Recent editorials from Florida newspapers:
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Jan. 23
The SunSentinel on Florida’s budget:
Florida legislators are already planning how to deal with a looming budget shortfall when they convene for their annual session in March. They deserve credit for thinking ahead. It’s too bad their cousins in Washington, D.C., don’t operate the same way.
This past week, House budget chief Carlos Trujillo, a Miami Republican, launched an exercise with a goal of identifying up to $2.2 billion in spending cuts. But before legislators consider taking an ax to investments in education, health care, public safety and other core services that impact the quality of life for Floridians, they would be wise to consider other, less detrimental ways to achieve savings in the state’s $82 billion budget.
Senate President Joe Negron has offered a good place to start. Negron, a Stuart Republican, recently vowed to renew his effort to eliminate a tax giveaway for the insurance industry that costs the state treasury about $300 million a year. The break allows insurers to claim a 15 percent credit on the salaries they pay their full-time employees in Florida.
Four years ago, when Negron was the Senate’s budget chief, he persuaded his colleagues in the upper chamber to put an end to the insurance industry’s sweet deal. But then the industry flexed its considerable lobbying muscle and - presto! - House leaders restored the tax break.
Now, as the Senate’s presiding officer, Negron shouldn’t have any trouble getting a majority of his colleagues to vote to repeal the break again. And if his House counterpart, Speaker Richard Corcoran, really means what he says about eliminating “corporate welfare” from the budget, his chamber will go along with the Senate this time.
Corcoran, a Land O’ Lakes Republican, has denounced what he sees as instances of state government “picking winners and losers.” It’s hard to come up with a better example than singling out an industry for a tax credit for its employment costs. If the tax break is so vital to insurance jobs in Florida - the argument the industry used to rescue the break four years ago - how do other employers in the state manage to make payroll without it?
Meanwhile, legislative leaders could score billions of dollars in additional savings by following suggestions from the Government Efficiency Task Force, a panel that the Florida Constitution requires to convene every four years. In a report issued in June, the panel offered 18 recommendations worth up to $12 billion in annual savings.
Some of the recommendations, such as imposing higher, market-rate health insurance premiums for state employees, would be controversial and long shots for passage - even though the state could save up to $448 million that way. But others, such as a package of criminal justice reforms, are likely to find support from members of both parties.
Releasing more non-violent elderly inmates from state custody, for example, could save almost $80 million a year without compromising public safety. Expanding the use of electronic monitors in lieu of imprisonment for non-violent inmates could save more than $20 million. Three more recommendations in this category together could save another $20 million.
State economists have projected a small budget surplus for the year that begins in July, but widening shortfalls of more than $1 billion in the following two years. The budget could be squeezed further if legislators go along with Negron’s visionary proposals to invest more in higher education and environmental protection.
There’s enough room in the budget to spend more on new priorities and not sacrifice core services - but only if legislators end costly giveaways to special interests and take advantage of good opportunities to make government more efficient.
Online:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/
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Jan. 20
The Tampa Bay Times on school testing:
It has been 18 years since Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature transformed public education by creating a system that led to an obsession with high-stakes standardized tests, school letter grades and teacher evaluations tied to student performance. Now the pendulum finally may be swinging in the other direction, as Republican lawmakers are pledging a thorough review aimed at reducing the number of tests and the time spent preparing for them. That’s good news for frustrated parents, students and teachers.
A recent Senate education committee meeting reflected a renewed commitment among key legislators to address the complaints about overtesting that have festered for years. Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, acknowledged that “maybe we’ve taken a good thing too far and now it is time to bring some common sense to it.” Lawmakers, county school superintendents and parents appear headed in the same general direction. Even Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future, which still casts a long shadow over the state Capitol and education policy, supports reducing the amount of time spent on tests.
