The Exchanges

Q And what kind of reforms have you seen? Like what are the schools doing differently in order to attract the kids?

A I think they're being more responsive to the parents and the needs of the kids. So for example, We have a, a school locally called Lyft Academy in Pinellas County, where I'm, where I'm from, which was, which is designed specifically for kids who have autism. Because the families who had sent their kids to the public school didn't feel like they were getting a tailored education to help their children. So they started this school. Well now, the school district is robustly in that space and trying to make sure that they have the services, you know, appropriate for those kids. So I think that you're seeing them really have to step up and compete because the incentives are there.

AI assessment note: “the school district is robustly in that space and trying to make sure”

Q That's really cool. And you know, and stepping back on governance in general, a lot of what you guys have done has been bipartisan. Some has been more partisan. How do you, how do you think about that with getting things done and working with the other side?

A Yeah. Look, I think where you, when you're trying to solve problems that impact everyday people, right? We're talking about healthcare. Republicans have healthcare challenges. Democrats have healthcare challenges. You know, workforce. We just did a huge bill on workforce. Same kind of thing. I think you find in Tallahassee, the vast majority of the things that we work on Receive pretty significant bipartisan support because they tackle those everyday issues. We're not bogged down in kind of the political nonsense that bogs down, you know, Washington DC and makes it so dysfunctional. So I think we're able to build coalitions because we're not, we're not trying to draw a political line. We're identifying a problem and then going about solving it in a really systematic and structural way.

AI assessment note: “we're able to build coalitions because we're not, we're not trying to draw a political line.”

Q Disney, for example, is like a huge special interest in Florida, and I, I, you might, I have the little girl, so I think of like the evil Disney, Disney witches coming at, coming at you, and coming at these people, and they're afraid of them. Like, like, the Disney will send Esmeralda to cast a spell on you. Like, what does that look like when they do attack someone?

A Um, it, it's usually, uh, it's very scary in the moment, and it ends up being a non-event. So I'll give you an example. We were talking about hospitals before. We had a huge debate about Medicaid expansion, where the Florida House had said, we're not gonna expand Medicaid. Because it doesn't help the most vulnerable in our community. That's not who it helps. We're going to focus on them. And the hospital associations came out. They spent, you know, millions and millions of dollars attacking our members. People thought, oh my gosh, you know, I'm going to go home, lose an election. Not a single person lost an election, not a single one. And I, so what we always talk about is care about the policy, do the right thing. Good, good policies, good politics.

AI assessment note: “it's very scary in the moment, and it ends up being a non-event.”

Q Even as a prosecutor, are you against incarcerating someone who's just only made their first mistake with drugs or something? Or how do you think about that?

A I would say that, um, people who say that that happens, at least in the state of Florida, I can't say for other states, is totally made up. That doesn't happen. You know, it's like you, I always say you have to work really hard, really hard to get to prison. You know, somebody who's, who's caught with a, you know, some cocaine, that person doesn't like wake up the next day and is in state prison. That doesn't happen ever. The only time it would is if they violated probation so many times that there wasn't anything left to do with them. So there's a lot of untruths And mischaracterizations in the conversation about criminal justice. I think the way you deal with that is to have this robust data transparency. We will have the most robust collection and public reporting of data transparency and criminal justice of any state.

AI assessment note: “people who say that that happens, at least in the state of Florida... is totally made up.”

Q ways to offer things. What's happening with this? There's the whole big debate I have to mention right now with Virginia and everything with critical race theory and making, making kids feel bad about their race and all this kind of stuff. Like, is this, does this change how that's taught differently in these schools? Cause schools are afraid to be too extreme to lose kids or, or what happens?

A Certainly I would think that a lot of them would be in Florida because of the strong position that I've staked out the governor and Senate president have staked out on it. And we're going to be very aggressive, um, on that front. But I do think that we have to acknowledge that we have a massive problem on our hands, you know, because we, Oftentimes don't know what books are in the library or what is being said in class. And we may never know unless our child comes home and tells us about it. So I think that's a real world problem. One of the ways we tried to combat that this past year is we passed a sweeping parents bill of rights, right? To make sure that parents have the, they understand that they have the right to get the entire curriculum.

AI assessment note: “One of the ways we tried to combat that this past year is we passed”

Q And, and, and, and what does that require courage? I mean, there's a lot of people when you're doing politics that there's special interests. There's people trying to push you to do the things the way you've always done that you kind of know are wrong, but they're really powerful. Like, like what instances are there when you have to apply courage to this?

A Yeah. You know, I've found over the years that most of it is just noise. You know, sometimes the noise and around the bubble of government doesn't really reach down to people who actually live in our community. Right. You know, something that's wildly intense. Tents, and there's lots of special interests. Yeah, you go home, and then nobody asks you about it, right? And you think, well, gosh, I thought this was going to be the issue of the day. I've always kind of said, there's a, that's why you need to spend time in your community talking to people, because you'll realize that a lot, often time, the centers of power and government are so radically disconnected from what impacts everyday people, that it's just noise.

AI assessment note: “I've found over the years that most of it is just noise.”