The Florida Roundup - ‘Schools of Hope’ expansion, week 2 of shutdown, hedge funds and newspapers

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke about a new state law expanding Florida’s Schools of Hope program first with Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Terry Conner (00:00) and later with Andrew Atterbury, education reporter for POLITICO (21:26). Then, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto joined us to talk about the ongoing government shutdown (21:26). Plus, PolitiFact’s Samantha Putterman joined us to check some recent claims around the Affordable Care Act subsidies at the center of those negotiations (33:26). And later, we spoke with the producer and director of a new documentary that examines the trend of hedge funds buying newspapers and what it means for local journalism (37:32). We also dug into our inbox to share some notes from listeners (44:22).

The Florida Roundup is sponsored by Covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813-92115 or Coveringflora.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along this week. From Adams Middle School in Hillsborough County to Wingate Oaks Center Elementary School in Broward County, A charter school operator wants to move into about 90 public schools across the state. Matter Academy has sent letters this month to several school districts, notifying the districts of the company's intent to move into the campuses of dozens of traditional public schools.

This is, in fact, a hostile takeover of community-owned property. That's Liz Barker. She sits on the Sarasota County School Board. She spoke with our partner station, WUSF. Now, three schools in Sarasota County have been targeted by Matter Academy to take over space that's not being used and open a charter school. The move is to have charter schools and traditional public schools share space. It's all part of a new state law expanding Florida's Schools of Hope program. Schools of Hope started back in 2017 in hopes of attracting more charter schools to open, especially near low-performing traditional public schools. It was expanded in 2019

and again last year. The State Board of Education approved new rules just last month, a lot allowing private charter schools to co-locate inside traditional public schools using what the rules call, quote, underused, vacant, or surplus space. Now, the rules allow for the charter schools to, quote, have the practical and effective use of all are part of an educational facility at no cost, end quote. And if the charter school asks, the traditional public school has to provide a range of services like custodians, maintenance, and food. Barker on the Sarasota School Board does not think this expansion is about providing parents with more school choice. Sarasota County has been an A-rated school district for decades since the beginning of ratings, and we are designated by the state as a highly performing school district. So this is no longer about academics. It's no longer about providing another educational option or a superior educational option.

It's simply about profit and control. We invited Matter Academy for an interview. It sent us a statement that said in part, quote, for more than 25 years, matter has been committed to expanding access to high quality, tuition-free public education. And this pathway aligns directly with our mission and with the broader parental choice movement in Florida, end quote.

So what do you think about charter schools moving into traditional public school campuses? How is school choice helping or hurting neighborhood schools, parents, teachers, grandparents, students, graduates of traditional public schools and charter schools. We would love to hear from all of you. Same phone number for everybody here on the Florida Roundup. It is 305-995-1800.

305-995-1800. Terry Connor is with us now, the superintendent of the Sarasota County Public Schools. Superintendent Connor, welcome to the program. Nice to have you. Well, thank you so much. Do you agree with your school board member, Liz Barker, when she calls this expansion of Schools for Hope,

a hostile takeover of community-owned property? Well, I absolutely agree that it is definitely a major concern for a school district like ours, who is a high-performing school district and provide so many educational options within this county. Sarasota County, I think, is a shining example of school choice. We have 15 approved charter schools. We have A-rated schools district-managed.

We have private school options. in homeschool options, everything that I think parents would want. When you look at the schools of hope and the fact that they're going to co-locate on district managed property and will be subsidized by the funding that is earmarked for district managed schools, I don't think that's an example of school choice that we would want here in Florida. Let's clarify a little bit between the existing charter schools and the school. Schools for Hope expansion here. You mentioned that Sarasota County already has 15 charter schools. Are those schools for Hope?

They are not. They are district approved. They were all approved by our school board, you know, over various years. And we feel that many of those options have provided a specific need for our community, such as dual language or college preparatory academies. So we believe that It supplements and provides variety for our families. So the existing charter schools, they've been approved by the school district, and does public, are public dollars used in those charter schools to help support those students? That is correct. So, you know, if you look at basic funding as per student, the dollars will follow the students.

