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Corcoran Opens Fire As Becomes Florida House Speaker
November 23, 2016
New House Speaker Richard Corcoran began his two years as the leader of the chamber Tuesday with a round of rhetorical bombardments, lacerating Florida’s main teachers union for an “evil” lawsuit while laying down an unyielding stance on budget negotiations.
In a speech during the House’s organization session and remarks later to reporters, Corcoran displayed the pugnacious manner and determination that have become his hallmarks and are already raising the odds of a noisy and potentially chaotic legislative session next year.
He attacked the teachers union, the Florida Education Association, for legally challenging a voucher-like program that offers tax credits to businesses that pay for children to attend private schools. He also ruled out considering small-bore budget projects, which often play a key role in easing compromises on other legislative issues, unless the proposals are filed by the first day of the spring session. And he threatened to call out local governments that spend heavily on lobbyists in Tallahassee.
The remarks added a charge to the usually placid organization session, marked by the pageantry of new lawmakers being sworn in and new leaders taking their positions.
Perhaps the most unexpected move by Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, was to call on the Florida Education Association to drop its suit against the voucher-like program. The lawsuit argues that the program drains money that otherwise would go to public schools and is unconstitutional for the same reasons that the Florida Supreme Court struck down a previous voucher scheme.
Corcoran asked Democrats to join Republicans in condemning the legal challenge and asking the FEA, a staunch ally of the Democratic Party, to stop the case.
“The teachers union is fixated on halting innovation and competition in education,” Corcoran said. “They are literally trying to destroy the lives of 100,000 children. Most of them are minorities, and all of them are poor. … It is downright evil.”
Later, speaking to reporters, Corcoran said the FEA’s idea of what constituted fair treatment of educational options is “some subjective, crazy-ass notion that they have that is completely false.”
The challenge to buck the FEA surprised some House Democrats, including Minority Leader Janet Cruz of Tampa.
“It was aggressive,” Cruz said. “I didn’t expect to hear any of that today, and I didn’t expect for teachers to be villainized. … I certainly don’t think that teachers are evil. I think that teachers are amazing, and I was disappointed to hear that.”
Democratic leaders issued a statement Tuesday afternoon reiterating their support for the lawsuit.
In a post on Facebook, FEA President Joanne McCall asked supporters to call Corcoran’s office and ask the speaker to meet McCall. She said the teachers union was “going high as he goes low.”
“The Florida Education Association firmly believes that people of opposing views should always engage in civil debate on issues,” McCall said in a statement issued by the union. “We would welcome the opportunity to discuss with Speaker Corcoran the reasons FEA has engaged the court in the voucher program. We are here when and if the speaker would like to hear from us.”
Corcoran also repeated his pledge not to accept any spending projects that are not filed as House bills by the first day of session. He said the rule, also adopted Tuesday by the House, would help combat an “epidemic level” of budget earmarks.
“No longer will we have to tolerate last-minute appropriations being stuck into our budget with little or no public scrutiny, in the waning hours of session, literally written on the back of a napkin that they got from the bar the night before,” Corcoran told the House.
Those earmarks, though, can make it easier for lawmakers to close up work on the annual spending plan and resolve controversies that are often tied to it in the final days of the session. Corcoran suggested to reporters that he was willing to compromise, but only to a point.
“Gridlock in essence doesn’t help anybody,” he said. “Unless it’s gridlock over something that is a diametrical opposition to the principles that you know would make society, Floridians or the nation great. That’s not gridlock, that’s statesmanship.”
Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said Tuesday that he would advise senators to find House members to support their projects. But Negron said that was customary even before Corcoran’s latest proposals.
And while Negron said he didn’t think the difference would be insurmountable, he made it clear the Senate would not necessarily strictly follow the House’s lead.
“On the Senate side, we’re not going to shut down the appropriations process on the (first) day of session,” he said. “We have tens of thousands of our constituents who come to Tallahassee during session to bring us all kinds of ideas, some which relate to the budget. And I think it’s perfectly appropriate for the Senate during the legislative session to make decisions on items that will be included in the budget and, by the way, things that will be stricken from the budget.”
Corcoran also suggested to reporters that he has sweeping plans for a new requirement that lobbyists turn over to the House any contracts related to their work for local governments. Corcoran, whose brother is a lobbyist, has taken a hard line on restricting contact and interactions between House members and the lobbying corps.
“Now we’ll have all these contracts of all these governmental entities and hopefully coming soon is the top 10 list of everything you could imagine: top 10 biggest spenders, top 10 lobbyists who get taxpayer money, top 10 county commissioners who let lobbyists do their job because they stink — all of that’s coming soon,” he said.
The legislative session begins March 7.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Comments
6 Responses to “Corcoran Opens Fire As Becomes Florida House Speaker”
REGARDING:
“When kids have zero idea of…”
I can’t say how well or poorly individual teachers did, but I well remember teachers going over all of those subjects in class after assigning readings which went over them, followed by discussion and quizzes in class.
