Posted on 06/25/2019 10:31:59 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Thirteen years after Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer successfully challenged the state’s major school-vouchers program, he is preparing to sue the state again, this time over its newest taxpayer-funded scholarships.
A number of organizations want Meyer to represent them in a case to try to strike down the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last month.
The organizations, which include Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center, argue it is unconstitutional for Florida taxpayers to give low-income and middle-income students scholarships to attend private schools, including religious schools.
[snip]
However, supporters of the program, including the governor, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and Republican legislative leaders, maintain the program will provide children with funds to get out of failing public schools. DeSantis said approving the new voucher program will help “tens of thousands of low-income children realize their dreams.”
At the request of Corcoran, a staunch supporter of school choice programs, DeSantis on Friday approved a quarter of a million dollars for the Department of Education to spend on “ongoing and potential future litigation.”
That money was tucked in the upcoming year’s $90.98 billion state budget.
Voucher-type programs have been a controversial issue in Florida’s education system for the past two decades. Meyer has played an important role as a lead attorney in a case that prompted the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 to rule former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunshinestatenews.com ...
Outlaw the Teacher unions and all these problems will disappear.
What is constitution of FLA Supreme Court between Democrats and Republicans?
Desantis just appointed three fresh conservatives so I think we have the majority now.
Is Florida really going conservative?
We are conservative. The danger is that we’ll move left from immigration and the influx of northern liberals.
The only reason the legislature and governor bothered to pass this voucher act was because De Santis replaced the loathsome Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince with conservatives.
DeSantis said in a speech at the annual convention for the Federalist Society that the court had “constantly gone beyond the bounds of what is judicial into the realm of what is really legislative . . . Anything that had a political color to it just always happened to be decided in the way of the Democratic Party.” He concluded his comments on the state supreme court by saying, “I think we’re in a much better spot.
Agree. And to put a stake through its heart, do away with Jimmy The Good’s Dept of Education.
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