An editorial yesterday rightly complained that "Prisons get $60 million; universities get lectures". Why is Floirda spending money on prisons that could be better used elsewhere? Because of failed GOP policy, including penny wise and pound foolish cuts to tratment programs (unless your father is named "Jeb!") together with a crummy GOP economy:
- "Florida's sudden surge in inmates imprisoned on drug-related charges follows two years of state budget cuts that have dramatically reduced treatment dollars for drug offenders behind bars." See "State prison rolls swollen by drug convictions".
- "'One of the biggest predictors of recidivism is employment, and we are in an economic slowdown,' said Thomas Blomberg, a criminologist at Florida State University." See "Inmate State prisons lock up 3,000 new inmates".
Why The Resistance To Private School Accountability? "The push to seek data from voucher schools needs to go further. Finally Gov. Jeb Bush and Education Commissioner Jim Horne have cracked open the curtain of secrecy obscuring state voucher programs. They're demanding that private schools receiving public money do a little paperwork. Don't expect sunshine to stream into this darkened corner of state spending. All the schools will have to do is provide minimal information that the state should have been requiring from the start." See "A small step".
Webster - "State Sen. Daniel Webster plans to start his campaign for the U.S. Senate with a hometown rally in Orlando on Wednesday, joining tough competition in the Republican Party's conservative stronghold of Central Florida. . . . His candidacy sets up an intense struggle for the most conservative wing of the GOP, in a key area where the party traditionally has been dominant. House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon of Melbourne and former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum of Altamonte Springs all have their political roots in the populous middle region of the state." See "Webster to start Senate campaign".
Florida Fails Yet Another Fed Standard - "Florida is failing to protect its children, a new federal study concludes, and the state's child-welfare system could lose millions of dollars in the next few years if there are no improvements. The state Department of Children & Families has until April 2005 to show progress toward correcting lapses to avoid a $3.6 million penalty and the stigma that it cannot take care of some of its most vulnerable citizens." See "Florida fails its kids". See also "DCF flunks federal test, faces cash cut".
Pipe Dream - "After a contentious debate on medical malpractice reform, here's an issue on which doctors and Democrats can agree: This country needs a serious debate about national health care." See "Healthy debate". 6:58 AM
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