So as families choose their educational options, the funding will, follow. So these charter schools that exist, the 15 in Sarasota, those are in separate building, separate facilities, separate property. Do the charter schools own that property or does the school district? So there's various ways in which a charter school would acquire facilities. They may lease from a private entity or they may build with bonds. At this point, none of our current charter schools are operating in district facilities. Okay. And so that could be the big change here under the expansion of the schools for Hope

for Brookside Middle, Booker Elementary, and Oak Park School. Those are the three schools that have been identified by Matter Academy. Did any parents ask to bring Matter Academy to Sarasota County? For my knowledge, that has never been a part of anything that our community has asked for. So we believe that we do provide a premier educational option. And I do believe that Schools of Hope may serve

any purpose in certain districts where maybe there are not high quality educational options for students, whether that be in certain zip codes or where there is a surrounding of failing schools. But, you know, when you're talking about an A school district where 95% of the schools are A's and B's, with only two Cs that are very close to being B schools, you know, I don't see that the hope operators are really going to provide anything more than what we're providing here as part of our educational portfolio. This expansion for Schools for Hope is targeted to what the law and the rules call underused, vacant, or surplus facilities of traditional public schools.

Do you think that Brookside Middle, Booker Elementary, and Oak Park School have underused vacant or surplus space? Well, when you look at the overall utilization, and they're hovering in the 50s to 60 percent range there. Now, I will say specifically Oak Park is our day school for our students with disabilities who have significant disabilities there. And the space there, while there are only 200 students in that facility, that structure has been outfitted to provide for the intense needs, therapeutic needs, medical needs for those students. So I really don't know that the Hope operator who selected that as a site.

understands this significant work that we're doing in that school related to our students with disabilities. But you mentioned about half of the schools is, half of these schools are not used, half of the space, roughly. Well, you know, if you look at it purely on students, students and the capacity, but when you talk about how you're utilizing your facilities, because facilities can be used for de-escalation rooms, diagnostic rooms, labs. So it's not necessarily a clear cut picture as it may seem on paper. So roughly 50% of enrollment, about half the capacity of these schools. Is that more

accurate? Yes. Okay. So when we asked Matter Academy for an interview, part of their statement that they sent to us, said, quote, our goal through this process is to increase access for families and bring students back into the classroom. Why do you think students, the capacity is roughly half capacity at Brookside Middle and Booker Elementary? Well, I got to tell you, we've done a great job in the state of Florida for expanding school choice options. And most recently, with the Florida Empowerment Scholarship,

that is a new option that parents are beginning to learn more about and taking advantage of, whether it's through using that scholarship to go to private school or maybe homeschool options. And so you're just seeing really the proliferation of options. And so that is obviously parents are going to take advantage of that, which I think is a great thing, right? We want parents to feel that they're picking the best option for their students. But for these particular schools, is that the reason you see the drop in enrollment down to only 50% capacity

is because parents and students are using those school vouchers to move elsewhere? I see that as well as just charter options in general, right? Okay. Yeah. So do you think, I mean, would you agree that what Matter Academy says is that it plans, its plans would be to increase and bring students back into the classroom? Would, would schools for hope in these schools essentially improve total enrollment in the facility? I don't believe it would.

I believe that it, basically. Basically, you'd be Rob and Peter to pay Paul, in my opinion. I think that what they would do essentially is maybe try to recruit students that are at those schools to come into that part of the school. Not necessarily because what we're providing, these are B schools and they're well, very close to being A schools. So we're providing a really good option for our parents that do choose us. And I don't see that a hope school would be able to attract other students from around

south around the county to come to those schools. Terry Connor is with us. He's the superintendent at Sarasota County Public Schools. Three schools, three traditional public schools, have been notified, essentially, of the interest by Matter Academy, a charter school operator, to co-locate on those campuses. Let's talk about money here, superintendent. That's what it gets down to because this law also requires the district to spend on services like custodians, maintenance, food at these schools, if the charter school operates.

request it. How much public money would be spent on supporting a private charter school co-locating in a Sarasota County Public School, do you think? Well, it would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on an annual basis. When you talk about the maintenance and operations and the transportation cost, the food nutrition services that you're providing on a student, you know, again, going back to funding, looking at a at a pure pupil level, you know, it costs to educate a child, right? And so if if we open a, up a school co-located on the same campus. And those students, essentially the funding needed to educate those students is not needing to use those dollars for transportation services.

But actually, we're going to use the dollars from the traditional side, the district-manded side. You're really subsidizing the education of the whole operator, which I think is a very unfair advantage. We had an email question from Susan who asks, if a charter school moves in, would that prevent the district from being able to sell the property? That's a good question. We would have to take a look at that from a legal aspect. Yeah. Are you satisfied with the teacher qualifications,

curriculum, and oversight that Matter Academy would provide if it were able to co-locate into these three schools? Well, I obviously would have a lot of questions in terms of oversight, right? You know, unfortunately for us, you know, we don't have complete oversight of charter schools as a district man. The superintendent of the school district, we essentially approve the charter, but the school operation day-to-day curriculum choices are all approved by the governing board of the charter school. So we wouldn't have the ability to have much say in that. Superintendent, we've got a resident of Sarasota County here who's been listening on line one.

