Last month the Florida Legislature passed a sweeping K-12 Education Bill that could be more accurately labeled “Another Shot at Public Education Bill.” Besides barely raising funding for Public Schools (about 47 cents per student), the bill also included a provision clearly aimed at busting the teacher’s union and a way to funnel yet more tax dollars to private, for profit charter schools that are not held to same standards as public schools. Joining Steve and Lew is Joanne McCall (above) President of the Florida Education Association (FEA), the largest teacher’s union in the state and the target of House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s vitriol (he called the FEA “evil”) for opposing his efforts to expand public funding for charter schools at the expense of public education. It is also an interesting fact the Corcoran’s wife serves on the boards of a couple charter school companies. Perhaps McCall can explain why that is not illegal.
Later attorney Steve Fishman will tell the story of how he got justice for a wrongly convicted man in New York who spent 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.