By GARY FINEOUT and MARY ELLEN KLAS
Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In a stinging loss for Gov. Jeb Bush's education legacy, the state Senate narrowly defeated a plan to ask voters to protect and expand his voucher program that sends public money to private schools.
The Republican-controlled Senate killed the proposed constitutional amendment by a single vote, with four Republicans -- including Majority Leader Alex Villalobos of Miami -- rejecting a hard sell from the governor that the measure was needed to reverse a recent state Supreme Court decision that ruled his 1999 voucher program unconstitutional.
Villalobos, whose wife is a schoolteacher, paid a steep price:
Senate President Tom Lee stripped him of his post as majority leader minutes after the vote, saying he no longer viewed the Miami senator as a team player.The proposal before senators would have exempted vouchers from language in the Florida Constitution that bans using public money for religious education and from language that requires a uniform system of free public schools.
more . . .
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/14480712.htmSo voting WITH the party (team) is more important than voting your conscience? Who is this Tom Lee clown? Any Floridians here today?