Let's go to Bree on line one in Sarasota. Bree, thank you for calling you are on the radio. Thank you for having me. I want to applaud both a school board member, Liz Barker, and superintendent, Terry O'Connor. I live in Sarasda County. I have two schools that attend our public schools. We have a fantastic public school system. We also have 15 charter schools.

There is no need for new and more charter schools. There are so many options for excellent education here that there's no reason to add more. I feel like this has become a very political. and monetize opportunity for businesses to tap into when it's not needed. And I have to say that with the parent's choice in the state of Florida, I feel like there may be some people behind this that have lobbied for a matter to come to Sarasda County. I'm not going to say who, but I feel like that there's definitely a push for that. And I know Superintendent Connor said that he wasn't aware of any, but I feel that there are a few.

I'm going to put a little bit of a spin on that statement with a question, Bree, to the superintendent. I'll ask the question like this, sir. Why do you think Schools of Hope and the overall program has looked at these underutilized schools in Sarasota and Matter Academy has expressed this interest, this very early interest? Well, I can only speculate on that. I would say when you look at a school district like Sarasota, it is very attractive. I can see why any charter would want to set up in our county, because we are supported through this community for several years through an additional one-mill referendum. One-mill is a property tax term there, right? Go ahead, sir.

Correct. Yes, sir. Yeah, so we get additional funding, and that is through the approval of the community who has really been supportive of the educational community here. And so I can see that being an attractor as well. And the fact that we have great families, we have great community support, we've got a great school district. It makes sense why. any charter school would want to set up here in Sarasota County. Mr. Superintendent, I'll tell you for my public school kid, it is the end of the first quarter today. So we are celebrating the end of the first quarter of the junior year in high school.

We've made it this far here. Sir, I appreciate your time. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Thank you so much. Superintendent Terry Connor leads the public schools in Sarasota County. Liz has been listening and very patient on line for. Go ahead, Liz. You're on the radio.

Thank you. I just want to say I was a Broward County public school teacher for 35 years, and I think charter schools are going to create the demise of a free public education to all students, because the more money that goes to charter schools, the money that goes to public education, and charter schools are not held to the same standards as public schools. they can hire whoever they want to, even uncertified teachers. They are not accountable to the district. They don't have any testing standards, and it is quite unfair to all public schools. Liz, thank you for adding your voice and for being such a long-time teacher in Broward County. Lori is listening in from St. Marks on line two. Lori, go ahead. You're on the radio. It's your turn.

Hi, good morning. Thank you. I am curious if Florida would consider it some. point a public charter school system, or do they already have it? We have it in Georgia and my grandchildren went through it. And I was just curious about that question. They have what they call career and college charter schools. Well, there are public charter schools in Florida, and the superintendent in Sarasota County talked about the 15 existing charter schools that have been approved by the school board there in Sarasota County. So there is that kind of hybrid. Lorry, I want to come back to you, though, as a grandmother of charter school students, give us your impression.

Well, I have one child that is on the higher spectrum of autism and very much interested in mathematics, science, and engineering, but terrible at language and social experiences, of course. It allowed him to enter a pre-engineering program, and he did all the high mass. He did all that. The writing was something that he got help with, but that was at the public charter school. and he will be entering Georgia Tech. He's got SACs that are great. Wow, terrific. You must be very proud of him.

That's wonderful. But had he been a regular high school kid and there wasn't flexibility with admissions, I think that would have been a difficult situation for him. Yeah, Lori, thanks for adding your voice to the conversation for St. Marks. Much appreciated. Renee sent us this email. Schools of Hope is yet another step toward privatization of the school system

to, for the most part, benefit interest groups on the community's dime and at the expense of the most vulnerable. Let's see, Renee continues, privatization is not happening in a vacuum. Many districts are dealing with community backlash from years of bad leadership and mismanagement, which has engendered a generally bad view of these districts. Francine sent us a note as well, writing to us saying, my kids are out of public school now. Well, congratulations, Francine, on that milestone. She continues, it is long known how charter schools have been taking over as politicians

help them do it. That enables them to teach kids only what these people want the next generation to know. Francine continues, rent free on our tax money is wrong. Why don't we turn empty schools into opportunities for learning trades and have mental health services available within communities? We are going to continue with this topic and hear from as many as we can on the phone line. Stick with us here, Andrew Atterbury, who covers education policy. Statewide in Florida from Politico will also join us and help put this movement into perspective. You can always send us an email. The inbox is always open. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. After Schools of Hope, we'll get into the

government shutdown as week three looms. That's all next. Covering Florida Navigator Program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813-9115 or coveringflora.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Next week on our program, the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Danny Perez. He's outlined a series of proposals that would reduce or eliminate local property taxes that are not used by school districts.

