The Future of the Florida Senate: Will the Anti-Privatization Coalition Extend to Schools
What follows is an analysis by a long time observer of Florida politics. The writer desires to be recognized by a pseudonym, Lois Pace.
Will the emerging center coalition in the Florida Senate flex its muscle as we enter the last two weeks of the legislative session? Will those Senators who blocked prison privatization two weeks ago move similarly against school privatization, or quasi-privatization, next week? Hold on to your hats, y’all, the winds may be shifting in Tallahassee.
On February 14, a group of Democrats, maverick Republicans, and law-and-order Republicans stunned the state when they teamed up to block Governor Rick Scott’s pet project—prison privatization—from passage in the upper chamber. The law-and-order types, many of whose constituents work for the Florida prison system, didn’t take kindly to the idea of putting people out of work back home. They also didn’t relish serving up Florida prisons to corporate interests that hadn’t proved, to their satisfaction, that privatizing would yield any rea
