Senators debated the sweeping conforming bill for three and a half hours Monday night. In the end, the vote split the Senate 20-18 with three Republicans crossing the aisle to vote with the Democrats. A tie vote would have killed the bill.
Many spoke passionately about the break down of the democratic process when Senate President Negron and House Speaker Corcoran met in secret on Friday and hammered out a 277 page bill. Their privately negotiated deal included recess and less testing in an eleventh hour attempt to create a package that would be hard for Governor Scott to veto.
Senator Simmons decried the bill and urged fellow members to vote their conscious. When considering their vote, he urged them to remember, “We are the Senate.” Despite the loss, he and others promised to return in September during committee weeks to fix the bad parts of the bill.
Although the proposal gives elementary students recess, rolls back testing and eliminates the use of VAM, the charter school provisions, the loss of and the funding cuts will be devastating to public schools. Senator Farmer spoke eloquently and noted this bill will take Florida down the path of privatization for our public schools.
Here’s how they voted:
Yes Senator Dennis Baxley
Yes Senator Aaron Bean
Yes Senator Lizbeth Benacquisto
No Senator Lauren Book
No Senator Randolph Bracy
Yes Senator Rob Bradley
Yes Senator Jeff Brandes
No Senator Oscar Braynon
Yes Senator Doug Broxson
No Senator Daphne Campbell
No Senator Jeff Clemens
No Senator Gary Farmer
Yes Senator Anitere Flores
Yes Senator George Gainer
Yes Senator Bill Galvano
No Senator Rene Garcia
No Senator Audrey Gibson
No Senator Denise Grimsley
Absent Senator Dorothy L. Hukill
Yes Senator Travis Hutson
Yes Senator Jack Latvala
Yes Senator Tom Lee
Yes Senator Debbie Mayfield
No Senator Bill Montford
Yes Senate President Joe Negron
Yes Senator Kathleen Passidomo
Yes Senator Keith Perry
No Senator Bobby Powell
No Senator Kevin Rader
Yes Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez
No Senator Darryl Rouson
No Senator David Simmons
Yes Senator Wilton Simpson
Yes Senator Kelli Stargel
Yes Senator Greg Steube
No Senator Linda Stewart
No Senator Perry E. Thurston, Jr.
No Senator Victor M. Torres, Jr.
Yes Senator Dana Young
