The push to limit the terms of Florida school board members officially moved farther than ever before on Monday evening.
The Senate Rules Committee, which killed the proposal a year ago, gave this year’s proposal (SJR 1216) a narrow 9-8 vote to send it ahead to the full Senate for final consideration. With a vote in the House on identical language already passed, it’s now up to the upper chamber to determine whether the measure will land before voters on the fall 2020 ballot.
But adoption in the Senate could be in jeopardy, as Democrats have so far signaled unanimous opposition to the idea of forcing board members out after 8 consecutive years, and one Republican joined their ranks at Monday’s committee stop. That’s significant because resolutions for votes on to place a constitutional amendment before voters, as this would be, require a three-fifths majority.
The Republicans hold one seat less than three-fifths in the 40-member Senate.
And deputy majority leader Anitere Flores, R-Miami, says she’s not on board, either.
“Too many times we pass laws in this Legislature to cure a problem that doesn’t exist, only to have that law create new problems,” Flores told her colleagues.
If the concern is that one board member in tiny Columbia County has been in office for more than 40 years, she said, the argument for term limits has not been successfully made in her mind.
She was not alone.
Sen. Bill Montford, a Tallahassee Democrat and former Leon County superintendent, said he saw hypocrisy in the stance offered by the bill’s supporters.
“For 10 years I’ve heard so much about parental choice and parents know better ... and here we are saying parents can’t make the choice of who they want on the school board,” Montford said, urging opposition.
Some of the best school board members he worked with were the ones who had the time to become expert at all the intricacies that drive the system, he added.
Sen. Gary Farmer, a Broward County Democrat, said he once supported term limits but no longer does, in part for that reasoning that Montford aired.
“Just when you’re getting really good at your job, they show you the door,” Farmer said. “The voters of every county have the ability to determine who they want on their school board.”
They do so with regularity, said Sen. Oscar Braynon II, a Miami-Dade Democrat. He noted that in his home district, the incumbent school board member was ousted by a first-time candidate, while another in nearby Broward County stepped aside for a challenger whose child was killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
“I am not seeing the problem that we are facing,” Braynon said.
Bill sponsor Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, argued that the bill was about “good public policy.”
With term limits, he said, “you get fresh ideas, new leadership and really new energy coming into the process.” He asked for and received enough support to push the bill ahead.
Even that almost didn’t happen. The measure was pulled from consideration early in the meeting, amid concerns it couldn’t generate the votes to pass, and then returned five hours later for debate. In public comment, 19 speakers opposed the idea, while one spoke in favor.
If the bill eventually wins a three-fifths majority in the Senate, it would go to voters in November. It would require a 60 percent majority to be amended into the state constitution, where school boards are established.
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School board term limits get closer to Florida ballot, but still could falter - Tampa Bay Times
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