Health care reform opt-out, broad abortion restrictions, managed care for 2.8 million Floridians, less care for patients in nursing homes, Healthy Start slashed: Florida redrew the state’s health care map in the 2011 legislative session.
Florida
Per-Student Funding Dropping $572, or 8%; Flagler District Poised for Severe Cuts
As state lawmakers cut school budgets by $1.3 billion, the Flagler school district already has plans to cut its budget by 3.5 percent through teacher layoffs and other means. It’ll make up the difference by using more than a third of its $9 million reserves.
2011 Session Under GOP Supermajority: Stingier, Looser, More Preferential Florida
The 2011 Session revamped Medicaid, teacher pay and pill-mill regulations, cut the budget and brooked favors with insurers, but culminated in corrosive revolts among Republicans as anti-union and anti-immigration bills failed.
Lawmakers Quietly and Hurriedly Approve $10 Million Statewide Boarding Charter School
The charter school, vehemently opposed by Ormond Beach Sen. Evelyn Lynn, who cited other education priorities, would focus on troubled youth but be paid for with public funds and run by a private concern.
Class-Size Limits Lifted on Numerous Courses As Lawmakers Redefine Meaning of “Core”
Foreign language classes, Advanced Placement courses, and certain social studies courses would be exempt from constitutionally required class-size limits, while caps in other classes could be exceeded by three to five students.
Last-Minute Budget Deal Reduces Districts’ Dollars and Oversight of Charter Schools
Charter schools that have received an “A” or “B” rating in the last three years would be given the ability to expand enrollment or add new grades without having to wait for approval from the school district.
Splitting Florida Lawmakers, Arizona-Inspired Immigration-Law Rewrites Won’t Make It
The Florida House proposal would have turned cops into immigration officers and increased penalties on businesses. The Senate proposal would have been less harsh. The two sides couldn’t agree on a joint proposal.
College Drop-Outs: Florida Lawmakers Cutting Bright Futures Scholarships a Further 20%
Once a scholarship that covered almost 100 percent of a student’s tuition and fees and half the cost of books, students entering UF next year will see their Bright Futures scholarship covering less than 50 percent of those costs.
Property Tax Overhaul Passes House: Breaks For New Home Buyers, Business, Snowbirds
First-time home buyers would get a 50 percent property tax break on the value of their home. Voters would decide whether to cap property tax assessment increases for commercial properties at 5 percent.
Corporate Tax Cut Out, Privatizing Prisons and 3% Public Pension Contributions In
As the Legislature’s 2011 session veers uncertainly toward its final days, lawmakers struck deals Saturday on privatizing prisons and compromising over public employees’ pension contributions, but no deal yet on health care and education cuts.
Florida Legislature Redrawing Abortion Rules, Targeting Women, Physicians and US Law
The House approved a slew of bills that would force women to submit to ultrasounds before an abortion, broaden parental notification when minors are seeking an abortion, and require physicians to own abortion clinics, among other bills.
School Districts Will Have to Vastly Expand Virtual Education; Charters to Click In
At least one virtual class would be mandatory for graduation, kindergarten students could take online courses, and charter schools could offer full or part-time classes in what’s almost certain to become law.
Gun-Toting Bills, Supplanting Doctors and Local Governments, Poised to Become Law
One bill would penalize local governments with stricter gun restrictions than the state. Another would muzzle doctors’ abilities to ask their patients about gun ownership.
Growth-Management 2.0: Local Government Whims Sprawl Over State Oversight
Republicans have complained for years that growth management rules slow growth in the state. A glut of empty homes suggests otherwise. Local governments will be empowered to take advantage of far more lax growth rules.
Bail Bondsmen Would Cash In at Taxpayers’ Expense As Pre-Trial Release Is Scaled Back
A bill written to boost bail bondsmen’s business would force inmates to post bond to get out of jail rather than rely on county-run pre-trial release programs. Taxpayers are likely to pay the price as fewer inmates can afford bond and jail populations soar.
Criminal Backgrounds of Health Providers: Florida’s Licensing System Is All Cavities
Dentists, doctors and pharmacists can still practice in Florida even after committing crimes, while the Department of Health passes over criminal backgrounds in a lax and self-reported licensing procedure.
Property Tax Reform: 50% Exemptions, Breaks for Investors, Losses for Local Governments
Supporters of the overhaul say it’ll fill up empty homes. Critics say it’ll also slash local government revenue and further shift the tax burden to current residents, exacerbating inequities.