Ultimately, any decision will be up to voters. So how do property taxes affect your budget? What changes to property taxes do you support? Email us, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org, and we'll put as many questions as we can to the speaker of the Florida House. That's next week. Now, continuing to talk about schools of hope in Florida. Charter school expansion is continuing in the Sunshine State, and Eddie has been listening and patient in St. Pete. Go ahead, Eddie. It's your turn on the radio.

All right. I'll make it quick. So I believe the goal of the Republican Party, I just believe this is that they want to get rid of public education eventually, make it as hard as they can as difficult on teachers in the public school system. So at my house, my wife is a teacher for 32 years, and my son started teaching math at a private school. He doesn't even have a two-year degree. He's close, and my wife's been doing this for 32 years. She has to go to all this ridiculous training,

and they get home and they talk about each other's schools and what they do and all the stuff she has to go through, and he doesn't need to do any of the things that she does. And the final thing is also, shoot I lost my mind because I'm trying to hurry up but it is it is just I sit there and listen to it what she goes through

and what he doesn't have to go through and he teaches math now he's a smart kid but that's besides the point yeah yeah what a front row seat that you have on this Eddie wow fascinating when you're able to collect your thoughts send us that email radio

at the Florida roundup.org Eddie really fascinating to hear that conversation between your veteran teacher wife and your new private school teacher as a son. Interesting. Andrew Atterbury covers education policy for Politico here in Florida and he's back with us. Andrew, welcome back to the program. Nice to have you. Hey, thanks for having me. It's so good to hear people interested in education and what's unfolding right now. Oh, yeah. So talk about this expansion of the Schools for Hope program and how it's being executed. What does the timeline look like for this? Sure. It's pretty

fascinating. I don't want to go too far. I don't want to backtrack too far, but it's very fascinating to me how This was spawned in legislation that actually died during the last session, but it was brought back during a special session and kind of tacked on to the education budget as like a supplemental policy, which shows just how badly people wanted this to pass and support to get through. It really seems like the timeline for this, while there's so much going on now, schools are saying that not until the end of this month can they really start considering these applications and probably not until November will they really start weighing in on them. So I think there's going to be a lot of action and local school boards towards the end of this month and early. next month. What options do the local school boards have, Andrew, for those who are resistant to this schools for hope expansion? Yeah, that's another very, very fascinating piece of this puzzle. It really seems like under the rule that the DOE passed just last month, that the options are limited. They wrote, there's only one real avenue for schools to challenge this. And it's

what the state is calling a, I'm trying to find it. It's a very specific. thing, but there's only one rural avenue. And schools are allowed to, like, suggest a different space for these charter schools to open. But otherwise, it seems like they're going to be able to challenge it. It's called a material impractability is what the state is calling it. That's the only way that they're really allowed to raise objections. What that could be defined as, I'm not really sure. So this is going to be a whole new can of worms for the state and schools to kind of deal with over the next few months with these schools pressing them. Why such, I mean, what seems like, gosh, I mean, a lot of legwork had been done by this Matter Academy to send out,

by my count, it was 89 letters. You know, I've seen some reports. It was more than 100 letters to schools in their intent to notify them to co-locate. You're right. And that's a huge part of this. And that's a lot of different schools that can pop up all over the state in areas, as you heard earlier with the superintendent, that haven't really seen charters in some of these,

especially in some of these school, inside of the school with the co-location, what makes that interesting to me is that, you know, that wasn't a company that or an organization I had really been thinking of as much because one, one organization in particular, Success Academy based in New York, they had a major hand in writing the legislation in this. And the day after the rule was approved by the Department of Education, you know, the Governor DeSantis and Success Academy had a press conference announcing how the New York based organization was going to come open schools in Miami. And that was a really really big deal. It has a great reputation in New York and them coming to Florida

and opening schools. You know, that seemed as a big win in Florida where school choice is such a big deal for them. And then so that, and that was, you know, one day after the rule was passed, we have Success Academy saying, putting up their flag saying, hey, we're coming to Florida. And then to see this wave, if you're saying, as you've seen of another charter school planting their flag, it's, it shows you the potential of how many hope schools there could be. There's only about a dozen right now. So, you know, we could be talking about a major expansion, but really not until 2027 or any of these schools expected to open. So there's quite a big runway here. Odds are we will be speaking before that, Andrew. All right?

