The Florida Roundup - Hope Florida report revealed, State pushes to change school vaccine rules, and more

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke with Jim DeFede, investigative reporter for CBS News Miami, who first broke news of the grand jury’s report into the Hope Florida Foundation (00:00). Then, we looked at the state’s plan to rollback school entry requirements for 4 vaccines (10:46) with WUSF’s Kerry Sheridan and Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FCAAP). Plus, a look at the new era of high school athletics in Florida Daniel Cornely, director of sports management programs at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) (27:16). And later, a new investigation by WUSF and the Hechinger Report into how Florida is quietly removing climate change from its science textbooks (37:14) and two stories about tax dollars, tourism, and economic growth (44:26).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. It's great to be with you on this Friday. Florida school children may be allowed to go to school without getting four vaccinations. Soon, the state health department is moving ahead with a proposal to drop mandates for a quartet of shots for kids. Parents could still decide to have their children vaccinated, but the shots for chickenpox, hepatitis B, Hib, and pneumocococcal disease would no longer be required to attend school. So where is the line between public health and medical free? here in Florida. How do you approach vaccinations? How did you approach them when you had school-age kids? 305-995-1800? Or send us a quick email, radio at the Florida roundup.org. We'll get to those calls and those emails coming up in just a few minutes. But first today, it's been now

almost two years since Florida voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational marijuana. Millions of dollars were spent in the weeks of that campaign by Republican groups against the proposal. Now, where that money came from is not a mystery. It came from a multi-million dollar settlement between a health care company and the state of Florida. But who directed the money from the state to Hope Florida, a charity founded by the governor's wife, and eventually into GOP-connected political action committees, still remains a question today. This week, a Tallahassee grand jury investigation into the Hope Florida scandal was obtained by a Miami television station reporter. That reporter, Jim DeFeedie, is with CBS4 Miami.

Jim, welcome back to the program, and thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us. What did this grand jury find ultimately? At its heart, this grand jury found that the $10 million that was sent to the Hope Florida Foundation was actually misappropriated. There had been a settlement with an insurance company, Santine, which had overbilled the state of Florida. They determined that the over billing was for $67 million. They offered in 2021 to send the state of Florida back the entire $67 million. They wanted this mistake corrected then. But for reasons unknown, Florida never responded. And three years later, in September of 2024, the state of Florida suddenly went to Centine and said, yes, we would like that $67 million. But instead of sending

$67 million back to taxpayers. We only want $57 million recovered for taxpayers and a separate $10 million then sent to the Hope Florida Foundation, which was the foundation set up to support Casey DeSantis's initiative known as Hope Florida. But the money did not stay at Hope Florida. No, and that's really where the grand jury then found that this was all part of an elaborate scheme, a sophisticated scheme is the way they described it, to fund that money. Taxpayer, money into a political campaign. So after the $10 million was sent to Hope Florida, immediately $2, $5 million grants were came in and the money went out. So the money only stayed in Hope Florida's bank account for about 25 days. From there, the money was routed through a pair of

501c3s before ultimately ending up in a bank account for a political action committee that was actually being operated by the governor's then chief of staff, James Uthmeyer. And James Uthmeyer then sent $7 million to the Republican Party of Florida. Now, ostensibly, the argument has been that this money was then used to fight the ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in Florida in 2024. But regardless, it was taxpayer money being used as part of a political campaign. and the allegation was that they were basically laundering it through these other organizations to obscure the public's view. This grand jury came out and said that it found that the funds were misappropriated,

but there was no probable cause to lead to any individual being charged with any crime. How could that be? Well, that's what's, there's a lot of criticism now. I've been reading from a lot of different people because essentially what the grand jury said was, that yes we called a bunch of witnesses we interviewed a number of people about what went on and everyone's memory was sort of hazy no one had a clear recollection of whose idea it was to send 10 million dollars to hope florida there was a little bit of finger pointing a little bit of back and forth but no one would take responsibility and here's the crazy thing because i didn't

i've covered courts for a long time you have for upwards of 40 years i'm I didn't realize that a grand jury could only bring an indictment if someone came forward and confessed and said, yes, they were responsible. But apparently, since no one was willing to confess or to point a finger and say, yes, this is the engineer. This is the person who came up with this entire scheme, as their word had it, this scheme to take taxpayer money

and use it in a political campaign. Since no one could remember exactly who did it, we guess, I guess, we just can't charge anyone, so they didn't charge anyone. In April of 2025, we on this program spoke with Florida House Republican Alex Andrade from Pensacola, and this is what he told us. This is a misuse of Medicaid dollars, a misuse of taxpayer dollars. I believe it's money laundering and wire fraud.

