Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office is appealing a circuit court judge’s decision to remove an education amendment from the November ballot.
The fight over Amendment Eight is heading to the First District Court of Appeal.
Monday Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled Amendment 8’s ballot summary was misleading, because it doesn’t tell voters it’s true purpose. That purpose, says architect and Collier County School Board Member Erika Donalds, is to give the state legislature the authority to create independent charter school authorizers. Right now only local school boards can do so, under the constitution. The amendment was challenged by the League of Women Voters of Florida which argued the ballot summary was vague and grouped together issues that had nothing in common except for impacting k-12 education.
Amendment 8 is one of eight revisions placed on the ballot by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission. Most of the commission's amendments are facing lawsuits to have them removed.
*Correction: This story initially stated there were 13 amendments placed on the ballot by the CRC. There are eight.
