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Sen. Danny Burgess is trying ahead to bringing his children to Tallahassee for the 2025 Legislative Session — figuratively, in fact.
The daddy of three and his spouse homeschool their children. And Burgess for the subsequent two legislative cycles, will chair the Appropriations Committee on Pre-K-12, that means he will get to take his largest ardour — caring for his children — and make it part of his new legislative management position.
Burgess, a Republican who represents Senate District 23 in elements of Pasco County and east Hillsborough County, is an enormous supporter of college selection. He applauds latest efforts to increase selection in Florida, together with by common faculty vouchers. However he’s acquired his eye on additional guaranteeing households can tailor their children’ training.
“I believe we’ve such a fantastic abundance of Okay-8 choices, particularly in terms of constitution colleges,” Burgess stated. “However there’s extra of a spot in grades 9-12 with constitution choices. I might like to attempt to deal with that and discover artistic methods to create extra constitution choices in highschool.”
As homeschool mother and father, Burgess’ household advantages from the common faculty vouchers approved in 2023. Burgess stated there are at the moment about 300,000 households benefiting from this system, and he expects that quantity to climb to 500,000 within the coming years.
He’s happy with this system’s success to this point, and brags that this system is a mannequin for different states seeking to increase faculty selection. Florida’s program gives as much as $8,000 per scholar, per faculty yr for use for personal faculty tuition or different faculty bills, together with homeschool bills.
Nonetheless, Burgess believes all the things can enhance, and hopes to establish methods to extend accountability “to make sure scholar success.” He was referencing a Tampa Bay Occasions investigative report that discovered some mother and father had been utilizing the voucher funds for questionable purchases, reminiscent of kayaks or theme park tickets. However he notes there are solely a “small quantity” of people utilizing funds in doubtlessly non-impactful methods.
“Most individuals are utilizing this cash for good,” he stated, including that “accountability enhances effectivity.”
“We need to guarantee that mother and father are being reimbursed in a well timed trend,” he stated, referring to the lag that usually happens when mother and father pre-pay for varsity bills solely to attend a big period of time in some circumstances for reimbursement.
And making a degree that ought to delight his Democratic colleagues, Burgess additionally stated he desires to make sure conventional public colleges are being supported.
“A rising tide lifts all boats,” he stated, noting that he attended public faculty and is invested in supporting and elevating public neighborhood colleges.
Burgess can also be fearful about children’ security on social media. The Legislature final yr accredited restrictions on social media for youths in Florida. However even after lawmakers made adjustments to appease his considerations, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the laws (HB 1). It was the highest Home precedence for the 2024 Session.
Burgess isn’t positive precisely what laws may pop up this yr that might discover a hotter reception from the Governor, however he’s anxious to “look into the place that’s at and discover out if there’s extra that we have to do from a coverage or funding perspective.”
“That’s one of many biggest issues we will do, is to guard our youngsters from these long-lasting pitfalls of social media,” he stated.
An evaluation from the Annie E. Casey Basis found numerous studies outlining the destructive psychological impacts to teenagers’ psychological well being, together with melancholy and anxiousness, insufficient sleep, low shallowness, poor physique picture, consuming issues and on-line harassment.
Burgess would additionally prefer to increase upon laws final yr that established the Veterans Historical past Preservation Challenge, a program geared toward capturing and preserving tales from veterans to make sure future generations have entry to their experiences and data.
He’s simply spitballing at this level, however Burgess stated that growth might look one thing like incorporating the venture into faculty classes, maybe across the annual Veterans Day vacation.
Exterior the training house, Burgess has loads of different concepts, together with a high precedence to make sure vacationers have entry to high quality cellphone reception alongside Florida highways, significantly these established as evacuation routes. He lamented “useless zones” alongside interstate roadways.
“We’re a disaster-prone state and these are emergency evacuation routes,” Burgess stated, including that if an emergency had been to happen, vacationers want to have the ability to name for assist.
The issue, he stated, was determining the right way to facilitate enhancements from the state Capitol.
“There’s acquired to be artistic methods to incentivize suppliers to make sure there may be continuity on our roadways,” he stated. “This hits dwelling for nearly each Floridian.”
Burgess additionally expects to work on flooding points. In his dwelling of Zephyrhills, Burgess stated there have been about 40 houses that ended up underwater throughout Hurricanes Helene and Milton, houses that had been an hour’s drive inland the place nobody would have anticipated flooding. He hopes to assist the Legislature work with native governments to supply help and guarantee communities are ready for the subsequent time.
However whereas he acknowledges work must be finished to make Florida extra resilient within the face of worsening hurricane seasons and different excessive climate occasions, he’s not terribly involved a couple of mass exodus from the state consequently.
Burgess and his household take pleasure in taking RV journeys across the nation, they usually word a specific fondness for Florida on their travels.
“The very first thing folks ask you is the place you’re from. They see your Florida tag and the very first thing they are saying is at all times a variation of, ‘Man I might like to reside in Florida,’” he stated. “It’s a fact. It’s the most unscientific correct ballot.”
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