Andrade was very clear with us at this time, Jim, that he was convinced a crime had been committed. You believe that a crime was committed by the current Attorney General of the state of Florida? Yes. while he was chief of staff of the governor of the state of Florida. Yes. We invited Representative Andrade onto this program. He declined our invitation. So is this investigation now over?

Well, that's a really interesting question. There are several things that are going on right now. This report should have been made public back in January or February. It was filed under seal with the circuit court with the Kirk office in Leon County back in January. of this year. And then everyone in the report who's named in the report received a copy of it. Now, typically under state law, if no one objects within 15 days, the report would be made public. And by the way, let me just make clear, the report needed to be made public because the grand jurors actually also had recommendations. But individuals in the report, and according to my reporting,

from one source, Uthbeyer, the current Attorney General, the former Chief of Staff, is objecting to the release of the report and has been blocking its release for the past seven months. So that's one part. So that case, to argue that that come forward is still there. But there have been now calls to reopen the grand jury investigation. The Democratic candidate for governor, David Jolly, says that the grand jury investigation should be open. and if he's elected governor, he will order a new investigation. The gentleman running for Attorney General as a Democrat,

Jose Javier Rodriguez, the former state senator, he's saying the grand jury investigation should be reopened. Others are calling for it as well. That's really a decision of the Leon County State Attorney, or the State Attorney for that area, Jack Campbell, who's a Democrat, and so far he's refusing to come. I don't believe any Republicans have stepped forward asking for the grand jury to reopen. And the Attorney General James Uthmeyer on Thursday called this entire issue

a politically motivated witch hunt. Rick Scott put out a statement last night that actually is very critical. He says that the grand jury findings are very disturbing and he says that there needs to be some level of accountability. Now, whether that means reconstituting a grand jury, Rick Scott didn't say, but he is he made it clear he thinks someone still needs to be held accountable and responsible for what happened here. Then there was a statement posted on X from the then current, from the then state attorney general Ashley Moody, who is now the U.S. Senator disputing the characterization of the office saying it's a political season and there may be a tendency to misrepresent the facts. She doesn't really address any of the issues in the grand jury report. She just sort of basically sloths it off. Essentially what the grand jury fact is, when it came to the now U.S. Senator, then Attorney General Ashley Moody, was that her office was

negligent. That they, first off, they found that she had been regularly briefed and she was aware of the transfer of $10 million, Hope, Florida, and that she authorized her chief deputy, John Gard, to sign the agreement. And what the grand jury really criticized was that the Attorney General's office should have been protecting taxpayer money, that they should have been. have been looking out to make sure that the money was used properly and returned to taxpayers and not divert. Meantime, the current Attorney General, who was the governor's chief of staff at the time, who is one of the characters in the grand jury investigation, continues to call this a hoax.

Nobody did anything wrong here. There was not even probable cause to move forward. This is a hoax, and all it did was show that the Democrats, they can't win on policy. They can't win on the law. When he was pressed about the grand jury's findings, he's now come up with this interesting tactic of saying that anyone who asked him a question about what's in the grand jury report and how his role is central to all of this, any reporter who asks him a question about it could be criminally charged because he's now claiming that if a reporter asked him a question about the report, he's trying to solicit Uthmire to violate the law. law and discuss grand jury proceedings. This is a very novel way of avoiding any accountability. I've never heard of this before. And this is, this is just, again, let's remember, this is the top law enforcement officer in Florida, essentially threatening the press that if you ask questions

of him about the report, he could decide to criminally prosecute you for trying to solicit illegal behavior. Jim DeFidi, a reporter with CBS4 Miami. Jim, great reporting. Thanks for sharing it with us. Thank you. Anytime. Now, childhood vaccines. A year ago, the state surgeon general, Joseph Latipo, launched an effort to get rid of all mandatory vaccines for Floridians. Who am I as a government or anyone else? Or who am I is a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body. This week, the state health department released to tell you what your child should put in your body. Apologies for that interruption there. This week, the state health department released its proposal to stop requiring school children to get four vaccines. It's a proposal now. You can share

your thoughts at 305-995-1800. What were your rules around childhood vaccinations? What are they? 305-9-8100. Carrie Sheridan joins us now, reporter with our partner station WUS. in Tampa. So, Carrie, when do kids normally get these four shots that are under review by the State Health Department? Well, a lot of them are recommended in infancy and all the way up to age five. So the four that they're considering removing are against hepatitis B, vericella, which is commonly known as chicken pox, homophilus influenza type B, which is actually not a flu. It's a kind of meningitis bacterial infection and pneumococcal conjugate. What do we know about the vaccine? rates for these shots that have been in place for Florida children.

