G.O.P. Lawmakers Deal a Setback to Governor Bush in Florida
By ROBIN POGREBIN
Published: May 13, 2006
MIAMI, May 12 — Seven months before Gov. Jeb Bush leaves office, his chance of leaving a legacy on his signature issue of education has been significantly impaired by state legislators from his own Republican Party.
Two of Mr. Bush's education priorities were voted down by the Legislature last week at the end of this year's session. The constitutional amendments would have reversed a State Supreme Court decision invalidating school vouchers and loosened strict limits on class size.
Six of the Senate's 26 Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the class-size initiative; four did the same against the voucher plan.
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Newspapers have made much of these setbacks for Mr. Bush. The Orlando Sentinel called them "the biggest defeats of his eight years in office." The Miami Herald said they were "some of the most stinging defeats of his political career." The St. Petersburg Times said, "Florida is entering a period of profound transition: the post-Jeb era."
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State Senator Dennis L. Jones, Republican of Seminole, was one of the Republicans who broke with his party on the issue. During the debate, he pointed out that voters have opposed vouchers in referendums in Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon and Washington State. "Quit using public money to send our kids to private schools," Mr. Jones said, as reported by The Tallahassee Democrat.
State Senator Evelyn J. Lynn, an Ormond Beach Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, also joined Democrats in voting against the plan. Ms. Lynn said vouchers did not belong in the Constitution and called the plan an attack on the public school system.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/us/13jeb.html