The Florida House of Representatives has proposed a bill Oct. 3 that would allow parents and municipalities to vote for public schools to become private schools. Sophomore Ryleigh Donahue said she is fundamentally opposed to this idea.

“Public schools are public schools,” Donahue said. “I feel like these are two things that should just be kept apart. If I wanted to go to a charter school, I would go to a charter school. If my parents wanted me to go to a charter school, I would go to a charter school. Why would they vote to make my school a charter school if they could just choose to put me in one? I don’t get it, I really don’t.”

The current policy states that more than 50 percent of teachers must vote for the school to become a charter school. Under HB 109, a majority of parents voting to convert the school would be sufficient. West Shore parent Patricia Jones said the current policy should stand.

“We aren’t the teachers,” Jones said. “If you want that power, become a teacher or homeschool your kid. In the end, though, it’s not about you as a parent. If you’re a parent, you aren’t the one being directly affected by the things happening at school—your kid is. And maybe what your kid thinks is different than what you think. As a parent, what happens at school isn’t up to you. It’s up to the teachers.”

Jones said if passed, this bill would be a continuation of the Florida legislature’s push for increased parental involvement in education.

“I see what they’re doing with this, what their thought process might be here, but I’m not sure I agree with it,” Jones said. “On the one hand, they’re trying to appease the loud voices—and they are loud—that press for a level of involvement and control that leads to things like the [parental consent] forms. However, I think that this is the wrong approach. If parents don’t agree with what their children are being taught, the solution shouldn’t be to change the school. It’s not the school’s fault, not the educators’ fault. That parent should put their child somewhere that says things they agree with, if that’s what matters to them, instead of fighting for a change that messes things up for everyone else.”

By Hannah Jones