FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Sunday, September 11, 2005

Third Rail

    Changes to Florida's popular "Bright Futures" program could become the "third rail" of Florida politics:
    It was December 1997 and the departing chancellor [Charles Reed ], widely known for his forthrightness, said he was "embarrassed" by the lottery-funded program that lawmakers created earlier that year. Poor people, who buy lottery tickets in disproportionate percentages, would be subsidizing affluent families that could afford Florida's already low tuition rates, Mr. Reed said.

    In 2005, such tough talk could easily be dismissed as hyperbole: Bright Futures quickly became one of the most popular government programs in Florida, and for good reason.

    But Mr. Reed's criticism wasn't without merit eight years ago, and it isn't baseless today.

    The program undeniably achieves what it set out to accomplish. It provides incentives for all Florida high school students, regardless of their family's income, to win 75 to 100 percent of their college tuition and fees by succeeding academically. Florida's universities today have an easier time attracting Florida's best and brightest young scholars as a result.
    "Brighter futures".

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