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Capitol News
April 5, 2017
The Summation Weekly
‘SCHOOLS OF HOPE’ LEGISLATION PASSES INITIAL COMMITTEE By BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
A bill aimed at encouraging select charter school operators to move into areas with repeatedly lowperforming schools was approved Thursday by the House Education Committee. The committee approved the measure (PCB EDC 1703), attached to $200 million set aside in the House budget for “Schools of Hope,” on a nearly party-line, 13-5 vote. One Democrat joined the panel’s 12 Republicans in support of the plan. Under the legislation, nonprofit charter school operators with a track record of
performing well academically with low-income students could quickly open a campus in areas where a traditional public school has received a “D” or an “F” on state report cards for more than three years. A total of 115 schools fell into that category in the last school year, according to the State Department of Education. Charter schools are public schools operated by an entity other than the district school board. House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, has called for the state to encourage charter operators like the KIPP Foundation to open additional schools in Florida. KIPP would qual-
ify to operate a “School of Hope” --- the bill was amended to change the designation from “School of Success” --- under the legislation. “We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars, more than ever before, to say that it is reprehensible that you would take a child and make them stay in a failure factory not for one year, not for two years, not for three years, not for four years, but five years,” Corcoran said later Thursday. “That whole system has to end.” Republicans said the measure was a new attempt to help children trapped in schools that repeatedly seem to fail. “We have tried everything else,” said Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah. “It is our
moral responsibility to make this move and provide an option for our kids. ... It’s time to try something different. To say `no’ is not enough.” Diaz is chief operating officer at Doral College, an unaccredited institution that offers courses to high school students from schools operated by Academica, a charterschool management company. But the bill faced pointed opposition from educators and Democrats who questioned why lawmakers would give charter schools covered by the bill additional flexibility and $200 million instead of devoting more resources to troubled traditional public schools. “You are saying funding matters,” said Cathy
Boehme of the Florida Education Association, the state’s main teachers union. “You’re saying good strategies matter. And then you turn around and keep those strategies from schools that you could save from these turnaround options.” In impassioned remarks to the committee, Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, drew on his own experience as a teacher to say that students in many of the communities affected by the legislation face steep challenges that go beyond the walls of the school. “If we sit at this table and we believe that just because we bring in a different entity, that they are going to turn around a school, we are not telling the truth,” Jones said.
SENATE, HOUSE GAMBLING BILLS ‘FAR APART’ By DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
The House and Senate advanced diametrically opposed gambling packages Thursday, setting the stage for the first serious negotiations in years between legislative leaders --- and the Seminole Tribe of Florida --- on the thorny issue. The Senate overwhelmingly approved a gambling proposal (SB 8) that is friendly to the pari-mutuel industry. The bill would allow slot machines in eight counties where voters have approved them, legalize controversial card games at the heart of a legal battle with the Seminoles and allow nearly all tracks and jai alai frontons to do away with live racing or games, a process known as “decoupling.” Hours later, a major House committee supported a more status-quo measure (HB 7037) focused on a 20-year agreement with the Seminoles, called a “compact.” A portion of a 2010 compact that gave the tribe exclusive rights to operate banked card games, such as blackjack, at most of its casinos expired in 2015, prompting a new round of negotiations --- and litigation --- with the state.
But discussions about a new compact failed to gain traction last year, after lawmakers did not approve a deal struck by the tribe and Gov. Rick Scott late in 2015. While the House and Senate now are approaching the complicated gambling issue --- which many have likened to a “three-dimensional game of chess” --- from opposite ends of the spectrum, Republican legislative leaders acknowledged Thursday the packages provide a starting point for lawmakers to work toward a consensus during negotiations. “Right now, I think we’ve demonstrated the two bodies can disagree as to what the fundamentals of a bill can look like, but that doesn’t mean the idea is dead,” House Commerce Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, told reporters after his committee supported the House version Thursday. “We’re very far apart. That’s for sure. They’re almost like alternative bills. I don’t know what our pressure points will be.” Diaz said the House could vote on a gambling proposal as early next week, which would pave the way for formal negotiations between the House and Senate. Senate bill sponsor Bill
Galvano, a Bradenton Republican slated to take over as president of the chamber after the 2018 elections, said lawmakers need to act to provide certainty for the industry and to maximize revenue from the tribe and the pari-mutuels. “We have this ambiguous, unpredictable state of flux out there that needs to be wrangled in,” Galvano told reporters. One of the primary objectives for lawmakers on both sides will be settling at least three pending gambling-related lawsuits. The cases include one in which a federal judge recently sided with the Seminoles regarding the tribe’s ability to continue offering blackjack and other banked card games after the portion of the 2010 compact expired in 2015. Another lawsuit focuses on whether pari-mutuels in counties where voters have approved slots can add the lucrative machines, even without the express permission of the Legislature. And a third centers on a recent decision by a Tallahassee judge approving electronic games that critics, including the Seminoles, argue are effectively slot machines and warn could start popping up in convenience stores, bars and gas sta-
