Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

guestMay 10, 2016

By all accounts, the Jericho School, a private facility opened 21 years ago in Jacksonville, does a wonderful job helping students with autism and other special needs succeed academically. That nearly all of its students are enrolled through two state voucher programs also reflects the fertile nature of Florida’s expanding educational choice landscape. In a […]

Julie DelegalMay 1, 2016

John Kirtley is at it again. The Tampa businessman who created Florida’s voucher school program is out spinning again for school “choice.” According to the Tampa Tribune, he told a group gathered at the Florida State University Alumni Center that the lawsuit challenging the voucher program’s constitutionality could undo all the good that he says […]

Julie DelegalApril 28, 2016

Florida’s approach to improving public education is getting serious scrutiny on several fronts. Now is the time to take a good look at whether the changes we’ve endured — mass privatization, real-dollar funding decreases, high-stakes testing, and loss of local school board authority — gets us closer to carrying out our constitutional duty to our […]

Julie DelegalApril 17, 2016

Jim Kallinger and Dick Batchelor wrote in Context Florida last week that voters should support “Amendment 1,” which seeks to regulate solar energy in Florida. They disclose at the end of the article that they work for “Consumers for Smart Solar.” But voters may not know that “Consumers for Smart Solar” is a bankrolled front […]

Julie DelegalApril 6, 2016

The world runs on the unpaid and underpaid work of women. Churches, schools, nonprofits, and many business offices would collapse without it. Something else, however, has been collapsing and crumbling in our society for the past 60 years: the American family. For all the rhetoric about the “breakdown of the traditional family,” our leaders give […]

Julie DelegalMarch 29, 2016

The law on employer-paid health care has taken some strange twists in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Hobby Lobby. Its follow-up case, Zubik v. Burwell, is before the high court now. But is there a way to reconceive health benefits as pay — and therefore as something employers have no control […]

Julie DelegalMarch 14, 2016

The gathering at All Saints Early Learning Center in Jacksonville last Thursday might have been mistaken for the kickoff to an Easter Egg hunt. Babies, preschoolers, and older siblings bounced along to Pharell Williams’ “Happy,” as they climbed on furniture and played hide-and-seek in their familiar parish hall. For former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, the […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 24, 2016

The Florida Senate has the chance to repair the state’s death penalty statutes in a way that won’t invite years of litigation. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Florida’s death penalty procedures unconstitutional. Until the Legislature acts, the state’s prosecutors have no legal avenue for pursuing death penalty cases. House Bill 7101 is a […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 7, 2016

Last Tuesday night, the Duval County School Board voted unanimously to build a laboratory school on Jacksonville’s west side for children with autism. Parent reaction to the Oak Hill Autism Lab School proposal has ranged from skepticism to outrage. That’s no surprise, given Duval’s record in serving students with disabilities. Even in schools where administrators […]

Julie DelegalJanuary 29, 2016

Last of three parts When asked which death row inmates could be affected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 12 ruling, “Hurst v. Florida,” Jacksonville criminal defense attorney Gray Thomas says, theoretically, “all of them.” The penalty-phase procedure that gives the judge the final word was written into Florida law after the U.S. Supreme Court […]

Tag: Julie Delegal

Jon East: Tax-credit scholarships benefit 78,000 of Florida’s poorest schoolchildren

Julie Delegal: Charity donations, not taxes, should pay for private-school vouchers

Julie Delegal: Failure factories, school inequity in Florida

Julie Delegal: Pro-solar consumers beware: Vote no on Amendment 1

Julie Delegal: Rick Scott should veto alimony “reform” bill

Julie Delegal: Employers, paychecks, insurance, and birth control

Julie Delegal: Chelsea Clinton promotes Hillary Clinton’s early-education priorities

Julie Delegal: Legislature’s death penalty “fix” is flawed

Julie Delegal: One Duval parent on autism lab school: Show me

Julie Delegal: More questions than answers after court’s death-penalty ruling