and a couple of other items, but the Readiness proposal is just a sketch at this point. Kind of odd for one year’s worth of work. Feel like we in Massachusetts have gotten complacent and are “adrift in the edu-sphere,” as the Globe editorial put a few months back.

On the other hand, there has been building momentum in Florida. Florida is pretty wise in terms of reform — as it experiments it seeks stronger accountability models, especially when compared to some other voucher and choice systems. Choice is no panacea. You need high academic standards and accountability; otherwise, there is no way to know if what you are buying is a good product.

Christin Coyne of the School Reform News reports on the opportunity to move the dial further in Florida. Florida’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission meets once every 20 years. It can place popular referendum items on the election ballot — and this year it did so. As my dad used to say, and what a doozy (blog etymologists please weight in on the spelling of doozy…) it is!

Florida voters can do away with the state’s Blaine amendment to the constitution, which bans state aid to religious institutions.

In 2004 a Florida appellate court struck down Bush’s statewide school voucher program for students in failing public schools, the A+ Opportunity Scholarship Program, as unconstitutional, citing the Blaine amendment.

The ballot initiative is simple. It inserts:

a new sentence stating “individuals or entities may not be barred from participating in public programs because of their religion” would essentially replace the Blaine amendment wording, which states “no revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”

(Yes, Massachusetts is one of 36 other states with a Blaine amendment. Oddly, the amendment seems only to K-12 education… I wonder what Boston College would think if the same restriction on aid to religious institutions were applied to higher ed.) Good luck, Florida.