On this 12 months’s legislative session, the James Madison Institute (JMI) championed a number of points coping with decreasing taxes to enhance college alternative.
Their newest “2025 Legislative Wrap-Up,” focuses on some key points that didn’t get a lot media consideration.
Middle for Expertise and Innovation
Protected Digital Safety and Innovation by highlighting the issues of laws requiring AI-generated content material be labeled. This mandate would have created important technical and compliance challenges for smaller Florida companies, whereas defending bigger well-established corporations.
Defended Shopper Knowledge Privateness by educating lawmakers concerning the risks of “proper to restore” laws. Particularly, this laws would have created potential safety breaches involving medical data or banking info by means of entry to the inner parts of non-public digital gadgets with out adequate safeguards.
Preserved Constitutional Freedoms by highlighting the First Modification violations related to requiring that app shops age-verify customers. This protected all Floridians from creating new knowledge breach targets whereas supporting market-based options like age-appropriate design options and parental controls that respect customers’ privateness.
Safeguarded Essential Encryption Expertise by outlining the risks of making again doorways in “finish to finish” encrypted messaging providers. This prevented the creation of intentional vulnerabilities that could possibly be exploited by malicious hackers, just like these accountable for the “Salt Storm” assaults on American telecommunications infrastructure in December of 2024.
Superior Digital Infrastructure Growth by supporting the Utility Relocation Reimbursement Grant Program throughout the Division of Commerce. This program allocates $50 million yearly from present communications providers tax income to fund utility relocation prices beforehand handed to shoppers. This represents a paradigm shift towards utilizing the Communications Companies Tax income to truly fund communication providers fairly than diverting {dollars} to normal income. In doing so, we’re serving to to create a sustainable framework for sustaining and increasing Florida’s important communications networks.
Recognized Future Priorities for supporting Florida’s rising impartial workforce of 890,000 contractors, the best proportion within the nation. Future laws ought to embrace “transportable advantages” options permitting companies to voluntarily contribute to profit packages with out triggering worker classification, and affordable cybersecurity legal responsibility protections that may protect companies utilizing industry-standard safety practices from legal responsibility if hacked.
Marshall Middle for Schooling Freedom
Aided the Development of ‘Sports activities Selection’ in FL (and MO). We aided Senator Corey Simon’s profitable effort to develop “sports activities alternative” choices for personal college college students who want to play a sport for which their college has no crew. Simon’s measure will construct upon Florida’s much-celebrated “Tim Tebow Regulation” (which supplies homeschool college students sports activities crew alternatives). Quickly after this new Florida laws handed, the state of Missouri adopted an identical invoice. (JMI stayed in common contact with proponents in MO, sharing insights and encouragement.)
Helped Deal with Studying House Wants for New Schooling Enterprises. We helped advance a proposal to provide constitution faculties “first dibs” on claiming deserted college buildings that could possibly be used for instructional functions – and we generated a substantial amount of curiosity (through op-eds and legislative testimony) in making it doable for personal faculties and new “microschool” enterprises to utilize underutilized college constructing house as effectively.
Beat Again Efforts to Cap, Limit, and Over-Regulate Okay-12 Scholarship Packages. We helped persuade lawmakers that FL’s #1 rating in Schooling Freedom could possibly be in jeopardy if a proposed enrollment cap on scholarship packages was adopted. We additionally helped persuade them (through op-eds and digital advertisements) to take away some onerous new paperwork necessities on scholarship mother and father – and to keep away from any new restrictions on how households may use their Customized Schooling Scholarships. As well as, we led a profitable effort to “preserve the house in Residence Schooling Educational Packages” (after a proposed ban on home-based “edu-preneurs” was launched).
Aided Efforts to Undertake New Federal Schooling Insurance policies Pleasant to Dad and mom. We urged the federal authorities to allow Title I monies to “comply with the kid” in states like Florida (through weighted scholarships for these dwelling in communities needing revitalization). We additionally labored with proponents of a federal college alternative tax credit score program (which discovered its approach into President Trump’s “One Huge, Stunning Invoice”).