I hope so. Okay, we'll do. Andrew Atterbury covering statewide education policy here in Florida for political. Thanks for having. Politico. Well, now the government shut down. It is nearing its third week with no indication Republicans and Democrats are inching much closer to a compromise. Darren Soto is the Democrat representing Florida's ninth congressional district, which stretches south of Orlando. Representative Soto, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me. Republicans say they will negotiate extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies after Democrats agree to reopen the government. Do you believe that pledge? You know, we can't trust them as far as we could throw them. They had a bipartisan budget that we passed and then passed a rescission package to take out Democratic

priorities. So this is about health care and it's about accountability for the budget. You can't negotiate a budget and then have a partisan bill afterwards that could take out all the Democratic priorities. That's not a way to run a house. It's holy and bad faith. But the bigger story is Florida has the most Obamacare by far of any state in the union, 4.6 million Floridians. And on November 1st, we will get absolutely clobbered if this premium tax credit isn't extended with average increases of 75% for these plans. So what we're talking about there is the enhanced subsidy that was added during the COVID pandemic for folks buying their insurance through the marketplace, through the Affordable Care Act, the so-called Obamacare. What kind of extension on those enhanced subsidies would you accept to reopen the government? Look, we would prefer a 10-year extension, but I certainly would be open-minded to times that are, and time periods that are less than that because, look, I have the second most enrollment of any district in the nation.

All top 10 Obamacare districts are in the state of Florida. They are Democratic and Republican districts. We Puerto Ricans love Obamacare, so do the Cubans in South Florida. One of the reasons why it's so popular is because we have a lot of people who work for. for small businesses or our independent contractors. And they don't have access to employer-based health care. So we need to come together. And if I could get a, if it's something shorter than the 10 years that we're asking for,

we're open minded to that because we want to reopen the government. We want to get this done. And we need some reassurances on the budget that it's not going to be totally undermined again. We're speaking with Darren Soto, Democratic representative for the ninth congressional district near Orlando. Representative Soto last week on this program, we spoke with, a Republican colleague of yours, a member of the Florida delegation, just over to your east, Representative Randy Fine. And this is what he told us. What the Democrats want us to declare is that we are still in the midst of a COVID pandemic, and emergency extra subsidies that were

created because we were in COVID should continue. And I think we should have a debate over whether we're still in the midst of a COVID pandemic. And then people can vote however they'd like. If it was affordable care, we wouldn't need to be debating continuing emerging, emergency COVID-era subsidies. So Representative Soto, if the COVID pandemic is over, why are these extra subsidies still needed? Because it's making health care affordable in Florida. Randy and other folks have about 100,000 people that will see their health insurance double or triple if we don't do anything.

It started during COVID, but it is now being used by Floridians across the state. And so this is an issue about costs, the biggest. issue Floridians care about right now. And just to give you an idea, a family with a median household income in my district of 82,000, we'll see a $3,500 increase. But if you're older, if you're pre-Medicare, 55 to 64, it'll be $10,000 to $15,000 in increases you'll see on November 1st. With a worsening economy and massive deportations hurting the economy of our state, This is going to be yet another blow that Florida families are going to have to experience, and it's totally avoidable. The president just approved $40 billion to bail out Argentina, but he refuses to approve any money.

It would be $30 billion to extend the tax credits for a year. So, you know, this is a matter of priorities. Would you be willing to, would you be willing, Representative Soto, to accept a one-year extension of the enhanced subsidies compared to the 10 years that is currently on the table by Democrats? If that's all we had, then, yeah, at the end of the day, I'd have to because I have 271,000 people who desperately need health care. That's not ideal because then we'll be fighting this again next year. But certainly any extension would be something we'd have to seriously consider. Let me ask you about government workers and pay during this shutdown. The White House has been moving funds around in different accounts to pay active duty military during the shutdown.

Do you support that? I support Congress authorizing the military to be paid during the shutdown. I voted for those measures before. And House Democrats are supportive of it. Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats have been generally supportive of it, but the speakers shot it down a few times. It is murky for a president to just move around funds because the budget's a law. And it has no authorization. So what if someone challenged it?

