Rosalind Osgood - REDBROWARD

From office of State Sen. Rosalind Osgood:

Tallahassee, FL – In response to HB 1259 – Education passing in the Senate today, Senator Rosalind Osgood (D-Tamarac) released the following statement:

“HB 1259 will cause great financial hardship on our traditional public schools. I support all schools, traditional, public, charter public and private schools. However, I believe we can fund educational opportunities in the State of Florida without taking money from one and giving it to the other.

Capital funds are neither collected nor spent on a per student basis but based on facility needs. This bill is regressive and problematic in many ways. HB 1259 will make it impossible for school districts to fund five-year facility plans required by State statute. School districts will not be able to meet debt obligations for new construction.

Broward County Schools will lose approximately $56,023,741 over the next five years. I encourage the Governor to veto this bill and allow a task force of Traditional Public School Superintendents and Charter School Operators to work together to propose a more fiscally appropriate solution.”

Like most Broward Democrat events, their Saturday morning anti-gun rally in Sunrise featured more politicians and activists than average citizens. The partisan rhetoric was very heated at times, but a few brave elected Democrats did praise Florida Republicans for passing several measures after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre. While the battle cry from most speakers focused on changes in Federal law, not a single Federal officeholder from Broward attended the rally.

Former Republican and NRA darling Charlie Crist also joined the politicians in Sunrise. The attendees included State Sen Shevrin Jones, State Sen Lauren Book, State Sen Rosalind Osgood, State Rep Christine Hunchofsky, State Rep Marie Woodson, State Rep Robin Bartleman, Broward County Commissioner Jared Moskowitz, Broward School Board Member Debra Hixon and Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Ben Sorensen.