More Losers Than Winners as HMOs Skim Off Florida’s $20 Billion Medicaid Overhaul
Managed-car plans will take over almost all of Florida’s 2.8 million Medicaid patients. The overhaul does nothing to change the status of 3.8 million uninsured Floridians.
“Education Savings Accounts” Would Shift Public Money to Private and Home Schools
A vast expansion of school vouchers, Education Savings Account would shift 40 percent of per-student funding to children attending private school, to college savings accounts or to home-school spending, among other diversions from public-education budgets.
How Slashing Water Management Districts’ Budget 25% Endangers Our Way of Life
Allan Milledge, a former water management district chairman, asks: Do you want to jeopardize protection of our rivers, lakes, springs, and wetlands and the protection of our water supply to save an average less than $20 dollars per household per year?
Flagler Power: From Bunnell By-Pass to Weigh Station to A1A Seawall, FDOT Retreats
Three times in the past 12 months, Florida Department of Transportation projects in Flagler County have foundered on the well-organized shoals of local opposition across government boundaries and fiefdoms.
Charter Schools To Be Allowed To Go Virtual As Florida Expands Online Public Education
A proposed law would let charter schools open full-time K-12 “virtual” charter schools, all students would be required to take at least one online class, and school districts would have to offer full or part-time virtual programs.
At 14.5%, Flagler Unemployment Drops to Lowest Level in 2 Years, Florida’s at 11.1%
The unemployment rate locally and statewide appears to be trending downward consistently and finally following the national trend, which has been improving for most of the past year.
BP Oil Spill Aftermath: “Spillionaire” Profiteers of Mismanagement’s Gulf Spoils
How the BP oil spill has made profiteers rich from BP’s $16 billion in clean-up spending while hiding the results of the cleanup, because BP, not the federal government, is in charge.
Union-Busting Bill Narrowly Clears Hurdle and GOP Dissents Before Full Vote at Florida Legislature
The proposed law forbids union deductions from public employees’ paychecks, essentially gutting unions. It passed a committee, 11-9, with three Republicans breaking rank to oppose it.
Conklin Is Fired From State-Backed Job After Talk of Suing the State Over Education Funding
Colleen Conklin has been an outspoken advocate for education as a Flagler County School Board member for 10 years–and as the COO of a largely state-funded education foundation for the last four. One job cost her the other.
Popping Again: Drug Database and Pill-Mill Regulations Return From the Dead
Taken for dead only weeks ago, a revised bill that would preserve many pill-mill regulations, ban doctors from dispensing some pills and require permitting process for pharmacies cleared a Florida House committee Tuesday.
30 Days to Go, $3.8 Billion to Find: Lawmakers Set to Flatline Health Care Programs
Hospitals, Medicaid, the poor, the very sick and the Department of Health would all face severe cutbacks as the Legislature enters its session’s second half, with abortion, pill mills and medical malpractice issues yet unresolved.
Barack Obama and Rick Scott In Florida Voters’ Eyes: From Lousy to Dismal
The latest poll has Obama’s approval at just 44 percent, and Scott’s at 35 percent, with Scott’s disapproval rating doubling in two months, and 60 percent of Floridians saying Florida is on the wrong path. The poll reveals widespread dissatisfaction.
Public Money for Private Schools: Voucher Programs Set to Expand Across Florida
Several bills with enough support in the Florida Legislature would expand student eligibility for voucher programs, including making it easier for corporations to write off taxes in exchange for providing voucher money.
For a Few Cents Less: Legislature Moving to Slow Required Minimum Wage Increases
Voters approved a constitutional amendment linking the minimum wage to inflation. Florida lawmakers would also reduce the rate of growth based on a different way of calculating inflation.
Conklin Calls on Flagler School Board to Sue Scott and Legislature Over Education Funding
Flagler County School Board member Colleen Conklin says the state has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to properly fund education, and wants the board to sue the state. The board will discuss the matter on April 19.
But Should They Be Paid? Flagler School Board Members Defend Their Salaries
A Florida Senate proposal would replace school board members’ salaries with a $100 per-meeting stipend. Retirement and health benefits would be eliminated, too. Savings would exceed $10 million a year.
Schools May Be Required to Digitize Half Their Textbook Budgets Within 2 Years
Schools are resisting the House proposal because two years isn’t enough time to enact it, and it leave behind students without Internet access. The Senate proposal is less stringent.
