Dive Brief:

• Critics are concerned that recent legislation signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott could take funding from traditional public schools, mandating that about $419 million in property tax revenue that would typically go towards district schools for capital must now be shared with charter schools, according to The Washington Post.
• U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has often pointed to Florida as a sterling example of a state offering students and families an array of choices when picking schools, but many, like Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, are concerned about the state of facility maintenance at district schools — and Moody's additionally announced the legislation was "credit negative" in districts with a higher number of charter schools.
• Concerns about the new legislation are arising as education officials in the state are requesting that Florida be able to waive aspects of the Every Student Succeeds Act, particularly hoping to not have to judge their schools on how successful they are at closing gaps in achievement between different groups of students or the progression of English language learners on tests.

Dive Insight:

A chief criticism of school choice policies has been around the redirecting of tax dollars away from traditional public schools. For less affluent districts — urban and rural alike — that are already struggling to make ends meet under declining public education funding and funding formulas that favor their more affluent peers, this is a particular concern. Schools and districts with less funding to go around don't just see their quality suffer from a lack of ability to afford up-to-date resources, tech and other tools and supplies, but also when it comes to meeting socioeconomic needs their students may have beyond the classroom, such as school nurses or after-school meal programs.

On the ESSA front, some states that have submitted accountability plans to the U.S. Department of Education have been surprised to see some pushback, particularly in regard to lax standards when it comes to accountability. In Delaware, for example, the department's guidance said the state hadn't set ambitious goals for improving student achievement. States like Nevada and New Mexico, meanwhile, have seen their accountability plans called to task for not being stringent and detailed when it comes to how officials and districts will close opportunity and equity gaps, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds or students of color. 

The department sent additional guidance on the critiques of these plans shortly thereafter, but it was still surprising for supporters and critics of DeVos, who expected a department under her tenure to have a lighter regulatory touch. 

Education officials nationwide may have been interested in pursuing the type of proposal that those in Florida have advanced, but may have been dissuaded by the possibility that DeVos intends to maintain federal oversight in some respects. It is also possible that the oversight offered for state accountability plans reflects a Department of Education still in transition from the previous administration, and education officials on the state and local level may be waiting to see more evidence of how DeVos approaches the ESSA rollout before charting options on how to fulfill their regulatory expectations.