Peter Schorsch
The Last 24
Good Thursday evening. With Gov. Ron DeSantis pushing for a raise in starting teacher pay this Session, the House has begun the hunt for change in the couch cushions. Earlier this month, DeSantis proposed a $600 million-plus package to bump starting teacher salaries in the state to $47,500. And today, the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee began assessing whether the bump is needed.
One thing’s for sure: Jackson County Superintendent Larry Moore said it would be more than welcome: “Beginning teacher salary in Jackson County is just a little over $34,000,” he said. And Osceola County Superintendent Debra Pace said the extra money would help with recruitment, which she called “the most significant challenge that I see facing local school boards and local school superintendents.” Sixty Days believes the children are our future, and teachers are their guides. Here’s your nightly rundown.
Call my agent: DeSantis publicly threw his support behind legislation that would let Florida college athletes profit from endorsements and like deals.
Call my attorney: The latest volley in the war over ‘permanent’ alimony was served this week in a House panel.
Call my accountant: Jacksonville Democrats in the Legislature will try again in 2020 to secure state-level funding for employees of a long-gone wood-treating plant.
Call Chris Latvala: His child welfare bill to increase protections for at-risk children and reduce burdens for social workers cleared its first committee.
Call a sleep specialist: Was a certain Broward County state Senator zonked out in his chair during debate on now ex-sheriff Scott Israel?
Call Barbara Petersen: Call it a litigation saver: A new bill would block lawsuits against taxpayers who seek public records.
Call the cops: A two-chamber, Democratic-led effort introduced legislation to require schools to set up a response plan when students with autism or an intellectual disability go missing.
Quote of the Day
“I’m not running for anything … I have no secondary agenda.” — North Florida U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe, at a Thursday news conference with several State Attorneys about public safety collaborations, asked about his future post-prosecutor plans.
Bill Day’s Latest
3 Questions
Environmental spending once again is popular in Tallahassee. But can it be sustained? Rep. Holly Raschein, who leads the Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee, this week held a meeting on the challenges of climate change, suggesting Florida must keep up this work.
Florida Politics: Why was it so important to hold a subcommittee meeting specifically on climate change?
Holly Raschein: There has been a shift in policy and priorities as far as coastal resiliency, sea-level rise and climate change in the last couple of years. It’s something I have personally been monitoring, representing the Florida Keys and South Florida. We already see the effects of sea-level rise. My home county is part of a regional collaboration group that does a climate summit. It’s at Key West this year. But the point is that they are all talking the same language and working together. But one county can’t handle this global issue. Now that we have a state resilience officer, we have dedicated funding sources to start implementing these ideas and solutions. I chair an appropriations committee, and we funded coastal resiliency last year with $5.5 million. Florida is doing a phenomenal job. But we are a peninsular state. We should be leading the way on this.
FP: What has been the change in Tallahassee to start focusing more on this issue so outwardly?
Raschein: There has been a shift in priorities with this administration. Before, I wouldn’t say it was politicized. The science is there. You just have to go in a boat in the Florida Keys in fall when having a full moon and you can see the water quality issues. Something I worked on a long time ago was ocean acidification, which has a negative effect on oysters and shellfish. In the Keys, shells are more fragile. This is why we should be leading the charge. I never perceived it as being a political issue. I listened to scientists and agencies. Problems ripping apart our coral barrier and coral reef island, that’s something I see and live and breathe every day.
FP: After the significant funding on water quality last year, are more increases even possible in the state budget?
Raschein: I can’t speak for the Governor, but I am anticipating his budget will be released soon and that it will be a strong message to us, to the Legislature, on how to move forward. I anticipate a nice chunk of funding requested for a coastal resiliency initiative. I am hopeful it will be in there. I am also really excited about this budget re-prioritization exercise. There are some projects that maybe were needed and were necessary and popular 6, 8, 10 years ago. Now everybody is revved up over water quality. What our projects need now may not be what they needed 10 years ago. Water quality now is gaining traction and ground. Coral reef disease is ravaging our reef, and we will continue to put resources toward that. We need scientists and an army to fix that, to be honest. Everglades restoration falls into the water quality pot, and is super important.
Lobby Up
School safety has been a top concern over the past few years, and for good reason.
While there’s a divide on certain safety efforts such as the “guardian program,” most agree that people shouldn’t be able to walk onto a school campus and meander about if they don’t have any business being there.
Still, there are plenty of people who aren’t teachers or students who need to be in the building, such as staff, volunteers, parents or even the people who restock vending machines.
There are plenty of solutions to help schools make sure only authorized people get on the property, ranging from gates all the way up to check-in kiosks. Those kiosks make check-ins easy, but they can be quite costly. But one company is attempting to provide that convenience without the big-time price tag.
School Check IN has a software suite that can be installed on computers already in the school. It has the ability to track when staff and students check-in, and it can also issue passes to volunteers and the like — it even has a plugin to cross-check names with the national sex offender database.
School Check IN could be a good fit for some Florida schools, and it’s hoping lawmakers give their solution a look. To help out in that effort, they’ve hired on Kari Hebrank and C. Scott Jenkins of Carlton Fields.
Breakthrough Insights
The Next 24
(Unless otherwise noted, all locations are in the Capitol Complex.)
The Financial Impact Estimating Conference meets to consider a proposed state constitutional amendment to “regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol.” That’s at 8:30 a.m., 117 Knott Building.
Sierra Club Florida Director Frank Jackalone will hold a news conference to preview the organization’s priorities for the 2020 Legislative Session, including springs protection, land conservation funding, fracking and climate change. That’s at 9:30 a.m., Florida Press Center, 336 E. College Ave. (Suite 100), Tallahassee.
Looking Ahead
Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, will attend a fundraiser at the home of Democratic state Sen. Janet Cruz and her husband, Dr. Steve Rifkin. That’s at 1:30 p.m., Sunday. For information, email Georgette Brammer at [email protected].
