Florida Model Legislature Senate

Senate Platform

Senate President Abdoulaye Ba and Senate Secretary Cody Patton are looking forward to the upcoming legislative session. Along with the Joint Platform between the Senate and the House, the Senate Leadership would like to focus on the priorities as listed below. We are sure this will be a great and productive session!

Education accessibility for students with disabilities:
  • Focus on providing educational opportunities to students with developmental disabilities.
  • Expand PreK-12 education options for students with unique abilities through the Personal Learning Scholarship Account Program (PLSA).
  • Created in 2014, PLSAs provide K-12 students who have a disability the option to apply for scholarship funds that can be used to pay for a wide range of education options, including specialized services and therapies, instructional materials, tuition at a private school, or tutoring.
  • Establish a process our colleges and universities can use to create a Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) for these students.
Juvenile Justice Reforms:
  • Expunge the criminal records committed as minors after a certain period of time.
  • Permit judges to have a discretion to determine whether a criminal will be charged as juveniles or adults.
  • Implement prison reform policies to address excessive use of force incidents.
  • Create new penalties for abusing inmates and establish a new commission to oversee the prison system.
Lower taxes to promote entrepreneurship:
  • Lower taxes in the business sector to encourage entrepreneurs and thereby create more jobs.
Health care:
  • Provide more health insurance options for patients.
  • Reduce costs of prescription drugs.
  • Expand ambulatory care and recovery centers.
  • Increase the scope of practice to serve the demands of our state by welcoming medical practitioners from other states.
  • Ameliorate transparency for hospital billing.
Environment:
  • Set up a fixed annual budget designated for land and water projects.
  • Provide assistance to victims of flood during hurricane seasons.
  • Prohibit hydraulic fracturing.
Encourage civic engagement:
  • Automatically register all eligible Floridians to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license or state identification card, with the option to opt out.
  • Restore voting rights for ex-felons following a certain time after completion of sentence.
  • Establish Election Day as a Holiday in the state of Florida.

While this is not an exhaustive list, the Senate looks forward to working with all Senators and Representatives. Feel free to contact your Senate Leadership with any questions.

Becoming a Senator

At Florida Model Legislature, you can become a Senator of the Upper Chamber of the Florida Legislature. Serving in this position, you will need to prepare extensively. This includes learning about the Real Florida House of Representatives and how it works with the Real Florida Senate. In addition to this, you must pay particular attention to the Difference between the Real Legislature, and the Model Legislature. Some rules will be different, and you may learn about them on our Preparation Page. 

In your preparation, you will also need to learn about Florida's system for submitting Bills, and passing them through Committee's. And you will need to learn about Florida Model Legislatures Bills and Committees System.