Well, generally, Florida children are getting their vaccinations at a lower rate. You know, it's interesting, Tom, I was just on a tour of Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital yesterday on a media tour. And the pediatric surgeon there told us anecdotally that one in five children who come through the doors there are not vaccinated at all. And in the Department of Health Statistics for Sarasota County, where I report, it's 79% of kids have their shot. So it is getting very low. Dr. Rana, Alyssa joins us now. Dr. Alyssa is with the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Doctor, thank you for your time. Does the Academy consider these four vaccines that are under review in Florida safe? Thank you for having me. Yes, of course. These four vaccines are safe and they're effective and they're actually. save lives. Does the Academy think that these vaccines should be mandatory for children? It's never been mandatory. You know, like vaccines, we don't mandate vaccines for anyone. It's always parents' choice. And so, but we recommended to be mandatory for school, you know,

so we require kids to be vaccinated for schools until you have, and unless you have a religious exemption. And otherwise, they, are mandated for schools, yes, and just to keep everyone safe. And Carrie, that's an important distinction here, right? It's the school requirement for these vaccinations as opposed to just out in the public going grocery shopping or daycare or, you know, music school. Right. And it's public schools and daycare is where there are a lot of vulnerable children. Some people have people at home who are immunocompromised and can't get vaccinated. So having everyone, as many as people, as many people as possible, vaccinated helps keep everyone healthy. And so Dr. Lissa, as parents have this

opportunity or are reconsidering vaccines certainly have been under the microscope by politicians and others for a good number of years here since the COVID-19 pandemic. How might they think about these vaccinations today as the Department of Health here in Florida is proposing a rule to drop the requirement for school children to get them. So it has been extremely confusing period for for parents, for for lay people, even for pediatricians. You're you're hearing conflicting messages every single day. This vaccine is good. This vaccine we need to separate it. We have so many shots, we don't have so many shots. I mean, it's just been very, very confusing. So parents, I feel so bad for them. I feel so bad for us because we are the experts in the

matter of vaccines and we feel like people who are confusing everyone. Just they don't have background. They don't have credentials and the appropriate education to speak about vaccines. So parents need to know that these vaccines are safe and they are required to go to for schools to keep your kids and the community safe. Yeah. Just like Kerry mentioned, it's just, you know, like for the more, if you're if you're going to to remove the mandate for schools, even the kids who who don't, who parents are not against vaccines. they're not going to have vaccines as many as before. Well, so Kerry mentioned a 79% vaccination rate. Is that high enough to provide a public health protection? Absolutely not.

So we, the magic number we look for is 95%. Okay. So 95% is a herd immunity. Dr. Alyssa, let's hear from Jack, who's been listening in from Ocala. Go ahead, Jack, you're on the radio now. Hi, Michael, you have ever known. personally, not that you've heard about, personally, who are harmed by a vaccine. And then ask yourself this question, how are you going to feel when your child

because they weren't vaccinated? And it's going to happen. Jack, an interesting thought experiment there, certainly from Ocala. But let me put it to Dr. Alyssa. What do we know about the incidents of these four vaccinations leading to some kind of harm or at worst, some kind of death? The side effects of these vaccines are extremely rare. And the side effects I'm talking about, there's nothing serious. Maybe allergic reaction in the injection sign.

I'm not aware of a higher incident of sight like death. I am not aware of any. We take death. We take lives and health extremely seriously. Yeah. Richard has been listening in Orlando. Richard, it's your turn. You're on the radio.

Go ahead, sir. Thank you. I'm 87 years of age. I have not taken a vaccine in over 65 years. And let me point out that the Amish people of Ohio and Pennsylvania, they take no vaccines, hence they do not get autism. So Richard, just for clarity's sake, no shingles vaccine, no COVID vaccine? Nothing. All right.

And listen to this. I want to point out we are not being told the truth about vaccines, of course, because it's a moneymaker. Let me quote Dr. Anthony Morris. Well, Richard, let me just, you know, just because someone is making a profit doesn't mean that they're not telling you the truth. But let me put this to Dr. Alyssa. Richard's point about some populations in some states, for instance, the Amish that Richard spoke about in Ohio, perhaps in Pennsylvania. Some populations do have a legitimate religious or. or faith exemption to it.