I don't think anybody will. but these are the it needs to be done right and we've seen it in other times president trump let a 35 day shutdown in 2018 when i was in congress and we passed legislation that i voted for to pay the troops and i do think there are enough democrats and republics in the house who would vote for it if the speaker put it on the floor that 2018 shut down the most recent one uh i think oftentimes the credit for really bringing uh you and your colleagues back together for some kind of compromise was a lot of flight delays that were caused by TSA agents, Transportation Security Administration agents, who were not being paid, calling in sick. And so security lines slowed

down, air traffic had to slow down. Your district includes the busiest airport in Florida, Representative Orlando. Here we are on the cusp of the holiday season. Friday, today would have been payday for TSA agents. How are you prepared? if agents or air traffic controllers or others begin to call in sick as some did during that last government shutdown. You know, I met directly already with our TSA agents and air traffic controllers. They're continuing to do their jobs. They got a partial payday this past week because it was from time before the pandemic. Look, we need to get together to get this done. I'm the one who's reaching out to them. They're not even hearing from the Republicans. And they're frustrated about

get them their teeth kicked in every day by the president who's threatening mass layoffs, disrecognizing and decertifying their unions. So a lot of them have mixed feelings because all their rights are being trampled on right now, which again goes back to that other issue of accountability, whether it's the budget or whether it's workers' rights. We see a president who is unchecked right now by my colleagues across the aisle. And so a lot of federal workers, they have told me they want me to use my best judgment and and work to make sure we could get them the rights that they already have on law that are being ignored right now too so it's not as simple as just that and of course you know we i just through the infrastructure law we just got a new expansion of terminal c work that i did personally we're working on a new tracon from the orlando international airport two projects i led a bipartisan coalition in central florida to deal with obviously we care deeply about all this stuff and And I'm the one leading on all this. So it weighs heavily on all of us.

So does the 271,000 constituents that are about to see their health care double or triple on November 1st if we don't get a deal. It is one out of every three constituents in your district that uses the Affordable Care Act for their health insurance. Darren Soto, representative from the ninth congressional district. Representative, thank you for your time today. Much appreciated. Thanks for having me. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Rondo from your Florida Public Radio Station.

Samantha Putterman is our reporter with our partner, Politifact. She's been listening into our conversation with the representative. Sam, welcome back to the program. Nice to have you again. Hi, thanks for having me. Lots of claims going around about what Democrats and Republicans want as the shutdown drags on. You just heard Representative Soto repeat something he wrote on X earlier this week when he said that Florida will be hardest hit by Obamacare cuts in the nation on November 1st. Will Florida be hardest hit if these enhanced subsidies expire? Yeah.

So Soto is mostly on target here. Florida, as he had said, currently has around 4.6, 4.7 million people enrolled in ACA plans. It's the largest number of any state. And, you know, one Washington Post analysis found that 24% of Florida's ACA enrollees under 65 use these enhanced premium credits compared with about only 8% of enrollees nationally. And, you know, multiple analyses have found that Florida, to be one of, if not the state most affected by the expiring credits, whether the reports looked at the share of people who will experience rising premiums or the share of residents who may become uninsured if they expire. You heard Representative Soto referred to November 1st. He also mentions that date in the post

on X. That refers, Sam, doesn't it, to the beginning of open enrollment for next year? Yes, yes. So the beginning of open enrollment starts November 1st for all of 2026 coverage, and that's when, you know, many people will be receiving letters about how their plans will be costing and all of that stuff. And we'll see some of these premium increases start to kind of be factored in. And we've seen, you know, the representative talked about a 75% increase. Some have said 110% increase. Parse this just a little bit here, Sam, because I think it's important because there's there's the premium that the insurance company charges. Then there's the regular Obamacare subsidy. And then there's the enhanced subsidy on top of that. It's that enhanced subsidy that is

the center of this debate right now. Right. So what what's the politic fact on how much much premiums may go up in terms of the actual charge to the person getting the health care insurance. Right, right. When we spoke with experts about this, they found, you know, it was pretty complicated. It very much depended on income dependence, where they live, things like that. But it does show that overall, right, without congressional action, researchers estimate ACA premiums around the U.S. will rise by, you know, that 114% on average for enrollees who use these specific enhanced credits, leading to about 3.8 million people becoming uninsured.

