Legislative leaders-in-waiting Sen. Don Gaetz and Rep. Will Weatherford are heading up a GOP initiative to water down constitutional class size limits approved by voters.

Gaetz, R-Destin, and Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, sponsored a constitutional amendment lawmakers are expected to put on the ballot this year that would undo some of the class size restrictions voters approved in 2002.

Floridians have already spent $16 billion to shrink class sizes but plummeting property tax collections - which pay for public schools - have sent lawmakers scrambling to foot the $22 billion-a-year tab for education.

Gaetz and Weatherford, who are expected to lead their chambers in 2012, will reveal details of their proposal at a press conference tomorrow morning.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for U.S. Senate, recently said that he supports undoing the class size restrictions, which have been been introduced gradually and which school officials say costs too much and doesn’t benefit student achievement.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat is also running for the U.S. Senate seat Crist seeks, was the force behind the class size amendment in 2002 while he was in the state Senate.

He isn’t backing down from the limits, which are set to go into full effect by the end of this year.

“Eight years later, Tallahassee officials have not relented in trying to water down hard-fought class size limits while refusing to tackle the special interest bidding that is alive and well in the state capital, ” said Kendrick Meek, who served as Chairman of Florida’s Coalition to Reduce Class Size in 2002.

“Florida families cannot be shortchanged. They simply ask that their children not be packed into overcrowded classrooms. Instead of focusing on misguided priorities, Florida needs a long-term perspective to secure a better future for our children. Implementing the class size limits without delay is critical so our teachers can teach in classrooms where our students can learn. Moreover, it is important to note that our state needs to invest now in its human capital in order to reverse the tide of joblessness for tomorrow’s workers,” Meek said in press release.

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Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposed $500 million boost to education spending based on an unlikely gambling agreement is unrealistic, Senate President Jeff Atwater said this morning.

“The numbers that I would see at this moment that were included in that release did seem to be a bit optimistic,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said at a meeting of reporters and editors.

Crist’s $22.7 billion public education budget, released Monday, relies on about $433 million from the Seminole Tribe of Florida now sitting in the bank as part of a deal with the state allowing certain types of gambling at the tribe’s casinos.

But the legislature has refused to sign off on a deal inked by Crist and the tribe and early indications show that an agreement this year remains in doubt.

“We worked hard on a gaming compact and we’re not done but to just plug in the numbers that I saw was rather optimistic,” Atwater, who is running for chief financial officer said.

Gov. Charlie Crist, apparently recovered from the man-hug he shared with President Barack Obama last year, is trying to meet with the president tomorrow in Tampa.

Obama will be in Florida to announce the winners of about $8 billion in federal grants for high speed rail projects, and it is almost certain that at least part of the state’s $2.5 billion ask will be granted.

Crist, who is scheduled to be in Tampa tomorrow, said his staff is working on a get-together with the president.

“I would like to see him, yes. It looks like it’s possible, yes,” Crist said after a speech to editors and reporters at the Capitol this morning.

Crist said he has three things to discuss with Obama, including some advice on reaching out across the aisle, a practice that has landed Crist in hot water with his fellow Republicans.

“I hope that what he announceas in Tampa brings a lot of jobs to Florida in the form of high speed rail. Number two, I’d like to talk to him about a more bipartisan approach which means, you know, it’s a two-way street, you know, reaching out more to Republicans and have them involved in the important issues of the day.
And then finally, encourage him on Race to the Top and lobby him a little,” Crist said. Race to the Top is a federal education grant program that could bring about $1 billion to Florida.

GOP critics lambasted Crist, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, for cheerleading for Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package last year. Crist appeared with Obama in Florida last year and a photo of the two embracing was used by critics to embarrass Crist in his GOP primary campaign against former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Crist later denied he supported the stimulus, saying he did not have the opportunity to vote for it in Congress.

Crist repeated his “let’s-all-get-along” emphasis when asked what he expected from the president’s state of the union address tonight.

“A common sense approach, more bipartisanship, and I hope he delivers,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist will join in a world-wide literacy event starring “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” the classic children’s book published 40 years ago, this morning in Orlando.

Freedom Shores Elementary schoolchildren having caterpillar fun

The Pearson Foundation, the charitable organization of the publishing giant, donated the books and is trying to beat last year’s “Read for the Record” world record of 700,000 readers.

“Unbelievably, one in three Pre-K innocents have never had a book read to them and too many lack basic literacy skills that are a must for a chance at achieving early literacy which is the base for their entire education experience,” said Victoria Zepp, a Tallahassee lobbyist and consultant whose clients include Pearson.

Zepp is joining Crist at Vista Lakes Elementary in Orlando where the governor is scheduled to read Eric Carle’s classic children’s tale.