What do we know about incidents of these diseases and viruses with those populations? I would like to ask Richard, how does he know about the rate of autism in this population? I would like to say that this population, they don't seek medical attention. So I'm most likely, if their kids have autism,

they are not diagnosed. Dr. Lissa, let me just interrupt because we gotta take a quick break, but stick with this. Dr. Rana Alyssa is with the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Carrie Sheridan, stick with us as well. She's a health reporter and with our partner station WUSF in Tampa. Your calls, your emails about vaccinations in Florida at 305-995-1800.

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Next week on our program, summer is winding down, but maybe there's still a little bit of time. We finish up that beach read. We are going to have an encore of our annual summer reading special next week at this time, and we've got a couple of Florida thrillers for you. One is from Kip Lyman. She's a first-time novelist.

She says she lives in a haunted house in Fort Pierce. And Kip credits its heavenly inspiration for her book. It was divine intervention. You know, the story was written. It was already written. And it was out there floating around. And all of a sudden it said, I choose Kip Leinen. The name of the book is the purple ribbon.

It's an innocent enough name, but this novel is quite a modern thriller with some really terrible acts of violence and really inspiring acts of bravery. Now, the other thriller that will feature next week on our summer reading program is by artist Henderson. It's part autobiography and part investigation. She spent years looking into her father's life as a major marijuana smuggler based out of Florida and his death, tracing back to a federal agent who investigated her dad's death. I spoke to him. I did not have the nerve to ask him if he killed my father. I don't know why I didn't ask him, except I didn't want to hear him lie. That will be next week on our summer reading special,

a special encore presentation ahead of Labor Day and the unofficial end of summer. Today, continuing our conversation about vaccines, the Florida Department of Health has proposed doing away with four vaccine requirements for school children here in Florida. Let's hear from Dan in Jacksonville online too. Go ahead, Dan, you're on the radio. Hi, how you doing? Good. So first off, I do take vaccines, but I really believe it's the parent's decision to know what's best for their child and not the government. So with that said, if my child doesn't take a vaccine in yours does, how does that harm your child? If you say that one more time, Dan, let me make sure I get it right.

So if my child doesn't take a vaccine, your child does, how does my child hurt your child? Yeah. Well, Dr. Anna Alyssa is still with us with the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Is Dan's question, Dr. Alyssa, about kind of getting. getting up to that herd immunity, that 95% vaccination rate that you mentioned earlier? So here's to answer then. So when you have kids who is vaccinated, a child who is vaccinated and become sick with, you know, you get your vaccine, for example, at age of, like Kerry mentioned at age of by until five. Yeah.

If you have, if at age six, you become, you have leukemia. even that you were vaccinated. So my point is any kid with low immune system or immunodeficiency, the way we call it in medicine, is at risk regardless of their vaccine. So yes, you're going to harm not only the child who is vaccinated. You might hurt an old person who have kidney transplant, for example, or liver transplant. There are so many diseases or even eczema, as simple as eczema is, you can have medication that suppress your immune system and become sick, even though you were vaccinated. Right. And I think to maybe a more pedestrian way that I'm hearing your point, doctor, is that that unvaccinated child of yours doesn't just stay at school with other vaccinated children. He or she may go home and visit grandparents or great aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors, who may be susceptible to those kinds of.

viruses, those kinds of bugs. Absolutely. Or even infants. Let's hear from Tampa. Michael has been on hold on line four. Go ahead, Michael. You're on the radio now. Well, I'm 72 years old, and I have seven brothers and sisters.

Our father was a pediatrician. In my 72 years, I've had all vaccines, and I still maintain a vaccine schedule now. I don't think, first of all, I think Joseph Lodipo is a quack. but Ron DeSantis, James Uthmeyer, Robert Kennedy, and Donald Trump are not physicians that should be making no decision about whether children should get vaccinated or not. It's for the betterment of society, not just one group of people. Michael, thanks for sharing your thoughts to this conversation. Governor DeSantis has talked about vaccines in the past on that day about 11 months ago or so

when the Surgeon General of Florida, Joseph Lattapo announced his intention to do away with vaccine mandates. The governor made this comment. You know, if you look back when I was growing up what they would recommend now, they're recommending like way more stuff for this. So Dr. Lissa, the governor was born in 1978. So he would have been vaccinated in the late 70s and 80s through his childhood. Is his claim accurate that there's a lot more stuff now for infants and toddlers to be vaccinated with? Maybe, maybe one or two, but maybe, but maybe. But, This is just definitely not the way he's saying it as way more. So no, it's not.

