What Texas can learn from Florida’s voucher program
A half-million Florida school students started this school year in private schools but using public tax dollars. They use school vouchers to pay some or all of their private school tuition.
Florida has been a pioneer in allowing parents to port over public tax dollars from traditional public schools to private schools.
This spring, Texas became the latest state to approve taxpayer school vouchers. The program begins next year.
We checked in with Houston Public Media live to connect Texans and Floridians and talk about school vouchers.
Guests:
- Douglas Soule, Your Florida state government team reporter.
- Celeste Diaz Schurman, producer and host of Hello Houston.
- Ernie Manouse, executive producer and host of Hello Houston.
Condo owners versus board members
After a condo building collapsed in Surfside in 2021, killing 98 people, state lawmakers hurried to pass protections to prevent it from happening again.
The reforms left many condominium owners dealing with high fees and special assessments, and boards scrambling to get enough money to fill reserves.
These financial stresses have increased tensions between some owners and board members.
Guests:
- Meghan Bowman, Your Florida state government team reporter.
- Julio Robaina, former Republican member of the Florida House who now specializes in condo law.
Weekly news briefing
A federal judge in Miami said she would decide the fate of Alligator Alcatraz by Thursday next week. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami is considering whether or not Alligator Alcatraz violates environmental rules. She already has stopped the state of Florida from expanding the facility through Thursday.
Guest:
- Glenna Milberg, reporter at Local 10 news in South Florida.
In the meantime, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to move forward with a second detention facility at the Baker County Correctional Institute in Sanderson.
The governor also filled out his cabinet this week. He picked Tampa-area Sen. Jay Collins to be the state's lieutenant governor position after the position had been vacant for six months. Despite pleas from animal-rights advocates, state wildlife officials this week approved holding a bear hunt in December. The hunt will last up to 13 days and that could lead to 187 bears being killed.
This will be the first bear hunt in more than a decade. It will take place in four regions of the state. Hunters will use a lottery process for permits.
The state just wrapped up its effort to reduce the population of a non-native beast. The 10-day python challenge rounded up a record-breaking 294 snakes.
In the waters off Pasco County, scallop season has once again been temporarily closed due to a toxic algae bloom.
State wildlife officials this week gave a preliminary okay to allow oyster harvesting in part of Northwest Florida’s Apalachicola Bay. Fisheries there collapsed more than a decade ago and continue to struggle to recover.
Apalachicola Bay once supplied more than 90% of Florida’s oysters and 10% of the oysters sold nationally.