BILL SIGNED TO AID INDIAN RIVER LAGOON

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill that includes steps to improve the Indian River Lagoon, where poor water quality has contributed to problems such as a large number of manatee deaths in recent years. The bill (HB 1379) also will direct $100 million a year from real-estate taxes to the Florida Forever land-acquisition program. The bill, in part, will require the state Department of Environmental Protection, local governments and agencies to plan how to improve water-quality standards in the Indian River Lagoon watershed. The department must establish a water-quality monitoring network throughout the lagoon. Another bill (HB 21) DeSantis signed Tuesday will establish a series of road designations, including designating the bridge on State Road 3 over the Canaveral Barge Canal in Brevard County to honor Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire teacher killed in 1986 on the space shuttle Challenger. The bill also will name the new NASA Causeway Bridge on State Road 405 over the Indian River in Brevard County after astronaut Sally Ride and a stretch of Cortez Boulevard in Hernando County for the late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. Another bill signed Tuesday (SB 478) will make permanent a pilot program that provides school districts up to $150 for every kindergarten through second-grade student enrolled in a “comprehensive music education program.”

Fau Shutdown Case Goes To Supreme Court

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

A lawsuit stemming from the shutdown of Florida Atlantic University’s campus early in the COVID-19 pandemic has gone to the state Supreme Court. An attorney for students filed a notice late Friday that is a first step in asking the Supreme Court to review an April 26 ruling by a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal. The FAU lawsuit is one of numerous cases filed in Florida and other states alleging that colleges and universities breached contracts during the shutdown and should be required to refund money to students. But the appellate-court panel upheld a circuit judge’s decision to dismiss the FAU case, finding that the university didn’t have an “express, written contract” with the students named as plain- tiffs, Amanda Heine and Jhayla Stready. The Supreme Court is considering a case in which the 1st District Court of Appeal reached a similar conclusion in a potential class-action lawsuit filed against the University of Florida.

Also, the 1st District Court of Appeal and the 3rd District Court of Appeal have rejected cases filed by students against Florida A&M University, Miami Dade College and Florida International University. But the 2nd District Court of Appeal last year refused a request by the University of South Florida to dismiss a similar potential class-action lawsuit. The Supreme Court on Jan. 5 declined to take up an appeal by USF. As is common, the notice filed in the Florida Atlantic case did not include detailed arguments.

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge will hear arguments Thursday in an attempt by the state to scuttle a potential class-action lawsuit that alleges discrimination against Florida A&M University in funding and programs.

Attorneys for six FAMU students filed the lawsuit in September in federal court in Tallahassee and are seeking an injunction against state practices that they say violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and a federal anti-discrimination law known as Title VI. Florida A&M is the state’s only historically Black public university.

“Throughout its history and up to the present, Florida has intentionally and consistently engaged in racial discrimination by maintaining a dual and unequal system of higher education, including by providing disparate funding and duplicating non-core FAMU programs, that has and continues to perpetuate de jure segregation in Florida’s higher education system and has prevented FAMU from achieving parity with Florida’s public traditionally white institutions,” said a revised version of the lawsuit filed in January.

But attorneys for the state will argue during Thursday’s hearing that U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle should dismiss the case, in part contending that the disputed policies are not “traceable” to de jure segregation — segregation sanctioned by law.

“The challenged policy or practice must not only be traceable to de jure segregation, it must also have continuing segregative effects,” attorneys for the state wrote in a February motion to dismiss the case. “Here, plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged that the challenged policies are traceable to de jure segregation or that they have segregative effects.”

The lawsuit, filed by the national law firm Grant & Eisenhofer and Miami civil-rights attorney Josh Dubin, raises a series of issues that it contends shows discrimination against FAMU. It names as defendants the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state university system’s Board of Governors, university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, the State Board of Education and state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.

As an example of the issues, it points to duplication of programs with nearby Florida State University and an alleged failure to have “unique” non-core programs at FAMU. Arguments involve such things as an engineering program that is shared by FAMU and Florida State.

