by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
Florida Sen. Jim King spoke to about 40 students at Florida Coastal School of Law (FCSL) Wednesday, giving them a preview of the 2007 legislative session.
FCSL’s Center for Law & Public Policy hosted the first Issues 2007 Forum for this year. King spoke about “Areas of Critical Concern for the State of Florida: A Preview of the 2007 Legislative Session.”
King talked briefly about his past 21 years in politics before he gave his inside view of the upcoming legislative session and the problems the state is facing.
“The state has come a long way ... We are in the top five in economic growth,” he said. “I am going to share it with you as I see it.”
King began talking about the shoes that Gov. Charlie Crist must fill after former Gov. Jeb Bush spent eight years in office.
“Crist is not very well known, and early on many thought it was to (Jim) Davis’ race to win,” he said. “I think Crist is going to be an excellent governor.”
King compared Crist and Bush’s style of management.
“With Jeb, it was his way and that was it,” he said. “Crist doesn’t care how it gets done, just so that it does get done. He doesn’t give you input on how to do it.”
King said he is more accustomed to Crist’s type of leadership.
“That (type of leadership) was a major dividing point,” he said.
King went to the students to have them provide different problem areas that the state is facing.
Some of the problems King discussed included:
• children’s health care
• increasing home insurance
• manufactured homes
• property taxes
• medical malpractice
• public education
• illegal aliens
King said the legislature may hold another special session on property taxes because it’s one of Florida’s biggest problems. But, he said the largest problem is pubic education and there are different areas that need more help than others.
“We have a huge teacher shortage,” he said. “Fifty percent of teachers will leave the profession within the first five years.”
He added that the drop-out rate continues to grow.
King said he wants to try to have more schools like Jacksonville’s Douglas Anderson School for the Performing Arts. He explained that schools that have a certain focus area have a higher graduation rate because the students in those schools are doing what they like to do, in addition to getting the mandatory core education.