Crist is one of a number of celebrities participating in the event kicked off by NBC Today show host Matt Lauer this morning.
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Gov. Charlie Crist and wife Carole at Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in Riviera Beach. LANNIS WATERS/Staff photographer

Crist and his wife, Carole Crist, visited Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School this morning, greeting cafeteria workers, administrators and safety patrols and stopping in on three classes.

Crist is also slated to meet with restaurateurs in Palm Beach County today and to attend a fund-raiser in Manalapan tonight for his U.S. Senate bid.

“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with your school and your accomplishments here and what you’ve been able to do in a short period of time,” Crist said after being shown around by principal Glenda Sheffield.

Bethune Elementary got an F grade in 2002 based on its Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores and was a D school in 2006. After Sheffield became principal, the school got C grades in 2007 and 2008 and an A this year.

“You’re an A school. And it wasn’t that long ago that Bethune Elementary wasn’t an A school. That kind of gain and that kind of accomplishment is exactly what Florida students deserve and what they should have,” Crist said.

Asked about the controversy in Palm Beach County over its use of tests roughly every three weeks to measure whether students are on track, Crist gave a vote of confidence to Superintendent Art Johnson.

“I think we’re getting better every day,” Crist said. “I think that’s the message we want to convey to people that may have concerns. Florida’s on the rise and Palm Beach County clearly is on the rise. The leadership that Art has provided here is exceptional.”

President advises hard work, hand-washing

Our Kimberly Miller breaks down the local situation here.

Many conservatives and Republicans were critical of the speech last week, with Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer accusing the president of trying to indoctrinate America’s youth with “socialist ideology.”

Redistributionist economic policies are nowhere to be found in an advance copy of the speech released by the White House. The “birther” movement, however, might pounce on the fact that Obama mentions his childhood years in Indonesia. And those who oppose an expanded government role in health care might find significance in the leader of the free world advising students to wash their hands to minimize the spread of flu.

Read the entire text after the jump….

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Vice President Joe Biden will visit an Orlando middle school on Wednesday to tout Florida’s $3.5 billion share of the economic stimulus package for education.

Biden will be joined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They’re scheduled to appear at Jackson Middle School in Orlando at 10 a.m.

Not all of the money is being spent in schools or on teachers, however.

Florida’s three-year education stimulus cash includes money for school lunch equipment, homeless education, independent living programs and services for older blind individuals.

Perhaps the White House duo will receive a warmer welcome than Congressional members touting the president’s health care package at raucous town hall meetings throughout the country.

Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan will apply to be the next chancellor of the state university system.

Brogan, in a message to FAU faculty, staff and students this morning, said he has been approached by many “influential” people to apply for the position and decided to do so after much reflection and discussion with his family.

More from The Post’s Kimberly Miller here.

Forty years after moving onto the Florida State University campus as a freshman, T.K. Wetherell took up residence at the president’s mansion.

After six years at the helm, Wetherell, the first FSU graduate to return as president, is stepping down, leaving behind a university wracked by budgetary woes, impending mass firings and a cheating scandal that could cost Bobby Bowden a chance to be the all-time winningest major college football coach.

Wetherell announced his resignation Wednesday at a Board of Trustees meeting, two years before his contract runs out.

“It would really be nice to win the national championship, go out on top and hire 1,000 new faculty. There’s no easy time in that regard,” Wetherell said when asked if he had remorse over leaving the university with so many problems.

“I wish we weren’t here. I wish we didn’t lose $82 million and I wish there were 650 people that were back on the payroll at Florida State doing whatever it is they do. I couldn’t control that. I tried. I did the best I could do with it, probably burned up more political capital than I should have in many people’s minds.”

Wetherell said he was willing to stay until a replacement is chosen.

When he took over as president in 2003, he and his wife, Virginia, said they would donate their 1,000-acre farm near Tallahassee - valued at more than $7 million - to the university after they die.

A soft-spoken Southerner with a folksy demeanor that belies a sharp wit, Wetherell often addresses even casual acquaintances as “buddy,” men and women alike. He’s easily accessible to the media and is often seen on campus.

Wetherell’s candor has landed him in hot water. At a March news conference, he slipped in an obscenity directed at Samford University, Bowden’s alma mater. He quickly apologized.

Wetherell earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in education administration from FSU and is a stalwart Seminoles fan.

Once a wide receiver and kick returner for the Seminoles, he has seen the football team slip in the rankings the past five years after winning national championships in 1993 and 1999.

He’s contesting NCAA sanctions over a 2007 cheating scandal that involved 22 football players, as well as athletes from other sports, and a lawsuit filed by media outlets seeking records related to the sanctions. The NCAA ordered that those records be kept secret.

He has battled the legislature, which has slashed $82 million from his budget over the past two years.

And he’s giving pink slips to nearly 200 employees, including 25 tenured faculty members.

Wetherell spent more than a decade in the Florida House and left after serving as speaker from 1990-92. His Capitol connections were a huge asset during his tenure.