It’s about time. Long after Bush left the Governor’s Mansion, the Legislature kept raising the stakes on standardized testing as the years passed. Even as the state implemented new assessments tied to the Common Core-aligned Florida Standards two years ago, it refused to slow down and listen to warnings from superintendents, principals and teachers. The bumpy debut of the new Florida Standards Assessments in 2015 and the uproar over how they were developed fueled further discontent among parents and school officials. The technical problems eased last year, but the complaints about testing have not.
Previous attempts to address overtesting have produced modest results. Legislators set a limit on hours devoted to state-required tests, but the limit is too high. They eliminated one 11th-grade language arts test and a requirement for local end-of-course exams aimed at evaluating teachers. But there are still too many tests and too much riding on the results.
Sen. David Simmons, R-Longwood, who chairs the education appropriations subcommittee, says he is looking for solutions. He wants to eliminate some tests and reduce the time spent on testing. He also recognizes the time drain extends far beyond the actual testing days to include test preparation and taking practice tests to prepare for the real thing. With a broad consensus among legislators, educators and families that some balance has to be restored to the classroom, this could be the spring that brings meaningful change.
The devil will be in the details, of course. One suggestion by superintendents is to eliminate state end-of-course exams in algebra II, geometry, civics and U.S. history. Another suggestion promoted by Pinellas superintendent Mike Grego is to return to testing on paper. Testing on computers overburdens many schools that are not well-equipped with technology, lengthens testing periods and forces testing sites such as libraries to be closed for weeks. A better answer would be for the state to spend more on technology, but there should be room for reasonable compromise.
No one is arguing Florida should abandon accountability in public education. Student performance should be measured, and there should remain a common set of standards and tests so that results can be compared throughout Florida and the nation. But for years, this state has forced its students to spend less time learning and more time preparing for tests, practicing tests and taking tests. There also is a consensus that too much weight has been put on particular test results to place simplistic letter grades on schools, evaluate teacher performance and determine in one snapshot whether a student is successful.
It’s time to reduce the tests, reduce the stakes and restore some balance.
Online:
https://www.tampabay.com/
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Jan. 19
The Ledger of Lakeland on the state’s citrus industry:
Crop volumes shrinking to a small fraction of the heyday. Sales down. A relentless killer churning unabated through the groves. Small, and often family-owned, farms driven out of business.
Such is the news to which we’ve grown accustomed since the citrus greening disease, an imported menace that has devoured the bulk of Florida’s most famous agricultural product, arrived on the scene a decade ago. So after a long-running dearth of good news for citrus growers in Polk County and throughout Florida, it’s nice to witness positive developments.
Last week The Ledger noted that a trio of anti-bacterial sprays recently applied to thousands of acres of groves appeared to be fending off the spread of the greening disease. Accompanying that was the release of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest estimates that showed slight increases in the projected output of oranges, tangerines and tangelos this season.
Both tidbits provided growers something they have wanted for long time: a sign of stability in the groves.
While they might be related, the greening news is the most critical here.
Last March, state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam issued an emergency order green-lighting usage of the anti-greening bactericides, even though they were still under review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Putnam, a Bartow native, argued that growers, facing the lowest citrus output in at least a half-century, couldn’t wait. He was right, and to its credit, the EPA went along. The agency authorized the chemicals’ usage until Dec. 31, and then last week, re-authorized them for the remainder of 2017.
Only time can tell us if the growers, and fans of Florida citrus, have turned a corner against greening because of these anti-bacterial doses. We certainly hope so. Putnam articulated why in a statement last week: “The future of Florida citrus, and the tens of thousands of jobs it supports, depends on a long-term solution in the fight against greening. Our brightest minds are working to find a solution, but until then, we must support our growers and provide them every tool available to combat this devastating disease.”
We encourage those “brightest minds” to keep thinking, and those clutching the purse-strings, in Tallahassee and Washington, to keep backing them financially. We can be hopeful at the moment, but must also be mindful that turning a corner does not mean we’ve reached our destination yet.
Online:
https://www.theledger.com/
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