And some classmates never bothered to read the assigned reading, never listened in class and copied off those who paid attention.
Their failures are not the teachers’ fault.
The poor students were true to their parents’ values and teachings.
“You cain’t larn me nuthin.”
You shouldn’t judge the class or teacher from the bottom of the class.
AND
“Just goes to show you being rude and disrespectful may get attention but is not the best place for negotiation and this is complex and once someone is put on the defense they take things out of context.”
It doesn’t look like he was trying to negotiate, rather to lay out his position and intention. He doesn’t want to negotiate with people there to bribe or pressure him. Maybe he will listen to folks with facts on their side. (Maybe not, he seems to have a few preconceived notions which may be off base.)
David for better legislators,
money well spent,
children well taught
Corcoran sounds like he is belligerently pushing his agenda for vouchers. He seems to be manipulating by saying the vouchers would save minorities and poor people. Sound like an agenda to promote businesses at taxpayers expense to me.
Just goes to show you being rude and disresptful may get attention but is not the best place for negotiation and this is complex and once someone is put on the defense they take things out of context. I appreciate teachers but I think a lot should fall on the parents, A LOT!!! If Iam paying taxes for public school, I don’t think I support the voucher system. I’m not so sure about the union, probably on one hand it insures wages but does it allow for bad apples to stay?
I’ve been out of touch with the education for a while. I think standardized test are fine. I suppose Teachers are the best to speak up about this but does the union represent what all the teachers think?
There is a huge gap between real teachers and what is being asked of teachers in the public schools. I believe the biggest gap is the distance between Tallahassee and the individual districts. I wonder when the folks in Tallahassee decided they knew how best to teach in every district in the whole of Florida? Do they know that we are diverse and cover the entire spectrum of cultures and have different needs and desires? The kids in Okaloosa county and the kids in Gadsden county are so different and need to be taught in different ways. Not saying one way may be better but different than the other and in the end reach a goal that supports the desires of the local community. You know LOCAL CONTROL. To say a single test that the teachers didn’t compose or grade or use the results of is the real deal is a huge mistake. It seems to me that the legislators have found a way to please their big $$ givers and promote the very private schools their kids attend. There is a big problem in the halls of government dealing with education. I now will give my solution to the problem. It will take a change in the Florida constitution but it is changed all the time. My plan, do away with public education that is funded by way of taxing the public. Our present system was founded many many years ago when there was almost no other way for kids to get the education they needed and their parents wanted them to have. I also know that we would NOT let a generation of kids grow up with no education and what might develop would be a drastic change from the present system but who knows it might be just the best thing since sliced bread, as they say. We have private schools now which is mostly funded by individuals with $$$ enough to get the job done. I believe even the poorest communities would come up with a plan to get their kids the education they need. Just think how much $$$ is wasted and not accounted for and how much tax $$$ is wasted on crap like BS test, way too many admn. getting paid way too much $$ to sit in ivory towers and dictate to teachers who really know how to teach but don’t get the chance. Could go on but you get the picture.
When kids have zero idea of how Government works… Balance of power, Supreme Court, who is the Vice President… basic math fractions… the root causes of the Civil War, WW2 etc… Not a clue about American Revolution, Manifest Destiny, plight of the American Indian… you teachers can’t really stand there and say you’re doing your job.
In response to “The teachers union is fixated on halting innovation and competition in education,” Corcoran said. “They are literally trying to destroy the lives of 100,000 children. Most of them are minorities, and all of them are poor. … It is downright evil.” If they had to pass the Florida test using tax payers money then yes I would consider but PRIVATE DO NOT AND ARE NOT held to the same standards. FSA (old FCAT) no school grades, teachers do not have to be highly qualified etc. because they are a Private for profit school, yet this guy want my tax dollars to go to sending a low performing poor kid to a private school where “they can make it” due to no state accountability……oh no, not today, tomorrow, or next week. Take all the junk away and let us teach kids like we we taught. We turned out pretty good or had the opportunity to turn out good!! By taking tax payer dollars and send a kid to private/charter school does NOT remove the problem…..to each one of these brains in Tallahassee, come live a day, week, month in our (teachers) world before you dare tell me/us we don’t have the ability to teach and we are down right evil. Mr. Corcoran, Speaker of the house, you do not have a clue!! I bet you have NEVER spent a day in a public classroom, much less 24 hours with an educator. You tell me we are not doing our job because of one stupid test…..what a joke!!! I am sick and tired of hearing how sorry public education is and how we are nit teaching kids!! Last thought I believe the comment in quotes above is a racist comment!! Shame on you Speaker of the House, shame on you!! One mad momma, daughter, sister, teacher, and administrator!!