Billionaire Sponsored Democrats Fill House Ed Committee

When Florida passes massive expansion of school choice policy next session, you can expect bipartisan support in the House Education Committees. Why? Because school choice billionaires and their foundations have poured money into the campaigns of pro-voucher and pro-charter democrats, who now fill the seats of the House Ed Committee. This has been a big part of the privatizers’ game plan all along. Sadly, they seem to be winning that game.

When committee assignments were announced this month, many noticed the conspicuous absence of Florida’s strongest democratic supporters of public schools. In the Senate, neither Gary Farmer nor Linda Stewart were placed on Education committees. In the House, Kamia Brown and Shevrin Jones were noticeably absent. The elimination of public education supporters from positions of power has been the modus operandi in Tallahassee for the last 2 decades. 

This is how it works:

John Kirtley is founder of Florida’s private school voucher program, Step Up For Students, and chairman of the Florida Federation for Children, the Florida arm of Betsy DeVos’ American Federation for Children. John Kirtley, through his political committee, spent around $4 million to influence races from 2010 -2014. He explains his strategy:

The Florida Federation for Children has been “heavily involved in Democratic primaries, where there are legislators who have supported their constituents’ desires for parental choice in education.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/big-money-powerful-lobbying-groups-push-florida-voucher-proposal/2168782

In 2016, Kirtley money was used to defeat outspoken public education advocate, Senator Dwight Bullard’s re-election bid, among others.

In the recent 2018 August primary, Kirtley spent $360,000 on school board and legislative races and openly celebrated the wins. In a press release his foundation describes their “winning” strategy:

Additionally, parents with children on Florida scholarships were actively involved in this year’s primary, working with the FL Education Empowerment PAC to make calls to voice their support for Democrat candidates who support Florida’s scholarship programs. These parents connected with voters to explain the positive impact Florida’s scholarships have had on their children, and voters responded by backing candidates who support these programs. These calls were especially effective in Democratic primaries involving Kim Daniels, James Bush III, Susan Valdes and Patricia Hawkins-Williams.(emphasis added)

https://www.federationforchildren.org/florida-voters-support-educational-choice-candidates-2/

What a coincidence! Kim Daniels, James Bush III, Susan Valdes and Patricia Hawkins-Williams ALL have been selected for the 2018 House Education Committee (Democrats Bruce Antone and Delores Hogan-Johnson will join them there).  Bush, Valdez and Hawkins-Williams are 3 of the 4 Democrats on the House PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee (Tracie Davis is the 4th).

Look for Daniels, Bush, Valdes and Hawkins-Williams to help advance school choice legislation allowing House Education Committee Chair, Jennifer Sullivan, Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Corcoran to celebrate “reaching across the aisle” for the bipartisan privatization of our public schools.