12-Year Term Limits For Elected School Board Members In Fla.: Is It Constitutional?

Florida Phoenix

March 1, 2022

Florida lawmakers are moving to impose 12-year term limits on locally-elected school board members, but will that pass muster when it comes to the Florida Constitution?

“If we’re going to propose to do something like this, we should put it to a vote of the people. We shouldn’t be taking this paternalistic attitude that we know better, or just because we’re subject to term limits we’re going to impose them on school districts,” said Sen. Gary Farmer, a Democrat who represents part of Broward County.

And keep in mind that the Florida Constitution gives local school boards authority and power to oversee the operations of public schools.

The issues arose during a Florida Senate committee meeting on Tuesday, when senators in the group approved a change to legislation that would impose a 12-year term limit for locally-elected school board members. Right now that’s not required.

Sen. Joe Gruters, a Republican who represents part of Sarasota and part of Charlotte County, is sponsoring the bill in the Senate. He also is chair of the Republican Party of Florida. The House sponsor is Rep. Sam Garrison, of Northeast Florida, who last session and this session has tried to eliminate salaries for local school board members, most of whom are women. That has raised about sexism.

Those board salaries at this point appear to be intact, but in the waning days of the legislative session, things could change.

Local boards have been in the center of the COVID-19 pandemic and board members have faced financial sanctions over mask mandates and harassments from community members. School board members are not partisan, but term limits could cycle out longtime board members, shifting political alignments.

Also Tuesday, senators discussed another section of the bill — parental involvement in the selection of library books and instructional materials in schools.

Gruters said that the bill is an effort to “create the transparency so that parents and the community members can understand exactly what’s being taught at all grade levels.”

But several lawmakers are worried that the legislation will lead to removal of books for extended periods of time, denying all students the chance to read certain materials due to the complaints from a handful of parents — or even those who are not parents with children in the local district.

Some books have already been removed from some Florida school libraries due to some objections for supposedly inappropriate materials.

“This is a dangerous road we are embarking upon,” said Sen. Randolph Bracy, a Democrat representing part of Orange County.

Rep. Jeff Brandes, a Republican who represents part of Pinellas County, said he was fine with the 12-year term limits, but said “the library stuff is kooky.” Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book called the book “scary stuff.” She represents part of Broward County.

The legislation, HB 1467, was approved by the committee and is expected to be headed to the full Senate floor within the final days of the 2022 legislative session.

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