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Florida Supreme Court Transfers HB 7069 Lawsuit To Lower Court

The challenge contended that the law violates part of the Florida Constitution that requires legislation to deal with single subjects.
Wikimedia Commons
The challenge contended that the law violates part of the Florida Constitution that requires legislation to deal with single subjects.

The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to wade in on the state’s controversial new education law.

The case has now been transferred to the Leon County Circuit Court instead.

Much of the controversy over HB 7069, centers on what's become known as schools of hope, which make it easier for charter schools to open near academically struggling traditional public schools. It also requires school districts to share millions of dollars in taxpayer money with charter schools.Nine school boards including Polk County, filed a challenge directly to the state's highest court in November contending that provisions of the law are unconstitutional.  

With the case being sent down to the Leon County Circuit Court, it joins a lawsuit challenging HB 7069 filed by 13 school districts including including   Pinellasand Polk county.The new case filed to the Supreme Court involved different legal grounds.  

The Supreme Court’s one page orderstated that the transfer "should not be construed as adjudication or comment on the merits of the petition."

In a separate but related action, a Leon County judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a HB 7069 casebrought by the Palm Beach School Board. 

When the bill was passed on the final day of the 2017 spring legislative session, Richard Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, called it "the greatest educational K-12 policy that we've passed in the history of the state."

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Cathy Carter is the education reporter for WUSF 89.7 and StateImpact Florida.