Wetherell, who was treated for prostate cancer shortly after he took over as president, said he had considered retiring for about a year but did not want to leave until the three-year budget plan, approved by the trustees Wednesday, was finalized. He said he wants to teach, travel, spend time at his Montana ranch and “just be a real person, not in blogs and editorials every day.”

“Sure, you’d rather go out on a different note. But I think we went out as positive as we could,” he said.

This year’s graduates, he said, represent his greatest accomplishment at FSU: 30 percent were the first in their families to receive a college degree, as was Wetherell.

Gov. Charlie Crist, also a FSU alumnus, said he was disappointed by Wetherell’s resignation.

“I love T.K.,” Crist said.

Under the current economic climate, the political clout Wetherell often wielded may not have been as effective in raising money, said Jim Smith, chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Smith wants the university to hire someone from outside Florida with “very, very, very good academic credentials” who will “eagerly anticipate getting up every day and wanting to figure out how they can raise $1 billion for Florida State.”

Fund-raising will be a major part of the next president’s job, Smith said.

“I just don’t see the willingness of the legislature to continue to put money in the system,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist weighed in on a variety of topics this morning after signing several law enforcement-related bills at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles this morning.

Sheltered from the blazing heat by tents, slews of department employees dressed in bright red shirts turned out to hear Crist speak and pose for pictures with the governor, who is also running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.

Among the bills Crist signed today was one that will expand the state’s DNA database. Law enforcement officials, now limited to taking DNA samples from those convicted of crimes, will now be able to take DNA from anyone who is arrested.

But Crist defended the bill (SB 2276) which civil liberties advocates argue is too far-reaching and have threatened to challenge in court.

“I think it’ll be alright or I wouldn’t have signed the bill. I think that we need to protect first and make sure that our people are safe. I think that this legislation will help us to do that even better,” he said.

Read what else Crist told reporters at a gaggle after the bill-signing after the jump. (more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday signed legislation setting the outlines for a proposed gambling deal with the Seminoles that could reap the state billions of dollars for education.

Lawmakers gave Crist until Aug. 31 to finish negotiations and sign a pact with the tribe — a step that still remains to be completed. The legislature must approve the contract once one is inked.

Under the 15-year agreement that lawmakers have outlined, the Seminoles could continue to have Las Vegas-style slot machines and blackjack, chemin de fer and baccarat at their two Broward County casinos and one in Hillsborough County.

The tribe would be limited to slots only at its remaining Florida locales, including Immokalee, which it had planned on expanding.

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House and Senate leaders opened negotiations on gambling doing little to resolve their differences but meeting at last.

Gambling talks between the chambers have been on hold since Friday. Their task: craft a plan that addresses games at the Seminole casino resorts and the state’s dog and horse tracks and reaps the biggest rewards for the state.

Still up in the air: which games the Seminoles will be allowed to operate at their casino resorts, a possible expansion of blackjack for dog and horse tracks in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and how much revenue to demand from the tribe.

“There’s a lot of meat left on the bone,” the House’s chief gambling negotiator Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said after the meeting.

Galvano and his Senate counterpart J.D. Alexander did agree to limit a compact with the Seminoles to 15 years instead of the 25 years the tribe had sought and which was included in the original deal signed by Gov. Charlie Crist. The Florida Supreme Court tossed that.
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Lawmakers closed out the $65 billion budget this morning that includes nearly $2 billion in taxes and fees, including a $380 million property tax increase if school boards approve it.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and House counterparts David Rivera and Marcelo Llorente resolved most of their disagreements over the weekend and sealed the deal this morning without sending any unresolved disputes to Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul.

One of the losers in the deal: Florida Forever, the state’s land-buying program received no new money. But the budget chiefs did agree to issue $250 million in bonding authority from this year. They could not sell the bonds because of a decline in real estate transaction taxes used to pay them back.

The legislature closed a real estate tax loophole during the session that they hope will generate enough money to keep Florida Forever running next year.

A last-minute change this weekend shifted $25 million for Florida Forever to the Everglades clean-up program, bringing the total for that to $50 million.

Also included in the budget are more than $800 million in fees, including a hike in driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations and court filings. And smokers will pay an extra buck-a-pack for cigarettes to raise about another $800 million to be spent on the state’s Medicaid program.

State workers earning more than $45,000 a year will see a 2 percent salary cut but university workers are exempt. That amounts to a $30 million cut from general revenue, far less than the $100 million in state employee pay cuts the House had original proposed.

School boards, meanwhile, got the OK to hike property taxes an additional 25 cents per $1,000 of value with a majority vote. Voters would have to sign off on the tax increase at the general election in 2010. The tax increase would raise $380 million for school districts statewide if implemented by all 67 counties, including nearly $17 million for Palm Beach County.

