Guardian law draws fire

BRADENTON — Teachers won’t be carrying guns in local schools after districts in Sarasota and Manatee counties opted out of a controversial new “guardian” program, but legislation expanding the program continued to generate intense debate during a Manatee Tiger Bay Club meeting Thursday.

Rep. Wengay Newton, D-St. Petersburg, said it was a “terrible idea” to authorize teachers to carry guns in school, legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed into law.

“They need raises, not guns,” Newton told the crowd gathered at Pier 22 restaurant in downtown Bradenton.

State Rep. Will Robinson, R-Bradenton, and state Rep. Tommy Gregory, R-Sarasota, defended their votes for the bill, which expanded a program approved last year that now allows any teacher to become a guardian if the individual goes through training and teaches in a district that opts into the program.

“This was a tough debate,” Robinson said, adding that he supported the bill because it “offers maximum flexibility and I think was a reasonable approach.”

Robinson noted that school districts aren’t required to participate in the guardian program. Many have opted not to.

But some rural communities “aren’t rich like Sarasota” and might not be able to afford law enforcement officers in every school, so arming teachers allows them to bolster school security for less money, Robinson said.

The trio of lawmakers representing Manatee County rehashed a number of other issues that came up during the two-month legislative session, which ended May 5. All three voted for legislation establishing three new toll roads.

The toll road bill was pitched as a way to alleviate traffic on existing roadways by creating new transportation corridors, but environmentalists have come out strongly against the proposal, saying it will lead to massive sprawl that harms Florida’s natural areas.

As the Sierra Club and other environmental groups mount a campaign to get DeSantis to veto the bill, its supporters are arguing that the legislation — which was pushed by Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton — is needed to deal with the state’s rapid population growth.

“We need more roads to handle the city the size of Orlando that’s moving here every” year, Gregory said, referring to the estimates that Florida’s annual population growth in recent years has been equivalent to the population of Orlando.

The toll road bill attracted bipartisan support, but many Democrats in the House came out against it because of environmental and fiscal concerns. Newton said his long experience serving on transportation-focused boards has convinced him that “we have got to get serious about our infrastructure.”

“Yesterday was the best day for a good transportation network,” he said in arguing that road improvements such as the one proposed by Galvano are long overdue.

All three lawmakers also supported an expansion of school vouchers. The legislation will allow families to use taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools.

Newton was among a small number of Democrats who supported the voucher bill. He pointed to the poor performing public schools in his community as a reason to give families more options about where to send their kids.

“Being able to give those kids an opportunity is big,” Newton said.

A member of the audience pointed out that private schools do not have the same accountability measures imposed on public schools, including the same testing requirements.

Both Robinson and Gregory argued that there is too much testing in public schools, and said that they would rather scale that back than impose new testing requirements on private schools that enroll voucher students.

“I don’t think the answer is to take these ridiculous burdens and apply them to everyone,” Gregory said.

The Legislature approved a $91 billion budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year that includes a nearly $100 million tax cut, more money for public schools and water quality improvement efforts, and a substantial sum for Hurricane Michael recovery efforts, among other spending priorities.

With low concentrations of red tide being reported in the region again, Robinson said he’s glad that the Legislature is devoting significant resources to environmental cleanup.

But Robinson lamented the fact that he was unable to advance legislation that would require septic tanks to be inspected periodically to ensure they are not failing and leaching nutrients that feed algae blooms. Lawmakers did nothing to regulate nutrient pollution.

“I think we have some room to go here on some of these regulatory issues,” Robinson said.

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