Voucher, charter school backers urge Florida teachers union to end lawsuit
Tampa Bay Times | Jeffrey S. Solochek | May 27, 2026
The constitutional challenge to the programs could impact the education of nearly 1 million children.
Jeronte Norton wants the Florida Education Association to end its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s education voucher and charter school programs.
The sixth grader said he needed a greater academic challenge than Broward Elementary in Tampa offered. Without a state-funded voucher, though, his mom couldn’t afford to sent him to Academy Prep Center of Tampa, where he’s thrived.
“There is no such thing as a uniform kid and there is no such thing as a uniform school,” Jeronte said Wednesday during a Pinellas Park press conference denouncing the lawsuit filed earlier this month by the union and seven parents from across Florida. “Please put politics aside and give us the freedom to choose.”
The lawsuit is based on Article IX of the state constitution, which says the state shall provide for a “uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools.”
Andrew Spar, the Florida Education Association president, said the lawsuit aims to ensure the state meets that constitutional requirement. It also seeks increased transparency, fairness and accountability for the other options, he added.
“Why would anyone have concerns with any of those objectives?” Spar said after the press conference, which he did not attend. “Parents have the right to know what the curriculum is at every school they may choose, and what the qualifications are of teachers and staff at any school. Taxpayers have the right to know where their public tax dollars are going and that they are being spent wisely and with accountability.”
Step Up for Students, which manages the vast majority of Florida’s $4.5 billion in vouchers and tax credit scholarships, wants the focus to remain on the students, parents and schools benefiting from the state’s education choice model.
Nearly 500,000 children receive vouchers while about another 400,000 attend charter schools.
“We’re taking no chances,” Step Up spokesperson Patrick Gibbon said. “You just take it seriously that they are trying to end those programs.”
Speakers at the press conference — held outside Sacred Heart Catholic School with uniformed students holding signs offering messages such as “Just drop it” — viewed the challenge quite differently than those who filed the complaint.
“Public schools work for many children, but they don’t work for my sons,” said Leslie Coker, a Bradenton mom who relies on a combination of private and homeschooling for her children. “For me, the lawsuit is not political. It’s personal. We are living proof that school choice works in Florida.”
Without the financial support, she said, her single-income family’s choices would be restricted. And her sons would suffer.
That argument sat at the heart of all the comments at the event.
“Many of these parents will lose the ability to choose the environment where their children can succeed,” said the Rev. Alfred Johnson, founder and president of Faith Action Ministry Alliance. “In neighborhoods like Grant Park, education choice is not a luxury. It is a lifeline.”
Johnson spoke of how when a student gets into the right educational spot, life can change for that child, the family and the community. It can help break the cycle of poverty, hopelessness and crime, he said.
“This is the future that we are fighting for,” he said.
Other speakers included leaders of the Diocese of St. Petersburg’s Catholic schools, IDEA Public Schools charter system and LiFT (Learning Independence for Tomorrow) Academy in Clearwater. Each said Florida’s choice model brings children to their schools, which they said provide a well-balanced education held accountable by families.
“What this debate comes down to is one simple question,” said Christopher Pastura, superintendent of diocese schools. “Who is best equipped to make educational decisions for these children?”
The court case has not been scheduled for a hearing.
