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Health & Fitness

Most Contentious Florida Bills Enacted As Of July 2011

Florida was blessed with more than 100 new bills this past Friday. Here is my description of the most controversial yet.

Whether or not you dedicate or declare yourself an affiliate of a certain political party matters not today in Florida, or, as of July 1. Regardless of who you are, what you do, or what your voting card states about yourself, you should be aware of the new laws enacted under Gov. Rick Scott that went into effect on the first of this month.

Along with many, I hate to say, less-intrinsic bills, there were several major bills passed and put into effect that will have great impact on many adult Floridian lives and the lives of their children.

  1. It has been said that 85 percent of the prescribed in the United States comes from Florida, this is because our laws on prescription drugs, particularly schedule II and III drugs, are seemingly fairly lenient and without much observance when it comes to the potential abuse by the prescribee. Rick Scott , which also passed in the primarily conservative-run House, making it illegal for doctors to physically hand out schedule II and III drugs to patients. Now, when they prescribe these drugs to patients, they must enter it within their database immediately so as to take note of who this drug was prescribed to, when, and how often it will be needed or refilled, if ever. All of this is to keep track more easily, of the distribution of these prescription drugs in an easily accessible database. Gov. Scott is hoping that the signing of this Pill Mill Bill will be a model for the rest of the country and hopefully retire Florida’s infamous nickname of Pill Mill Capital. The signing of this bill is one of the most accepted when it comes to the several most contentious bills that have just been enacted.
  2. Being a public school student not too long ago, I have become very impassioned about this next bill, which was passed in March and went into effect on the first of this month as well. I’ve seen first-hand how inappropriate my peers acted in a setting that is supposed to be for the sole purpose of our education, albeit, laced with socialization to prepare you for living in the real world with people you may or may not like, but need the means to deal with. Public school, I would imagine, is just about the same everywhere in Florida as it was . I heard 14-year-old girls losing their composure when someone said something regarding genitalia, someone their age being promiscuous, or about drugs, during the course of my years between 14 to 17. I walked through those hallways repulsed on a daily basis when I heard the incessant chatter about how horrible a teacher was for giving them assignments or homework, maybe even a 10-page chapter to read, and I’m censoring myself here, because the name-calling was unlike any other I’ve heard when it came to the people I was forced to surround myself with daily. I know that the parents of these adolescents don’t like to hear it or believe it, but I saw it, the words were nearly tangible. They were so full of nonsense and yet so empty of thought.

    Senate Bill 6 was proposed in my junior year. I remember speaking with my teachers about it. I remember how distraught they seemed. I helped organize a sit-in protest that would take place during school hours right across the street in front of the church where we were expected to sit along the side walk holding signs in support of our teachers. Luckily, that bill was vetoed by former Gov. Crist. This year, in March, they seemed to re-hash this bill, and it passed, quite unsurprisingly.

    Teachers are already being paid a hardly livable wage as is, and due to cut-backs in spending, which always seem to fall on education in Florida, teachers will already be facing pay-cuts and layoffs. The intent of this bill is to pay teachers based upon student performance on standardized tests. Many republicans in the Florida House state that this bill is pro-teacher, seeing as, from their perception, it will thin out the “bad teachers” while helping the “good ones” excel, because we can obviously tell which teachers are “good” and “bad” based upon student performance. Now that we’ve made teacher pay based on the performance of their students on these state-mandated standardized tests, the teachers themselves will have to dedicate more time to teaching and instilling knowledge into the students’ heads about what will be on these tests, all of which will take time away from the curriculum which we attend public school for in the first place. Many people view the merit-pay as a way to make unions defenseless. This system will be officially instilled in 2014.

    While half of teachers pay will be based on these standardized tests, the other half will be based upon evaluation systems and advanced degrees, but only if the degrees are within the teachers subject area, seeing as tenure will be done away with beginning with all new teachers hired as of the first of this month. Some teachers will even face termination if their evaluation scores do not rank high enough. Any new teachers hired as of this month may also face termination at the end of each year even if their evaluation scores are up to par. The evaluation will be done by principals or school board members, and each evaluation is to be reviewed thoroughly in order to decide what they believe the teacher deserves.

    Many Florida representatives say that the bill proposed last year was too hastily thrown together, that this bill is much more organized, and that they listened to teachers this time through. However, I know of many students who, provided they knew that their teacher was being graded on their success, would make it their goal to fail so the teacher would as well.
  3. A bill with relevance to the teacher pay cut-backs is the one now requiring all state employees to pay 3 percent of their income into their pension plans, which previously they had been notified that the state would pay for in full. This results in a 3 percent net income for all state employees, including teachers as well.
  4. Another with slight relevance was a bill to be sure that all students entering the ninth grade as of the 2011-2012 school year must take at least one online course in order to graduate from high school. This may or may not be the start of transferring students over to an online curriculum entirely, it would be easier for the state, and they wouldn’t have to pay as many teachers. An online teacher can have up to 500 students. This bill also requires Florida Virtual School (FLVS), to expand its horizons and offer more variety of courses. This bill is said to make students familiar with growing technology and open up other paths to success.
  5. Perhaps the most controversial and incendiary bill is also similar to a bill proposed last year regarding abortion, which, again, former Gov. Crist vetoed. This bill now makes it mandatory that prior to an abortion, a female must undergo an ultrasound to supposedly help her make an informed decision. While many are still unsure how viewing an ultrasound will aid a woman in a life-changing decision and are convinced that it is merely to provoke unsettling emotions at the time that the final decision will be made. Another portion of the bill states that before a teen decides that she wants an abortion, her parents must be notified. However, she can go before a judge to waive the notification of her parents. A major issue with this portion of the bill are concerns that the judges within the teen’s area may know her or her parents, so the reformed bill, unlike the one Crist vetoed last year, make a teen eligible to travel anywhere in her appellate district to find a judge to appeal to. This idea seemed ludicrous to some representatives who were skeptical about a teen having to travel across the state to maintain privacy. In accordance with this bill, there are also selected health insurance policies that do not carry abortion coverage, whereas most insurance policies do. 

    There has been talk about the state government almost shunning insurance companies and policies that will cover abortion costs, inhibiting them from gaining the money or benefits they could be gaining if they would stop covering abortion costs. Florida is one of the top five states in America with the most abortion bills taken into consideration.

    I will end with a quote from Evelyn Lynn regarding abortion bills in Florida that I find every interesting: "I came up here this year not to tell you what to do with your bodies, not to tell you what your religious beliefs should be, not to tell you what your sense of values should be."

    Lynn was the only Republican to vote against the tighter notification requirements. That bill, HB 1247, passed 26-12.

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