And versus, you know, medicine is innovative. So when you have supportive research to do a good thing for the community, so that should be plus, that should not be a negative. It should not be increasing vaccines to keep us healthy. It's a very good thing. People used to die at age 30 from pneumonia. So having the pneumocococcal vaccines, regardless of when, it's just an innovative thing, and we should be very appreciative for it.

Polio is also another example of a disease that medicine has all but... Definitely. Tom, I used pneumonia for example, because people don't even take pneumonia seriously. You know, people die from pneumonia. This is how people used to die at very early age in their 30s from pneumonia. But what you're saying about Boutfolio and others are extremely, extremely serious vaccines. I want to bring back our colleague, our reporter Carrie Sheridan, with our partner station, WUSF in Tampa, who's been following this. Carrie, what's the process now for the DOH?

This week, the department announced it has a plan, a proposal to do away with the requirement for these four vaccinations for Florida school children. What's next in this process? Right. So what's next is they've issued this notice of the proposed rule. Now there's a time for public comment. And if you have an issue that you'd like to raise with the Department of Health or an opinion or somebody in your family who would be affected by this rule, you can email them at Vaccine Rule at FLHealth.gov. They're accepting public comments until September 14th. And there may be a hearing.

If people request a hearing, the Department of Health will have to hold a hearing, probably in Tallahassee, to hear. hear those comments, and then they could go ahead and issue the rule change anyway. Or they might change and adjust the rule a little bit. We just have to wait and see. We will wait and see with your reporting as well, Carrie. Thanks for sharing it with us today. Much appreciated. Thank you.

Carrie Sheridan with our partner, WUSF. And Dr. Alyssa, thank you for sharing your expertise with us as well. Thank you so much for having me. Ronald Alyssa is a medical doctor with the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Florida is on the frontier of this new era of high school sports. Sunshine State allows high schoolers to earn money through endorsements and sponsorships, changing the landscape of student athletes and their schools across the state. School choice has been in place in Florida for the better part of a decade.

It means that student athletes can switch schools searching for teams and coaches and the best facilities. And the money continues to get greater. So who wins when players can transfer high schools looking for playing time and paydays? who enforces the rules to make sure everybody's playing by the same rulebook. 305-995-1800 is our phone number 305-9-9-8-100. You're a student-athlete, former student-athlete, coach, parent. We'd love to hear from you, 305-9-5-1800. Dan Cornley is with us now,

director of sports management programs at Florida Atlantic University. Dan, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me. How would you describe today's high school sports environment as the football season is stepping off compared to just five years ago. Vastly different in terms of UC players playing for different teams that did not traditionally play for, let's say, their hometown team.

And so there were some rules in place where students could go to another county and play for a coach. And, you know, there's certain enticements with name, image, and likeness as far as, hey, if you come here, there could be a. an opportunity for for some money so it's a little bit different from from that perspective but uh yeah what has put this uh amplified it accelerated it right school choice has been the name of the game for academics and for athletics for more than a decade here so what what has really accelerated this what's driving this change well you know there there was a house bill that that came into play

70, 29. But beyond that, I think once we have sort of this trickle-down effect from college athletics with name image and likeness, it's everyone's peeking over their shoulder, hey, how do I get that opportunity? How to get that exposure to then use my name to get paid? So folks are looking for that. How lucrative is NIL name image likeness for high schoolers in Florida? It's been in play for, I think this season will be season number two or three for it now? Yeah, it's lucrative for the top 1%, the elites, right? So you have this dynamic where, you know, you have this top, these top athlete groups and certainly football, basketball, baseball will fall into this bucket.

And so you're going to see some big, big deals. But fortunately, you know, we can't see the amount that doesn't really need to be reported. But on the other side, you may have other deals where, student athletes can take opportunities of working out at a gym for free if they use their image to market the gym. So you have like this, this wide range of the elite or the, hey, you know, we can get a free, you know, gym membership. So it's not just dollars that exchange hands, perhaps services or products are changing hands. Sure, absolutely. Yeah. The Wall Street Journal has reported about thousands of high school athletic transfers this year, an increase of 25%,

more than 7,000. So how does it work? Well, they, you know, the athletes just need to make sure that they, they work with their athletic director and coach. And once they're good to go, it's a pretty simple process they, they enter. It's not like in college where they have to enter a transfer portal and these things. It's a little bit more streamlined in that regard. So that's where you're saying, you know, students just boom, here you go. And even as of last year, you know, I think we had a player that played at four different, you know, during the season, you could see transfers, which pretty outlandish in the sports world.

Sarasota Booker High School canceled its varsity football season this year. The team had gone to three straight final four playoffs over the past three seasons. The coach was let go and at least 21 players left. There was an investigation that was launched and it found that eighth graders had been allowed to practice with high schoolers and the team was sanctioned or the school was. So how unusual is canceling an entire season after a few playoff runs? And is it this transfer portal, this ability to? to take your talents with you wherever you want to go as a high schooler that's behind it.

It's very rare. And in that case, you know, I think we can suspect that that program was getting poached and those students were leaving. So they didn't have the numbers to support it. And so in turn, they probably said, hey, we need practice players. Okay, well, we have eighth graders. And so that probably got them into the issue there. And so I think that's a direct correlation of this transfer game.

And you can see that that is a negative effect for that program, you know, folks getting poached and unfortunately having to cancel a season, which is, I would say, tragic in Florida for the high school football world. Yeah. Dan Cornley is with us, Director of Sports Management Programs at Florida Atlantic University. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Rondeup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Kathy's been listening in from Sarasota. Go ahead, Kathy, you're on the radio. Thanks for calling. Yep. And I got to say, certain sports like gymnastics. and football, you get hurt bad, and you don't have a future then. And no one's coming for you. You understand?

So I do agree, after all the sacrifices that parents have to do. By the way, my daughter was a champion swimmer, and she was supposed to go to Tokyo. She was too tall for gymnastics. You know, I wanted my little gymnas. But my aunt, she was a head taller than everybody by age five. I did wrong sport. So don't force your chance into your sport, because I let her go into the sports. love and she was supposed to go to Tokyo.

She's an orthopedic. But you'd like those kids, those sports, those student athletes to be paid. Yes, because, and that you have to be exorbitant. Because I had another picture myself. I'm an author. Look up handcuffs at the sand. That's my book. And it's a flyer of a story.

Right on. There you go. All right. Well, we'll have to look for that in our reading cue, Kathleen. But thanks for sharing your story, a former gymnast, a gator gymnast from the 1970s there. Dan, who supports student athletes being paid for it. What are some of these rules around NIL? Who's enforcing them?

Who's watching? Well, the schools and the players are supposed to report it to the association. And so they'll do that, but they don't have to disclose the amount. So, you know, that's part of it. But there's also an undercurrent that goes on. And quite frankly, that's always gone on. But, you know, technically they're supposed to self-report these deals that go on. And we don't really know the amounts, just kind of the amounts that the athletes stated and reported.

So it's quite hard to actually track from a monetary value what is actually occurring at the high school level. Charles wrote us this email saying my experience with sports and public schools revolved around my desire to earn the privilege of wearing a team shirt on campus. Charles says I was under the impression that it was. would make me more desirable to the girls. Sadly, that didn't happen. Sorry to hear that, Charles. He continues on here, Dan, writing, I wonder how the opportunity to be financially rewarded

for participating in sports will affect the student's ability to achieve a comprehensive education in a society that is becoming more and more reliant on technology over athletic skills. Well, we just heard from Kathy, a gymnast in the 1970s at the University of Florida, supporting student athletes getting paid.

We've seen this at the college level. We've now seen it here in Florida for a couple of seasons. at the high school level. Where does classroom performance ultimately figure into this, if at all, Dan? Yeah, I mean, certainly athletes need to be eligible. So that's part of it. But I do think it can be a driving factor for students to, you know, just like any sport, I don't think that changes.

You know, if they're playing a sport, they want to be eligible to graduate and move on. I think to this past point, him reflecting on his playing days is that, you know, especially I use football as an example, it's such a great tool. to develop young human beings, right? And so for the most part, you know, high school coaches are getting into it to develop folks. And football is a sport specifically where everybody has a different role. And people could be from everywhere, every corner of the earth even.

And so you get to learn how to work together in one unit. And I think that's extremely valuable. And in turn, you know, you do things really well in the field. Then that trickles into the academic part as well to kind of answer your question. And how about the impact on school, community, neighborhood schools, alma maters, loyalty, even athletic boosterism, right, which is the financial support of student athletes. Yeah, so currently we're seeing at real time that's fading away.

And so some folks may want to hold on to that. Hey, you know, a group of students played together through youth and knew each other and they're playing for the same high school team. It's starting to be rarer and rare as we. go on because if let's say you're a star and you know you're not getting to playing time you want you're going to go try to find the exposure for college and then certainly to try and get maybe an iL deal with that try to get noticed by those recruiters dan cornley is the director of sports management programs at florida atlantic university dan thanks so much thank you i will share that the time i spent on a

football field in high school was thanks to the trombone and marching band so there you go probably Nobody's surprised by that listening to this program. Listen, a lot more to come here on the Florida Roundup. Stick around. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. It is great to have you along this week. Florida's high school students are reading watered down versions of some of their science textbooks, at least when it comes to climate change and humans roll in it. The Orlando Sentinel first broke this news back in 2024 when science authors reported pushback from the state of Florida on global warming facts. Now, an investigation by our partner station, WUSF and Tampa, and the Heckenger report, reveals emails between state education officials and textbook publishers.

As WUSF's Jessica Mazzaros reports, this all comes as Florida quietly updates its science standards. The first time, it's happened in nearly two decades. Florida education officials altered climate change to changes in the environment in McGraw Hills' Marine Science Book. They also removed the word polluting in front of coal-burning power plants in an environmental science text by publisher Sengage. And detailed facts were removed in both books, like how climate change is killing at least 150,000 people a year, or how students at the University of Washington help their school buy renewable electricity.

These details are found in documents that the state took more than a year to release. Ken Miller has written one of the nation's most. popular biology textbooks for nearly 30 years, but two years ago, something shifted. The Florida Department of Education was pressuring publishers to reduce or eliminate coverage of climate change as a condition for getting on the approved list. The state asked his publisher, Savas Learning Company, to strike the words caused by human activity when his text referred to climate change. Education officials also asked Miller and his co-author to provide source. on the effects of climate change, like certain plants flowering earlier than usual.

I certainly don't have any objection. Anyone looking at the writings and saying, we want to know the source for that. What's interesting about this is demands to do that did not come on any other chapter. There was unique attention being paid to climate change. So the authors began doing something they had never done before. cite their sources for facts related only to climate. Glenn Branch is with the National Center for Science Education. It's a nonprofit that tracks how climate is taught in classrooms nationwide.

He says it's unusual for the state to edit down its climate education because... These are not changes that were required to bring the textbooks in line with the state's science standards. Academic standards outline what knowledge and skills the students should master in each grade and subject. Florida's existing science standards mandate that climate change be taught in certain high school electives like Earth, marine, and environmental sciences. Even so, the state got a degrade from branch's organization because the subject isn't covered in depth or in any required classes. The only way you can do worse is to get an F, which Texas managed. Only a few months after Florida asked publishers to edit out climate change, the state also started recruiting volunteers to update. its science standards for the first time since 2008.

So we are here. It's March 20 and 36th in Tallahassee. Three teachers are sitting in a meeting room overlooking Tallahassee's capital complex. It's one of multiple meetings held in person and online to determine what millions of Florida's children will learn about science for years to come. State education officials did not respond to repeated questions on the topic, so it's unclear whether Florida's updated science standards will include climate change. Pushback to climate education in Florida isn't just happening behind closed doors.

It's happening out loud from the governor himself, Ron DeSantis. He officially removed references to climate change from state statutes back in May of 2024, which happened right before the state asked for these textbook edits and standards updates. In some ways, global warming has always been. controversial politically. Aubrey Jewett is a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. He says there are two big reasons why Republicans generally reject the idea of global warming. The Republicans have usually been more focused on the economy and economic growth.

And Republicans have also traditionally, and maybe still today, it seems, but at least traditionally, were the party of big business. When it comes to climate change, big business interests include oil, and gas companies. The money and politics has now trickled down all the way to Florida's classrooms, says one educator who asked to remain anonymous and to change his voice. Now we can't teach the kids about climate change. The central Florida middle school science teacher is afraid of retaliation from parents, his school board, and the state. But he says that hasn't stopped him from teaching his students about climate change. We're in a state that is arguably the most affected by

climate change and will continue to be. And DeSantis is just pretending like it doesn't exist. A high school English teacher from the Tampa Bay region also asked to speak anonymously. She describes a culture of caution. For her own protection, she was asked by school leadership to not speak of controversial topics in her classroom. There is this like culture of self-censorship that I've seen developing over the past few years I've been teaching where we're trying to predict what is going to be a problem. But she says it's an ambiguous list that grows daily, sometimes because of just one indignant parent. I think it's going to get less and less flexible with what you can teach and how you can teach it. I think we're moving towards having

scripted curriculums. Alicia Imam was a 17-year-old senior at Tampa Bay Technical High School when she was interviewed for this story last year. She was taking a college-level course on environmental mental science. It's pretty important to me because we're a part of the environment, all of us. Taking this advanced placement class as a senior was the first time she really got to study climate change in school. Up till then, she relied on mostly the internet, just like reading articles. After learning how the state is actively diluting climate education, she says, I don't feel good about it at all. And mom says she's witnessed the effects of climate change, like the flooding events in 2024,

which devastated people close to her. Even though I haven't been alive for that long, I'm seeing these changes happen in real time. It kind of makes me scared for what's going to happen in the future. Imam wants to be a civil engineer and says her generation needs to learn about climate change so they can find solutions for it. I'm Jessica Mazzaros in Tampa.

And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Rondup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Let's take a look at tourism and tax dollars across the state, an awfully important connection for government revenue. Let's start in Orange County, where there's a debate over how to best use the tourism tax collected from hotels and short-term rentals there. Central Florida Public Media's Sam Stockbridge looks at how it's playing out during a county commission meeting this week. Commissioners spent more than three hours discussing the 26-page recommendations, which

culled a list of 20 applicants down to a dozen. Four projects got especially high marks from the task force, including money to a clean-up Orlando's public waterways and more funding for arts and cultural grants. Another popular project would build a $60 million cultural museum in Eatonville at the historic Cungerford property, the site of Florida's first school for black children. But nearly every member of the commission had problems with how the group reached its conclusions, even as they realized that they did the best given their one-month deadline. District 2 Commissioner Mike Krabb was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this month. For my task force folks, please don't take my position as not being thankful for your work.

But I do not agree with the recommendations. Though some suggested rejecting the report, staff reminded them that the commission will still have the final say in how to spend that money. Here's what county attorney Whitney Evers said. These folks who have volunteered need to know that their work is done, and that's part of what accepting that recommendation today is doing. The county unanimously agreed to move forward with the 12 projects. recommended by the task force. County staff say commissioners will still need to decide from among them to stay within the county's budget. In Orlando, I'm Sam's dockbridge.

Down the I-4 corridor is Tampa Bay, and the Tampa Bay raise are one step closer to getting a new stadium. Tampa's City Council on Thursday approved a $2.3 billion stadium at Hillsborough College's Dale Marbury campus. It was a tight race, four to three vote on the City Council. so it narrowly approved the contract that covers stadium construction and a privately funded multi-use development that would go up around the ballpark. City Commissioner Lynn Hurtak voted against the deal. We were elected to solve problems, not create new ones, like those which will result from us having to borrow money at the worst possible time interest rate-wise from canceling planned infrastructure repairs. And that's before the specter of a property tax amendment passing. Under the current agreement, the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County's contributions to the development would be capped at $876 million.

And then the raise would be responsible for more than $1.1 billion and any cost overruns. Mary Beth Anglin is the president and CEO of the West Tampa Chamber of Commerce. She spoke in favor of the stadium. We believe this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to keep the raise. here in Tampa Bay, while creating meaningful long-term investment in our community. This project can create thousands of jobs, attract significant private investment, generate economic activity, and create new opportunities for residents and businesses throughout our region. The deal now heads to the Hillsborough County Commission for a final vote that's expected

later today on this Friday. And then finally, on the roundup this week, you know, the names of Atlantic storms are selected years and years before the storms ever formed. Well, the name of the storm that formed this week out in the Atlantic Ocean seems that even Mother Nature was a fan of a certain singer from Tennessee. Tropical Storm Dolly. That storm was born just a couple of days after Dolly Parton passed away. It may be only a coincidence, but it's no less poetic.

The way I see it, Dolly Parton once said. If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain. And that is our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami with assistance from WUSF in Tampa. The show is produced by Bridget O'Brien. Denise Royal is WLRN's senior producer of content streaming and news products. WLRN's director of live original programming is Katie Munoz.

And the vice president of radio is Peter Merritt. The program's technical director is M.J. Smith. engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Harvey Bissard, and Ernesto J. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at Aaron Leibos.com. Send us a quick note. Let us know what you're up to across the Sunshine State. The Peninsula and the Panhandled the email is the same. You can find our inbox by sending us a note at Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public radio here in the Sunshine State.

I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.