As lawmakers return to Tallahassee again for yet another Special Session to finalize Florida’s state budget, many Floridians are asking a very simple question; how many more sessions do we need before the people actually struggling to survive are centered in the conversation?  

The regular 60-day Legislative Session started early this year during almost one of the coldest winters Tallahassee has seen in years. Lawmakers’ primary constitutional responsibility is to pass a balanced budget, and they failed to do so. Yet lawmakers managed to prioritize a Special Session nearly 2 weeks ago to redraw congressional maps — a priority that did little to address the real and immediate needs of everyday Floridians facing an affordability crisis. Of which was  less rooted in necessity and more aligned with political malice. Now, for the third time since January, lawmakers are once again returning to Tallahassee in hopes of finalizing a state budget by May 29th.

Meanwhile, families across Florida are already living in a constant state of financial emergency. Floridians are drowning under the cost of simply existing: skyrocketing grocery prices, rising insurance premiums, unaffordable rent and housing costs, increasing gas prices, childcare costs rivaling mortgage payments, and healthcare bills families cannot keep up with.  

Mothers, seniors, working families, and everyday Floridians are making impossible choices every single day, deciding which bill can wait, what necessity has to be sacrificed, and how “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul” might keep the lights on at least for another month.  

And while lawmakers negotiate line items and political priorities behind closed doors, families across Florida continue to face a full-blown affordability crisis in some of the most essential areas of daily life.

Healthcare costs in Florida have become beyond the pale. Families are paying astronomical insurance premiums, struggling to afford copays, delaying medical care, rationing prescriptions, and carrying medical debt simply because staying healthy has become financially unattainable. Parents should not have to choose between taking their child to the doctor or paying for their electric bill or worry about the cost of gas to get to the doctor, yet that is the reality many Floridians are living every single day.  

At the same time, childcare costs continue to push working families to the brink. Quality childcare and early learning programs are completely out of reach for many households, with costs rivaling rent and mortgage payments. Families cannot meaningfully participate in the workforce, pursue educational goals, or achieve economic stability when childcare is inaccessible and unaffordable.  

And while families are begging for economic relief and stability, our lawmakers continue to prioritize political agendas and the deliberate destabilization of traditional public education. Florida families who continue to choose traditional public schools are watching their children attend severely underfunded schools while billions of taxpayer dollars are diverted into a rapidly expanding Universal Voucher Program with far less oversight and accountability.  

This Special Session must prioritize a budget that reflects the real economic hardships Floridians are facing. That includes building an accountable education funding system where one institution is not prioritized at the expense of another. Public schools should not be deliberately weakened while voucher programs continue receiving billions in taxpayer dollars with limited transparency regarding how funds are spent, where they are spent, and whether the promise that “the money follows the student” is actually true after all.  At the same time, Florida continues to face hundreds of teacher vacancies across the state, further destabilizing the public education landscape and disproportionately impacting students with disabilities who are not receiving the support and services they deserve. Florida continues to lose educators because many are being asked to work in an increasingly hostile teaching environment shaped by state leadership, including Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas and Governor Ron DeSantis, all while Florida ranks at the bottom nationally in teacher pay. Educators cannot continue being expected to navigate political attacks, overwhelming workloads, growing student needs, and constant scrutiny while also struggling to afford housing, healthcare, and basic necessities themselves. If lawmakers were serious about stabilizing an educational system rooted in “choice”, then creating a sustainable teaching environment and paying educators a true living wage must be prioritized in this budget session.

The Florida Constitution requires the state to provide a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public schools. Instead, we are witnessing the intentional defunding of public education while everyday Floridians are being asked to do more with less in every aspect of their lives.  

Floridians deserve more than endless special sessions. We deserve leadership that understands people cannot continue to survive like this.