Background
Florida voters had to decide on eleven proposed amendments to the state constitution.
Two, numbers 3 and 4, could have potentially affect school funding.
Amendment 3 would have limited the growth in state spending while Amendment 4 would have limited the increase in the taxable value of property. School officials opposed both. And neither amendments came close to the 60 percent majority needed to pass.
Amendment 8 would have eliminated the constitutional ban on public money funding religious or sectarian groups.
School officials had opposed this amendment because they worried it could open the door to public funding of religious schools or the return of vouchers. However, Florida’s Supreme Court has already ruled another section of the state constitution — which would not be changed by Amendment 8 — prohibits the return of vouchers.
Amendment 12 would have changed how the student member of the Florida Board of Governors is selected.
Again, neither amendment 8 or 12 came close to the 60 percent majority needed to pass.
Unprepared voters who had not read the amendments before entering the polls helped create longer voting lines in Florida.
But we like to think our readers were prepared. We presented you our guide in the words of Judge Reinhold’s character Brad from “Fast Times At Ridgemont High:” “Learn it. Know it. Live it.”
