Florida’s 2023 Legislative Session: What’s Scheduled and What to Expect

What’s Scheduled:

Tuesday, November 22, 2022, Organizational Session

Monday, December 12 – Friday, December 16, 2022, Interim Committee Week 1 AND Special Session expected to include providing property-tax relief for people affected by Hurricane Ian and property-insurance issues.

Tuesday, January 3 – Friday, January 6, 2023 Interim Committee Week 2

Tuesday, January 17 – Friday, January 20, 2023 Interim Committee Week 3

Monday, January 23 – Friday, January 27, 2023 Interim Committee Week 4

Monday, February 6 – Friday, February 10, 2023 Interim Committee Week 5

Monday, February 13 – Friday, February 17, 2023 Interim Committee Week 6

Monday, February 20 – Friday,February 24,2023 Interim Committee Week 7

Tuesday, March 7, 2023,  Regular Session begins (60 days, unless extended)

Friday, May 5, 2023,  Last day of Regular Session.

What to expect:

According to his conversation with Kevin Roberts, PhD, current President of The Heritage Foundation in September 2022, Governor DeSantis plans to

• Completely dismantle the power of the teachers unions.
• “Modernize” Florida’s billion dollar voucher program by converting it to Education Savings Accounts.

Following his landslide victory on November 8th, which also secured a Republican supermajority in the Legislature, DeSantis must feel he has a mandate to continue his conservative culture wars agenda against the “woke ideology” that helped earn him his second term. In his victory speech on election night, he said:

“We fight ‘the woke’ in the Legislature. We fight ‘the woke’ in the schools. We fight ‘the woke’ in the corporation, and we will never ever surrender to the woke mob – Florida is where woke goes to die!””

https://news.yahoo.com/full-speech-florida-gov-ron-021800943.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

As Mac Stipanovich, who was chief of staff to former Gov. Bob Martinez and a long-time Republican strategist and lobbyist but is now an out spoken independent voter, said:

“He is unchained, unrestrained in Florida and no one can stop him.“

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/2022-election/os-ne-politics-2022-election-desantis-future-20221111-kvqavat77nhjrjdeo5ugdu7fne-story.html

Listening to the incoming leadership of the Florida House and Senate may give additional clues as to what the Governor has planned. Both Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner are considered to be loyal to and in lockstep with Governor DeSantis.

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo

In addition to Hurricane Recovery and Affordable Housing, Senator Passidomo made it clear in her opening remarks that she supported defending and expanding Parental Rights:

“… we are going to continue our fight to protect family values. Some folks are trying to distance parents from important decisions in their child’s life. Whether it is education, health or sports, keeping the parents in the dark is unacceptable.

We have made great strides in recent years to defend and expand parental rights in education.

Moving forward, we are going to make sure that any decision that involves a minor allows the parents at the table.”

https://www.flsenate.gov/Media/PressReleases/Show/4376

Passidomo also reminded the Senate chamber of their Republican supermajority and how their conservative agenda would rule the day:

“at the end of the day, we each have a responsibility to the voters who elected us, and those voters overwhelmingly support the conservative agenda of fiscal responsibility, protecting parents’ rights, honoring the dignity of work, and expanding education opportunities for our students.  That will drive our work for the next two years.”

https://www.flsenate.gov/Media/PressReleases/Show/4376

Of note, Passidomo has chosen Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-13, as her President Pro Tempore. Baxley is the former executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida and author of last session’s Parental Rights in Education Bill, known by its opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” In the past he has sponsored legislation that would have made gender-affirming care for minors a felony, has been openly opposed to the marriage equality act, has been a strong advocate for private school vouchers and school choice and, in 2021, filed a bill to significantly limiting Bright Futures Scholarships, advocating for limiting the scholarship to only serve students studying certain majors which he perceived would “lead directly to employment.”

Passidomo has not yet announced Senate committee assignments.

House Speaker Paul Renner

In his opening remarks, House Speaker Paul Renner was all-in on the culture wars:

“Keeping most areas free of politics has allowed our country to thrive because people of diverse backgrounds can still unite around the many goals we share.

Yet our historical moment is one in which ideologues seek to politicize everything, who treat their ideology as a religion and demand we follow it, no matter the costs.

They have pushed indoctrination at the expense of education. They spend more time defending drag queen story time than actually promoting phonics and the science of reading.

In this election, moms and dads sent a clear message to these ideologues: Our children are not your social experiment!

Parents expect schools to keep their children safe, respect their values, and teach the reading, math and general knowledge that kids need to succeed in life. We must prepare every child for adulthood with a world class education.

To do so, we will continue to reward our best teachers and staff, respect parental rights, and expand educational freedom. By providing more funding and flexibility, we will deliver a bright future to Florida’s next generation.”

https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?DocumentType=Press%20Release&FileName=840 (emphasis mine)

Clearly, he doesn’t not include our governor as one of those “ideologues” who seek to “politicize everything” despite DeSantis’ endorsement of nonpartisan school board races across the state.

Speaker Renner has named Representative Ralph Massullo, R-23, as Chair of the House Education and Employment Committee. In the past, Massullo has served on the PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee and the Education and Employment committee. The remaining committee assignments for the House education committees and subcommittees have not yet been announced.

Expect Florida to continue being Florida

During the 2022 Legislation, Florida passed the “Parental Rights in Education/Don’t Say Gay” bill (HB1557), imposed School Board Term Limits (HB1467), encouraged parents to challenge to appropriateness of books in public school libraries (also HB1467) and passed the STOP WOKE Act (“Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act,” HB7) which encourages parents to sue their school district if they believe their kids are being taught critical race theory.

During the 2023 session, expect more culture war shenanigans, more attacks on the teacher’s union and moves to expand charter schools, private school vouchers and Education Savings Accounts in the name of “Education Freedom.”