Flagler Commissioners Endorse SunRail As Gov. Scott Prepares to Derail Commuter Line
SunRail would have connected DeBary and Tampa as a commuter rail line, which the Legislature approved in December 2009. Gov. Rick Scott is likely to kill the project by summer, ending Central Florida’s brief flirtation with alternative transportation.
Gainesville’s Terry Jones Did Not Murder 11 UN Workers and Afghans. Muslims Did.
There is no comparison between Terry Jones of Gainesville’s Dove World Outreach burning the Koran and Muslim fanatics murdering 11 people in retaliation. Jones is a fanatic. He’s no murderer. And he deserves First Amendment protection.
Merit Pay’s Trap: When Lawmakers Are Clueless About Teachers’ Classroom Realities
Jo Ann C. Nahirny, a teacher at Matanzas High School, describes the gulf between merit pay assumptions about teachers and everyday classroom realities that are beyond teachers’ control. Lawmakers appear clueless.
Parental Report Cards: Florida Lawmaker Wants Teachers Grading Your Parenting Skills
Kelli Stargel, Republican of Lakeland, thinks parents should be graded on their child’s preparedness as one way to address parental involvement and student underachievement. The proposal leaves economic and social issues mute.
Gov. Scott Vows to End “Oxycontin Express,” Yet Legislature Weakens Pill Mill Regulations
Gov. Rick Scott gave no details on his assault on the “Oxycontin Express,” and a Senate committee approved eliminating a ban on doctors dispensing more than a three-day supply of drugs to patients who pay with cash or credit cards.
From Teacher Merit Pay to Charter School Expansion: Legislature Marches On
Like the swiftly-approved teacher merit pay reforms, the push to expand charter schools, including expanding preferential admittance, has the strong backing of Gov. Rick Scott, and continues to revamp education.
FPL, Progress Energy, Florida’s Nuclear Fraud
Florida taxpayers and ratepayers are footing the bill of Florida Power & Light’s and Progress Energy’s risk-free, $40-billion plan to build nuclear reactors, a fraud enabled by the Legislature and Congress.
Gov. Scott Orders Florida’s 33 Public Hospitals Reviewed for Possible Privatization
As the former CEO of a private hospital chain, Scott was opposed to publicly-run hospitals, which he considers to have an unfair competitive advantage over the privately run sort. The commission is a first step toward privatization.
Children as Billboards: From School Buildings to Buses, a Lunge for Ads and Revenue
The Flagler school district just broadened its advertising policy to allow ads in school buildings, websites and uniforms. State lawmakers are moving toward lifting the ban on ads on schoolbuses to make up for revenue the state is cutting.
How Grim Are State School Spending Cuts? Try 7 to 10% Per Student, Layoffs to Follow
Florida House and Senate proposals would cut from $447 to $473 per student, or close to 7 percent, a little less than Gov. Rick Scott’s proposal to slash per-student spending by $680 in addition to recent reductions.
Rick Scott Orders State Employees Randomly Drug-Tested Often, Like Welfare Recipients
Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order requiring drug testing, and compared the testing of employees to the drug-testing of welfare recipients, a proposals lawmakers also approved unanimously in a Senate committee Tuesday.
Hijacking Home Rule: Stiff Fines if Local Gun Regulations Exceed the State’s
The Senate proposal adds financial penalties of between $5,000 and $100,000 on cities and counties with stricter gun regulations than the state, and removes a longstanding shield protecting elected and appointed officials from civil lawsuits relating to their job function.
Florida’s Deficit Grows by $135 Million, To $3.75 Billion, As Growth Remains Anemic
State revenue forecasters essentially tacked about $135 million dollars onto a budget shortfall that already stood at $3.62 billion, forcing lawmakers to consider deeper cuts as they craft a spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1.
Census 2010: Flagler’s Population Climbs to 95,696, Florida’s to 18.8 Million
Flagler County’s population increased 92 percent since 2000. Florida’s population is 18.8 million, up 17.7 percent from a population of 16 million a decade ago.
Florida Lockups Lite: Closing Prisons and Boot Camps, Privatizing Inmate Healthcare
The Department of Corrections plans to close three prisons and two boot camps, a bill would privatize inmate health care and cut top salaries 5 percent while ending numerous positions.
Teacher Tenure Out, Merit Pay In: Legislature Whips First Bill of 2011 to Gov. Scott
The Legislature passed the biggest change to the state’s education system in more than 10 years, sending to Gov. Rick Scott a bill tying teacher salaries to test scores and ending multi-year contracts.