Politics
Weekly Roundup: Scott Rocks Higher Ed Boat
Around the State
The work in committees went slowly this week, as lawmakers discussed plenty about the budget and redistricting but took relatively few actions on the big-ticket items of the looming legislative session.
But when lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott talked, those with an interest in the matters listened. And generally talked back.
While Scott found himself squaring off with the state's higher-education establishment, one senator landed in hot water with Latinos while another got in trouble with the budget chair.
SCOTT PROFESSES COLLEGE IDEAS:
Before setting off Thursday night for Brazil, Scott spent much of his time prodding at the state's higher-education system. A letter first reported this week, but dated Oct. 13, showed the governor asking university presidents and boards for information "to help me with my plan for higher education."
The questions zeroed in on work force-related data, from whether universities had done studies to ensure graduates are meeting employers' needs to whether the schools have "measurable goals" for the number of graduates who stay in the state after they leave school.
Scott also asked for information about how each university plans to graduate more students from the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, the latest education term to set the Capitol abuzz. Backers of more STEM education say the state isn't meeting the demand in those fields.
Meanwhile, Scott caused more waves by releasing the salary information of all the state's public university professors on his "Florida Has a Right to Know" website. Scott's office pointed out that the information was already publicly available -- they just made it easier to find.
But faculty pushed back, saying salaries are not always paid for with state taxpayer dollars. In fact, the highest-paid professor in the system makes $1.2 million, but the University of South Florida said Dr. Neil Fenske's salary is mostly paid for through clinic fees from patients.
"My reaction is not a privacy concern, this is public knowledge anyway," said Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at the University of Florida and the president of the United Faculty of Florida. "But when the governor just publishes this, it makes it look like it is something other than it is."
AY CARAMBA!
On the same day that the Senate unveiled its "Ver En Español" button, which presents a Spanish translation of its website, one of the chamber's majority Republicans was under fire for a comment he made about Latinos this week.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, touted the new site Thursday as a service for the state's growing Hispanic population.
"Florida is a diverse state, and it's important that we provide all of our state's citizens with a voice in the legislative process," Haridopolos said.
As long as they're legal, perhaps. Two House Democrats blasted Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, for suggesting in a Tuesday meeting of the Reapportionment Committee that drawing a congressional district in Central Florida focused on the area's growing Latino population might reward illegal immigrants.
"I just don't think that it's right that we try to draw a district that encompasses people that really have no business voting, anyhow," Hays said.
The issue, as Democratic Rep. Janet Cruz of Tampa pointed out, is that many of the Latinos flooding into Central Florida are Puerto Ricans -- who are citizens of the United States at birth.
Cruz called for Hays to step down from the committee.
"It is evident now that ... Latinos in Florida should be concerned about their fair representation when the lines are in the hands of legislators like Senator Alan Hays," she said.
The controversy overshadowed a decision by the Senate Reapportionment Committee ordering its staff to draw maps that would preserve, as much as possible, the minority districts in the north-central and northeastern parts of the state. That's a decision that could help both minority voters who tend to be Democrats and Republican candidates who shed many of those voters to create the majority-minority districts.
UNWELCOME BUDGET IDEAS:
But when lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott talked, those with an interest in the matters listened. And generally talked back.
While Scott found himself squaring off with the state's higher-education establishment, one senator landed in hot water with Latinos while another got in trouble with the budget chair.
SCOTT PROFESSES COLLEGE IDEAS:
Before setting off Thursday night for Brazil, Scott spent much of his time prodding at the state's higher-education system. A letter first reported this week, but dated Oct. 13, showed the governor asking university presidents and boards for information "to help me with my plan for higher education."
The questions zeroed in on work force-related data, from whether universities had done studies to ensure graduates are meeting employers' needs to whether the schools have "measurable goals" for the number of graduates who stay in the state after they leave school.
Scott also asked for information about how each university plans to graduate more students from the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, the latest education term to set the Capitol abuzz. Backers of more STEM education say the state isn't meeting the demand in those fields.
Meanwhile, Scott caused more waves by releasing the salary information of all the state's public university professors on his "Florida Has a Right to Know" website. Scott's office pointed out that the information was already publicly available -- they just made it easier to find.
But faculty pushed back, saying salaries are not always paid for with state taxpayer dollars. In fact, the highest-paid professor in the system makes $1.2 million, but the University of South Florida said Dr. Neil Fenske's salary is mostly paid for through clinic fees from patients.
"My reaction is not a privacy concern, this is public knowledge anyway," said Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at the University of Florida and the president of the United Faculty of Florida. "But when the governor just publishes this, it makes it look like it is something other than it is."
AY CARAMBA!
On the same day that the Senate unveiled its "Ver En Español" button, which presents a Spanish translation of its website, one of the chamber's majority Republicans was under fire for a comment he made about Latinos this week.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, touted the new site Thursday as a service for the state's growing Hispanic population.
"Florida is a diverse state, and it's important that we provide all of our state's citizens with a voice in the legislative process," Haridopolos said.
As long as they're legal, perhaps. Two House Democrats blasted Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, for suggesting in a Tuesday meeting of the Reapportionment Committee that drawing a congressional district in Central Florida focused on the area's growing Latino population might reward illegal immigrants.
"I just don't think that it's right that we try to draw a district that encompasses people that really have no business voting, anyhow," Hays said.
The issue, as Democratic Rep. Janet Cruz of Tampa pointed out, is that many of the Latinos flooding into Central Florida are Puerto Ricans -- who are citizens of the United States at birth.
Cruz called for Hays to step down from the committee.
"It is evident now that ... Latinos in Florida should be concerned about their fair representation when the lines are in the hands of legislators like Senator Alan Hays," she said.
The controversy overshadowed a decision by the Senate Reapportionment Committee ordering its staff to draw maps that would preserve, as much as possible, the minority districts in the north-central and northeastern parts of the state. That's a decision that could help both minority voters who tend to be Democrats and Republican candidates who shed many of those voters to create the majority-minority districts.
UNWELCOME BUDGET IDEAS:
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