Florida lawmakers OK universal school vouchers, lawsuit limits

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate gave final approval Thursday to bills creating universal school vouchers and legal reforms aimed at limiting lawsuits and sent them to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his expected approval.

The Senate voted 26-12 along party lines to approve the school voucher bill (HB 1), which Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples called “one of the most transformative bills the Legislature has ever dealt with.”

Senators later voted 23-15 to approve the legal reform bill (HB 837), with four Republicans – Jennifer Bradley of Fleming Island, Jason Brodeur of Lake Mary, Erin Grall of Vero Beach and Jonathan Martin of Fort Myers – siding with 11 of the 12 Democrats.

Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, voted for the bill.

Republican state lawmakers want to open state voucher programs that currently provide scholarships to more than 252,000 children with disabilities or from low-income families to all of the 2.9 million school-age children in Florida, with an estimated cost ranging widely from $210 million to $4 billion in the first year.

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples called it “one of the most transformative bills the Legislature has ever dealt with.”

“My [Democratic] colleagues are saying, ‘we know what’s best for your kids,”’ Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, said in defense of his bill. “What this bill does is we put that back in the parents’ hands.”

But opponents raised concerns about sweeping money out of the public school system and subsidizing private education, in some cases for children of wealthy parents.

“There is no money following the child like we hear over and over again because they were never in public school,” said Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville. “You can’t ever follow something that was never in public school.”

Private schools don’t follow the same academic standards as public schools and can set their own curriculum, they said, pointing out that they could be teaching neo-Nazism and the state couldn’t do anything to stop them.

Nor do they have to meet the same safety requirements as charter and public schools must do.

The state does not generally regulate private schools, so there are no requirements that teachers have college degrees or for standardized testing.

Democrats also objected to taxpayer dollars being sent to religious schools. About three out of four schools that receive vouchers are religious in nature.

The bill would give any parent the choice to receive a voucher for their child to be used for private school tuition or homeschooling services and supplies — as long as that student was not enrolled in public school.

DeSantis has been a supporter of the programs, saying they reflect his goal to give parents more say over their children’s education.

Simon accused Democrats of caring more about their teacher union backers than the children and parents.

“They’re arguing for the system so the union can turn around and line their pockets come election time,” Simon said.

Supporters of the lawsuit bill said they want to rehabilitate Florida’s reputation as a judicial hornet’s nest. They say a proliferation of bogus lawsuits, coupled with huge settlements and giant legal fees, is driving up insurance premiums and hurting business.

“This bill doesn’t take remedies away from people, and it gets to the root of the problem,” said Sen. Jim Boyd, an insurance agent from Bradenton and chair of the Senate’s insurance committee.

The legislation targets billboard and personal injury lawyers who advertise on TV and advantage of the Sunshine State’s litigious climate, said Mark Wilson, President and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The bill also would create a “presumption against liability” if apartment complexes have security cameras, lighting, locks and peepholes on doors. Supporters say that will make apartments safer, while opponents argue those safeguards are minimal and will stop legitimate claims from moving forward.

Opponents also say the bill would weaken Miya’s Law, which strengthened safety measures for apartment residents It was named after Miya Marcano, a 19-year-old Valencia College sophomore from Pembroke Pines killed in 2021 by an apartment maintenance worker who had a master key to her apartment.

Stewart, sponsor of Miya’s law, said the bill leaves it unscathed. If anything, she said, the bill extends safety measures beyond Miya’s law “because it allows apartments to take a full safety review in about 12 areas, day or night, whatever the review dictates.”

The legislation would also reduce the statute of limitations for filing negligence claims from four years to two years. It would make it harder to pursue “bad faith” lawsuits against insurers and revise laws about evidence of medical expenses that can be admitted in court in personal-injury and wrongful-death lawsuits.

“These bad faith provisions in this bill are a poison pill,” Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said. “It’ll make it easier for unscrupulous insurance companies to drag people along with no recourse for the policyholder. There’s less of an incentive built in this bill for them to do the right thing.”

Grall listed several problems with the bill that could interfere with the rights of citizens looking to solve their problems through the courts. She warned that cutting the time in half to file lawsuits from four years to two will only lead to more lawsuits that could have been resolved in a law office.

“We are going to see that as the next crisis within our courts,” Grall said. “We don’t have the judicial staff to do that. We have an underfunded third branch that is now going to feel the strain of lawsuits that didn’t need to ever enter the third branch.”

One Democrat said the bill wouldn’t help consumers at all.

“This is creating havoc for a lot of people and does nothing to bring down the premiums,” said Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando.