Redistricting at this time is a bad idea. We do redistricting every 10 years. It is a legal process and this effort after only three years is just to gain political advantage since the Florida Legislature is overwhelmingly Republican and they don’t care about issues affecting working families in Florida.
What people don’t understand is that the Republicans are taking away healthcare and good public education from all Floridians. Congress is shutdown over the issue of healthcare. In public education, Florida taxpayers are paying $8,000 to 250,000 students in private schools, who never attended public schools. This is how the vouchers are working. Florida taxpayers are out $2.5 billion this year to pay the tuition of students in Private schools while public schools cannot hire enough teachers because the pay is so low, 50th out of 50 states.
The result is a double whammy on Florida families with children in public schools. Not only are they paying school taxes, they are paying for the tuition of 250,000 students in PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND THEIR CHILDREN ARE GETTING SUBPAR EDUCATION BECAUSE THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH TEACHERS IN FLORIDA PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Math is being taught to 8th, 9th and 10th grade in one classroom. I never realized that public education has gone that far down hill in Florida.
Ash Marwah is a resident of the Village of Belvedere.