Controversial bills

Six years ago, the session was almost derailed by cramming broad swaths of policy into “conforming bills” — legislation meant to tweak state law to bring it in line with the budget. Senators rebelled and the session went into overtime.

There is not, as of yet, quite as much policy being sent to the negotiating table. And Senate leaders — including Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican who has himself been a rebel — indicated no heartburn so far.

Still, there are a few big-ticket items heading to the budget conference.

The most controversial proposal (HB 5105) would create the “Schools of Hope” program, meant to encourage charter schools to set up near academically troubled traditional schools. The House budget sets aside $200 million for qualifying charter schools, making the issue eligible for the budget talks.

The Senate has yet to take up the “Schools of Hope” proposal in a substantive way, but the House approved it Thursday on a party-line vote, 77-40, after about three hours of debate.

Opponents slammed the legislation as part of a long-running trend toward giving charter-school operators greater influence.

“This is not a school of hope,” said Rep. Barbara Watson, D-Miami Gardens. “This is a Band-Aid that has a sore festering underneath it.”

But Republicans argued that Democrats were in the thrall of the state’s main teachers union, the Florida Education Association.

“They want an option,” Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover, said of parents in the areas affected by the program. “They don’t care what it is . ... They just want education for their kids.”