Florida orders Broward to pay back district charter schools tens of millions

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. and the State Board of Education approved a motion Wednesday to require the Broward County School Board and the Broward County School District comply with state law and pay back more than $80 million owed to charter schools in their district.

“I am extremely proud of the many accomplishments that protect Florida students, teachers and schools,” Diaz said. “It is crucial that districts are held accountable for their actions, and I am pleased that we have taken measures to ensure transparency.”

The state’s reprimand follows a letter sent to the Broward County School District on March 7 stating they were not in compliance with Florida law. Specifically, the district did not share revenue collected through discretionary tax with its charter schools levied under Florida Statute section 1011.71 (9).

Back in 2018, Broward County voters passed a referendum to provide additional funding to public schools. However, the department noted the district “failed” to share those dollars with its charter schools.

“The State Board of Education and the Florida Department of Education will ensure that districts provide charter schools their rightful share of funding from local referendums,” the release said.

Speaking to the matter, Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed the issue at a news conference Thursday.

“I think what they [Broward schools] were doing is not following the spirit of the law and these charter programs,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis noted Florida’s charter population is close to 400,000 students. He also noted its population was larger than some states’ K-12 population, mentioning Florida as among the top in the country.

“Our charter programs have worked in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “When they don’t do a good job, parents don’t send them there and then schools have trouble.”

Furthermore, DeSantis emphasized close to 400,000 private scholarships coming within state districts.

“You’ve got a lot of school choice,” DeSantis said.

According to the department, Broward schools has until the next State Board of Education meeting April 17 to reach a resolution and present their plan to be in compliance.

Additionally, Diaz Jr. and the State Board of Education recommended districts shouldn’t use tutor.com due to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The website, owned by Primavera Capital, is headquartered in China, a designated “foreign country of concern.”

Committed to protecting Florida students, the department stated the website poses “data security concerns.”

“Ties to foreign countries of concern may compromise student data privacy, which we will never allow in
Florida schools,” the department said. “The State Board of Education has recently adopted rules to strengthen and protect the privacy of student data to keep it out of the hands of bad actors.”

Furthermore, the board approved a measure to designate its Schools of Excellence for the 2022-2023 year. The selections were made to schools whose grade calculation is in the 80th percentile or higher for at least two of the last three school years.

Of the awards, 783 schools were recognized, including 658 that maintained their designations from last year. Thirty-seven schools also renewed their designation while 88 were newly designated.

Beginning in 2017, Florida’s School of Excellence program was established under HB 7069, which recognizes and rewards Florida’s highest-performing schools. The law encourages school improvement and allows administrative flexibility at the state’s top schools to provide high-quality education to students.