The Florida House is likely to keep pushing for more educational choice in the coming years. Rep. Richard Corcoran, who’s set to become Speaker, made that much clear last fall, when he was officially chosen by his colleagues to lead the chamber after November’s elections.
Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, underscored those intentions Wednesday during a Miami event hosted by the James Madison Institute, a free-market think tank. Diaz currently chairs the House Choice and Innovation education subcommittee, and if he wins re-election this fall, his influence on education is expected to grow in his third term.
In the past few years, “there was a complacency,” [Diaz] said. “What I heard from my colleagues was, ‘so much has been done, we have to see what works.’ I’m saying, ‘we don’t have time for that.’
“I was pleasantly surprised this session,” he added. “The stars aligned and we were able to push some things through… a lot of revolutionary things.”
And Floridians can expect that wave of policies to continue in upcoming legislative sessions, said Diaz — who’s in line to be the next chairman of either the House Education Committee or the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee under incoming speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes.
“It’s clearly awoken,” Diaz said of the push for school choice. “There is a political will you see in the incoming leadership; there is a fire burning. We’re headed in that direction and they’ll be a charge led from the top.”
In the past three years, among other things, state lawmakers created an education savings account program for students with special needs*, expanded eligibility for tax credit scholarships* and created statewide open enrollment for public schools. The big question now is: What’s next?
*Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer Florida’s Gardiner Scholarship and tax credit scholarship programs.