In Florida, because there's such a larger share of the population using these enhanced credits, it's estimated that Florida really will be hit pretty hard in terms of how much that would increase on people. Earlier this month on X, Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott made a bit of a different claim when it comes to the health care debate here. That's the kind of keystone that's missing between compromise for the government shutdown. Senator Scott wrote, quote, that wrote that the Democrats are shutting down the government, quote, because they want to waste another trillion of your dollars on liberal policies like health care for illegal aliens and funding for free abortions. So what about this claim about Democrats wanting funding for free abortions? Yes, we rated this false. Because some state ACA plans cover abortion, not all do, anti-abortion advocates say the enhanced credits that Democrats want to extend indirectly fund abortion. But the ACA, already bars federal funds from being used for abortions, except in cases for rape, incest, or to save the life of the pregnant women.

The law requires non-federal funds to be separated and used exclusively to pay for... Sorry for the interruption. We're up on the clock here. Sam Putterman with PolitiFact. You can read her reporting at Politifact, Florida. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813-92115 or covering Florida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along this week. How much do you know about who owns the source of where you get some of your local news?

Well, if it's this public radio station, you know the station is supported by your donations. In the case of your area's newspaper, who's driving the business decisions has changed a lot over the past two decades, driven by a rapidly. changing media industry, audience tastes, and the motivation of some owners. Three companies own most of the larger local newspapers here in Florida. While there are plenty of companies that run smaller papers and plenty of local news websites, the major newspapers are concentrated with just a handful of owners who are based out of state. Two of those owners are hedge funds, investors who traditionally buy and sell all kinds of assets looking for profits, usually in a pretty short period of time, maybe just a few years.

The documentary film, Stripped for Parts, American Journalism on the Brink, examines the trend of hedge funds buying newspapers over the past two decades and the broken business of local journalism. The film airs on a few Florida PBS stations Monday night. Rick Goldsmith is the producer and director of the film. Rick, thanks so much for joining us. What do you think attracted these alternative investors, these hedge funds, these private equity investors,

to the newspaper industry way back when? Basically, their M.O. was distressed asset investing. Newspapers fit into that very well. So they get it for a song. That's number one. Number two is they look for the bigger assets, which in the case of newspapers, are generally the downtown buildings, the newsrooms. They sell the building.

They've made back a good part of their investment. And number three is they cut expenses. And what are the main expenses that they cut is they downsize the stand. And it makes a huge difference for them so they can make money, but it makes a huge difference for the community because they no longer have that beefy news organization that can do its job and tell the people what's going on in their community. They must be making money. Otherwise, they wouldn't hold on to the assets at this point, right? Rick, I mean, journalism still has, I guess, a business model of some case, doesn't it? Well, I would say it doesn't really have a business model. The business model for a hedge fund owned newspapers still exist. But if you peel away the layers, what you find is they don't have a big enough staff to cover the neighborhood. The hedge fund owners have found a way to buy up these

properties and saddle the newspaper entity with debt. So the hedge fund itself is making money. while the newspaper part of it is stretched by more debt than they had before they were taken over. So there really isn't a sustaining business model that works. One of the characters in your film is a guy by the name of Larry Rickman, who's a longtime newspaper editor. He was with the Denver Post and then left and was part of one of those digital startups called the Colorado Sun. And he says, we cannot keep doing things the way we've been doing them with corporate ownership of newspapers. We've got to find a new model. What's the purpose of a newspaper today in 2025, Rick?

Well, the purpose of a newspaper should be, the purpose of any news organization should be to serve the public. Historically, newspapers were the one entity that has kind of united communities. There was a business behind that mission back in the 18th and 19th and 20th century. But is there still a business behind that mission of informing and tying a community together? From about the 1830s on forward, it worked because the money, the revenue, the chief revenue that came in, came in through advertising. So the business model was predicated on selling ads, whether it be classified ads or the car dealership or the car dealership or the department store ads. I had an early journalism professor. Cynick or not said the actual business was selling the audience to the advertisers. Exactly right. Exactly right. But it worked

well enough so people didn't really question the contradictions. Well, how do you serve the advertisers and serve the public at the same time? There's sometimes a conflict. And so who got shortchanged? well, poor communities, communities of color, labor, you know, there wasn't money to be made through the ads, so they didn't really have to serve those communities well. But it worked well enough to get a newspaper on every doorstep in every community. Beginning about 20 years ago, it ceased to work because of a lot of things that people know, the Internet, the younger generation, the reading habits changed, and so forth. And those ad dollars, really went away and went to the big tech companies instead like Facebook and Google.

Penelope Abernathy, a former Wall Street Journal in New York Times journalist who has studied the hedge fund activity in papers, and she told you this. It was not just about the business of newspapers. It was about what was at stake for our democracy if hedge funds and private equity groups managed to enforce their vision for the future of newspapers on everyone. Rick, what do you think that vision is of newspapers that hedge fund owners and private equity owners may have? The vision is it's a vehicle for them to make a lot of money.

