The Florida House adopted a substantial amendment to CS for CS for HB 1115, the Schools of Hope and education measure, after hours of floor debate on concerns about colocation, transportation and local control.

The amendment, offered on the floor by Representative Bousada and adopted by voice vote and later a roll-call on final passage, restores and expands Schools of Hope provisions, allows universities and colleges to be sponsoring entities for Schools of Hope, authorizes Schools of Hope to operate in certain underused, vacant or surplus public-school facilities and sets out performance-based and management agreements between School of Hope operators and districts.

Supporters said the package would provide more options for students in persistently low-performing schools and create a mechanism to put underused school buildings back into instructional use. Representative Bousada, the amendment sponsor, told colleagues the change “provides a mechanism for the Schools of Hope program to receive funds when the fund balance falls below $25,000,000 and authorizes a high-performing School of Hope to continue to receive funds from the program beyond its initial five years.”

Opponents raised repeated concerns that the amendment was expanded on the floor and that important guardrails—especially for transportation and the definition of “underused, vacant or surplus” facilities—were left to Department of Education rulemaking. Representative Bartleman pressed repeatedly on whether school districts would retain meaningful authority to object to a School of Hope proposal and asked who would pay to transport students from qualifying low-performing schools to Schools of Hope outside opportunity zones; the amendment requires that Schools of Hope provide transportation if needed, but does not create a dedicated state transportation appropriation.

The House amendment also allows co-location arrangements in which a School of Hope may share a facility with a traditional public school and requires a management agreement for noninstructional services; under the amendment the host public school may charge the School of Hope up to $600 per student for use of noninstructional services and may claim the students for fixed-capital outlay purposes.

Floor debate covered many practical details and consequences; Representative Bousada said the performance-based agreements would give operators five years to meet benchmarks and that unresolved disputes could be referred to the State Board of Education and resolved by a special magistrate. Opponents called the change a surprise, questioned whether DOE rulemaking would be sufficiently protective of districts and families, and warned the amendment risked creating two codes of conduct in one building and diverting students from neighborhood schools.

The House adopted the amendment and later concurred in the Senate amendment package for CS for CS for HB 1115 as amended; the final vote on the package was 84 yeas and 19 nays on final passage.