Bright Futures will no longer cover tuition hikes, including the 8 percent tuition increase included in the budget. Lawmakers also gave universities the ability to raise tuition up to 15 percent.

Lawmakers won’t begin working out a gambling proposal until Monday, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander said late Saturday evening.

Alexander, looking weary, said he was concentrating first on settling spending differences because of the time constraints that require a 72-hour waiting period before lawmakers can pass the $65 billion budget on Friday.

Alexander has a reason to be tired.

The Lake Wales Republican is the sole budget negotiator for the Senate.

But he’s got three House chiefs to deal with: David Rivera on education and economic development, Marcello Llorente on health and human services and criminal justice, and Bill Galvano on gambling.

Fear not, bookworms.

House budget negotiators raided nearly $13 million from transportation spending to keep money flowing to county and local libraries.

That would bring the total for county and local libraries back to $21 million if the Senate signs off as expected at the next horse-trading session at 8 p.m.

Without it, the libraries would lose about $8 million in matching federal aid.

Palm Beach County would have to fire librarians and scale back on new books and other materials if the cut stays, county officials say.

Money for libraries is one of the budget issues unresolved that House and Senate budget chiefs are negotiating until noon tomorrow.

After that, House Speaker Larry Cretul and Senate President Jeff Atwater take over.
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Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander added $5 million this morning to the state university budget to hire teachers for one of his pet projects, the University of South Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland, located in his Senate District 17.

Alexander included the new item in a counteroffer to House counterpart David Rivera, R-Miami, during budget negotiations this morning.

The $5 million would be a permanent annual boost to the Lakeland school’s budget if the House agrees.

Alexander said he put the money in “so that we can put that effort which has been approved by the Board of Governors and get ready to go.”

The money will be go to “hire the faculty and get the students programs up and running. We can make that a reality just like we’re doing with our med schools and other things,” Alexander said.

The extra money for USF comes as lawmakers are trimming about 4 percent from the state university system budget and are hiking tuition 8 percent.

The Florida Department of Education paid $12,000 for four months of advertising on the Sayfie Review, a political website owned by Justin Sayfie, a lobbyist, GOP consultant and former top advisor to Gov. Jeb Bush.

The state is advertising its “Ready to Work” program that certifies workers for certain jobs. The program is run by DOE in conjunction with the Agency for Workforce Innovation.

The money comes from about $11 million the state spends on the program annually. The certificates let employers know how well applicants can read, write and perform basic math.

“When you advertise with SayfieReview.com, you are instantly grabbing the attention of the major decision makers and opinion leaders in the State of Florida,” the Sayfie Review’s website promises.

The site is a regular staple for Capitol movers and shakers but it’s unclear how many literacy-certified job seekers routinely click on the site.

The credentialing program also includes a “job profiling” component in which companies pay $2,000 for an assessment of what their workers do. The research is performed by the University of North Florida.

Congressman and U.S. Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek is walking the familiar halls of the Capitol this morning trying to convince lawmakers not to delay the constitutionally-required class size reductions mandated by an amendment he pushed.

Meek, a Miami Democrat who formerly served in both the state House and the state senate, is working both sides of the aisle as lawmakers consider putting off limiting class sizes by classroom and keeping the current school average to save money.

Meek held a press conference after meeting with Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands. Meek, who served in both the state House and the state Senate, has yet to meet with Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson on the issue.

“While well-intended…to start rolling back on class size at this time is only going to make the situation worse in the future,” Meek said.

Using school averages now might be okay, Meek argued, but could prove problematic in the future because non-teachers such as guidance counselors could be used to cook the numbers.

“The years of 40 in a portable should be a past nightmare,” he said.

From the Palm Beach Post editorial board this morning:

Sen. King has been in the Legislature since 1987. As a former House majority leader and Senate president, he’s been one of Tallahassee’s most powerful legislators. If he had wanted to make the university system great, it would be. It isn’t. It’s good, but far from one of the country’s best.

Yet Sen. King touts that political experience as a qualification to run the university system. Why, he’d even resign his Senate seat if chosen, presumably trying to distinguish himself from Rep. Ray Sansom, R-Destin, who quit as speaker because he got a six-figure job at Northwest Florida College after steering millions to the institution.

But does Sen. King want the job because he has a plan to make the system great? No. He has a plan to make himself some money.

Read the entire piece here.

The U.S. Department of Education this morning published its application for a handful of states — including Florida — that need a special consideration to receive federal stimulus money for schools.

Congress wanted to withhold education money from states that have cut K-12 spending in recent years, but the U.S. DOE will approve the stabilization cash if states can prove that public schools still receive the same proportion of the state’s budget.

Commissioner Eric Smith said he hoped to return the application by the end of the week in order to get a ruling from the U.S. DOE by mid-April.

Here’s the link to the document the feds published. And we extracted the relevant part here.