And that's the main difference between the media moguls of yesterday and the media locals of today. Yesterday, they had two goals. And one was to run a business, to make some money. And a lot of them got very wealthy. But number two was serving the community. I think most newspaper moguls, even in the past, in some way, shape, or form did serve the community.

The hedge funds of today have only one goal, and that's to make money. Rick Goldsmith has been our guest. Rick, thanks so much for sharing your film and the conversation with us. Thanks a lot, Tom. That's Rick Goldsmith, the producer and director of Stripped for Parts, American Journalism on the Brink. It will be on the public TV stations Monday at 8 p.m. in Jacksonville. Fort Myers and Tampa. It's also streaming for free on the PBS Passport app. I'm Tom Hudson,

and you're listening to the Florida Rundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Let's click open our email inbox. It has been piling up with notes from you. Last week on this program, we talked about book bans in public school libraries across the state. Nina in Pensacola emailed, my grandson is in the Escambia County School District, and I find it disconcerting that a district that has low test scores, especially in language arts, is spending so much time and money on removing books from schools. Nina continues, the amount of money spent on just lawyers is ridiculous. And we are now told the district is in the hole and will be raising the school tax.

Well, reporting from our colleague Douglas Sol, Nina, as you heard, found that Ascambia County Public Schools has spent $900,000 on two lawsuits defending its decisions to remove books from school libraries. Christina emailed We are justifying extremes and making them a rule Schools must be the source of all kinds of information especially for the short time we have to provide children with as much education as possible.

Parents' rights end where other parents' rights begin. Your right to ban a book from being offered at my school limits other people's rights to have their children read the books they believe they should. Ian wrote, if we're only considering what is in the work and not the overall body of work or its message, Surely anything that has rape, incest, murder, and genocide should be removed. So, Ian asks, why is the Bible still allowed?

Philip and Jacksonville wrote, Moms for Liberty does not support liberty, but rather seeks to impose their puritanical will on all of society. Parents have always had the opportunity to restrict what books their children can access. Let us know your thoughts. Maybe let us know what you're reading by sending us an email, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Finally, this week, this was the week.

This was the week. Fall is finally falling in Florida. And while our leaves aren't really changing that much, our temperature and humidity are starting to drop. Temperatures in the 60s along the Treasure Coast, Okeechobey County and inland Palm Beach County and low 70s along the Palm Beach County tomorrow. For your forecast, it's going to be beautiful.

Feeling like fall here in central Florida, can't think of anything better than that as we near Halloween. There was a whisper of fall in the, the air across the state this week, wasn't there? It was just enough for us to notice. Evening temperatures dipping just a little more, daytime humidity, dropping just a little bit more. Wednesday brought the end of the wet season for the peninsula, or as the National Weather Service calls it, the Florida thunderstorm season. Now that season's over, and while it was kind of wet in South Florida during that season, it was actually very dry in the panhandle. Now that other season,

the one that shall not be named? Well, it has been very quiet for us. While that season isn't over just yet, this touch of fall this week is a reminder of why we live here. Picture perfect. Feeling like fall in the morning and then slowly starting to warm up. Weather looking fantastic again as we head into the evening. And then going into the weekend looks great.

The weather's going to be fabulous out there. Beautiful weekend coming up Friday and Saturday look great. All right, so we're seeing some nice, comfortable weather. Temperatures have been in the 5th. 50s and 60s when you wake up. The TV weather folks have been using their superlatives in their forecasts, haven't they? And we're rummaging through our closets again, taking inventory just in case there's that hint of a chill in the air. Maybe not quite sweater weather, but hey, we'll take it.

Sweater weather is here, especially in the morning. You may need that extra layer to start off. Ah, forget about sweater weather. One of our colleagues this week called at the beginning of soup season. I like that soup season. It's also the season neighbors are back out on their porches. Maybe there's a crunch of leaves underfoot if you live far enough north in Florida. Otherwise, just pick up that palm frond and your raking is over.

After all, didn't some of us move here to give up raking and shoveling? That is the Florida Roundup for today. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Denise Royal. WLRN's vice president of radio is Peter Merritt. Our program's technical director is M.J. Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J, and Jackson Harp. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Libos at Aaron Leibos.com. What does soup season or this touch of fall mean for you?

Let us know by emailing radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Thanks for emailing, calling listening, and above all supporting public radio in your slice of Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by Covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813 or covering florida.org.