Legislators are at it again! With just days left in session, Sen. Flores and her friends at Jeb’s Foundation are 
still pushing the unfair transfer of public assets into the hands of corporate charter chains. HB 549 and the Flores amendment gives unprecedented power to charter schools, allowing them to acquire public facilities without local approval.
Take action now! Urge NO on HB 549 and this bad amendment!
Last Night Sen Flores amended HB549 to conform to her senate education bill. The amended bill contains this new language is in lines 156-7:
(18) FACILITIES.—
(c) Any facility, or portion thereof, used to house a
charter school whose charter has been approved by the sponsor and the governing board, pursuant to subsection (7), shall be exempt from ad valorum taxes pursuant to s. 196.1983. Library, community service, museum, performing arts, theater, cinema, church, Florida College System institution, college, and university facilities may provide space to charter schools within their facilities under their preexisting zoning and land use designations WITHOUT OBTAINING A SPECIAL EXCEPTION, REZONING, A LAND USE CHARTER, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF APPROVAL.
As Sue Woltanski of Minimize Testing notes: This allows charter schools MORE property rights than any other property owner. Basically they can re-purpose ANY building, anywhere without requiring ANY local approval. We need to fight to retain local control of our communities.
If you support local control, please urge the Senators and Representatives to VOTE NO on HB 549 and Sen. Flores’s deceptive move to bypass local authority and hand publicly owned facilities to charter chains.
Tell them that we are bi-partisan and we’re watching.
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