tions throughout the state. Meanwhile, the Seminoles, who want to add craps and roulette at tribal casinos, have warned Scott and legislative leaders the U.S. Department of the Interior, which must sign off on a compact, would not approve any deal that requires the tribe to pay more to the state unless the terms also include additional exclusivity. “I can’t tell you if we’ll ultimately reach a full resolution this session but I can tell you that the major interests and the people who would be part of this resolution --- such as the Florida House, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the governor’s office --- they also understand that at this point inaction is not an option,” Galvano said before Thursday’s 32-6 vote on the Senate bill. Senators spent less than four minutes on the measure, which sailed through two committees prior to being considered by the full chamber. Galvano told reporters he would “walk away” from any deal that did not resolve the legal disputes. The movement of the proposals before the legislative session’s midpoint --- and the promise of a conference committee to negotiate the
issue, a departure from the past --- cheered the pari-mutuel industry, which has been unable to force lawmakers to approve major gamblingrelated legislation for years. “Obviously, the Senate is going to have to come toward the House position and the House is going to have to come toward the Senate position, and where that middle ground is is still a guessing game to all of us. But the fact that we have two leaders willing to try and hammer this out is something that’s making us all hopeful,” said lobbyist Nick Iarossi, who represents dog tracks in Jacksonville and Melbourne. The additional pressure of the litigation also buoyed the industry’s hopes, Iarossi said. “The House and Senate are both tired of the court dictating what the gaming environment in the state looks like,” Iarossi said. But House Speaker Richard Corcoran told reporters late Thursday any potential gambling deal has “a long, long way to go.” “It’s a heavy lift. There’s a reason it hasn’t been passed in decades. But this is the first time that anyone probably could recall where you have two bills moving,” Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, said.
UNIVERSITIES SEEK TO BOOST MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, SAFETY AND STUDENT AID By LLOYD DUNKELBERGER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
With major legislation and funding issues at stake in the 2017 Legislature, Florida university leaders arrived Wednesday for a two-day meeting in Tallahassee, making their case for additional support for mental health and safety services, research efforts and student aid. Tom Kuntz, chairman of the Board of Governors, which oversees the 12 state universities, outlined the university system’s “safer, smarter, stronger” campaign, emphasizing efforts to retain and graduate students, improve research and reward institutions that have excelled. Kuntz said performance standards have made a difference in the system. “It has been extremely effective in raising the quality of our institutions,” he said. “Our retention and graduation rates are up. Our students are graduat-
ing with degrees in STEM and other high-demand areas and they are getting jobs.” At a press conference at the state Capitol, university leaders emphasized their request for additional funding to hire mental health counselors and police officers. Eight of the 12 schools fall below staffing standards for mental health counselors and nine of the institutions fall below the standard of having at least two law enforcement officers for every 1,000 students. The universities are asking for a $7 million increase for mental health services and $7 million for law enforcement in the 2017-18 state budget. Timothy Jones, a U.S. Navy veteran who attends the University of West Florida, said counseling services at his school helped him deal with his past as a victim of sexual assault while trying to become a successful student. He said he flunked two classes in his first semester but now is excelling academically and will graduate in May. “Today my life has been
radically transformed,” Jones said. “I was made to feel safe, something every student needs when they come to college.” Funding for the mental health services and other university system initiatives are now part of the ongoing budget debate between the state House and Senate, where the chambers are taking dramatically different paths. According to an analysis given to the Board of Governors, which is holding a twoday meeting at Florida A&M University, the Senate budget would increase state funding for universities by $334 million, while the House budget has a $183 million cut. The House reduction is largely linked to ending the practice of using state funding to support personnel in university foundations, and would require the universities to spend down some of the more than $800 million in reserves the institutions hold. The Senate budget includes major increases for both research and performance funding.
“The Senate budget is very robust and I think they tried to address all the issues that were discussed this morning,” said John Thrasher, president of Florida State University. But Thrasher, a former House speaker, said he understood the House’s position, noting lawmakers cut university reserves once while he was in the Legislature. “I understand their concerns about certain areas of the budget,” Thrasher said. “We have tried to address those and certainly during the (budget negotiating) conference we will address them even more.” The board’s comparison of the House and Senate budgets did not include a $320 million increase in student financial aid in the Senate plan, which includes a $180 million increase in Bright Futures merit scholarships and more than a $126 million boost for need-based assistance. Genevieve Bell, who is finishing her doctorate in neuroscience at FSU, said the “first generation” match-
ing grant program, which the Senate wants to double to more than $10 million, was part of the financial aid that helped her academic career. “I can unequivocally say that, without the scholarships and grants awarded to me, I could not have attended college and most definitely would not be where I am today,” she said. The Senate budget would also increase research funding for the universities, providing $75 million for a new “world class scholars” program designed to attract top-level professors and researchers. Glenn Morris, a researcher and director of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, said the Zika virus threat has underscored “how important it is to have world-class researchers” at Florida universities. “This is a tropical state. We see stuff here that we don’t see anywhere else, so we need to have the capacity to deal with this,” Morris said. “We have the expertise but we need to continue to build on it.”