“Unnecessary academic program duplication is harmful not only because it perpetuates a dual system but also because the greater the duplication the less likely that non-core quality programs can be adequately supported since resources are spread out over more programs,” the lawsuit said.

But the state’s motion to dismiss the case said allegations about programs such as the joint engineering school, which was created in 1982, “fall well short of establishing a policy traceable to de jure segregation.”

“In any event, the joint college is not even an example of program duplication that attempts to perpetuate segregation; it is the antithesis of a segregative program,” the state’s motion said. “Students in the joint college enroll at either FAMU or FSU but attend engineering courses together in a shared building. Far from perpetuating the practice of ‘separate but equal,’ the joint college aims to join students of FAMU and FSU together under one roof.”

As another example of issues in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs contend that a state system of performance-based funding “severely disadvantages FAMU.” The lawsuit said the system, which awards money to universities based on various measurements, doesn’t take into account factors such as the socioeconomic backgrounds of students served by schools.

“The metrics used to determine the funding awarded to Florida’s public universities favor students who have better access to resources and support, resources which help ensure academic success at the postsecondary education level,” the lawsuit said. “This includes, by way of example college preparatory coursework and standardized testing support, allowing those students to more likely achieve higher testing scores, complete their first year of university, and ultimately graduate, among other things. Underrepresented minority students and socioeconomically challenged students are often the first generation of college student in their family, may have social or economic barriers, may work while pursuing their course of study, and have less access to resources and support.”

But in the motion to dismiss the case, lawyers in Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office wrote that the performance-based funding system “uses wholly neutral benchmarks.”

“These benchmarks track PBFM’s (the performance-based funding model’s) four guiding principles, two of which are pertinent here: rewarding excellence or improvement and acknowledging the unique missions of the different institutions,” the motion said.

“Simply put, the funding model seeks to reward institutions who have better student outcomes with increased funding, not diminish the performance of historically black institutions.”

Enterprise Florida Closure Teed Up

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

A bill that would close Enterprise Florida, the state’s business-recruitment agency since 1996, was formally sent Tuesday to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The bill (HB 5), a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, would shift existing contracts and more than 20 programs to the Department of Economic Opportunity, which is being renamed the Department of Commerce. The changes would take effect July 1, the start of the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Numerous incentive programs would be fully repealed, including the Office of Film and Entertainment. But the new Department of Commerce would pick up 20 positions and $10 million a year as part of the shift. The bill also would designate the Visit Florida tourism-marketing agency and the Florida Sports Foundation as “direct-support organizations” under the Department of Commerce. The two agencies would have to enter agreements with the department to continue existing programs. In March, Renner said Enterprise Florida had “outlived” its usefulness. “Enterprise Florida has over-promised and under-delivered for years and drains funds from higher priorities,” Renner said as the annual legislative session opened on March 7. “If this were Washington, D.C., it would live on forever, unchanged and unchallenged, but the Florida way requires us to retain only what works and eliminate what does not.” Several years ago, Enterprise Florida became the subject of a battle between then-Gov. Rick Scott, who supported the agency, and House leaders over business incentives. Then-Speaker Richard Corcoran repeatedly referred to incentives offered directly to companies as “corporate welfare.” Corcoran’s successor as speaker, Jose Oliva, described incentive deals as going against the free market and favoring large corporations. At the time, Enterprise Florida survived but with less funding.

New College To Get New Mascot

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

More changes could be coming this week to New College of Florida, as the school’s Board of Trustees is slated to weigh the selection of a new mascot. The small liberal-arts school in Sarasota launched an intercollegiate athletics department in March, following sweeping leadership changes. Gov. Ron DeSantis in January appointed a slate of conservative allies to the trustees board. The revamped board ousted New College president Patricia Okker, replacing her on an interim basis with Richard Corcoran, a former state House speaker and education commissioner. New College’s student newspaper, The Catalyst, reported in April that members of the campus community were surveyed about possible new mascot options to replace the longtime mascot, the Null Set. The school also in March announced the hiring of Mariano Jimenez, a former coach for Team USA Baseball, as New College’s athletic director and baseball coach.