This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota.

Right now in WEDU.

We'll look at some of the proposed federal budget cuts and how they will affect Florida.

A big rally in Tampa to show opposition to what's happening in Washington.

How are Florida educators adapting to the state's black history teaching standards, and the passing of a major leader in the state legislature?

All this and more next on Florida This Week.

Welcome back.

Alarms are being raised by Democrats in Congress over plans to cut Medicaid.

They are considering billions of dollars in cuts to the program threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million low income U.S. adults and children now enrolled in the safety net program.

The majority party in Congress is looking to slash federal spending in order to pay for mass deportations, the border wall, the military, and to extend large tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.

Medicaid is one of the larger targets for cutting this year.

The program costs taxpayers $880 billion.

This week, in an interview on Fox News, President Trump said he would not cut Medicaid.

>> Social Security won't be touched other than it won't be fraud or something.

We're going to find it's going to be strengthened, but it won't be touched.

Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.

Nothing.

I want you to have to.

Our first guest is Alison Yager, the executive director of the Florida Health Justice Project.

She works to expand health care for marginalized Floridians and to promote health equity.

And Alison, welcome to Florida This Week.

Great to see you.

Thanks so much for having me.

The president said right there that Medicaid would not be touched.

Is that your understanding of what's going on in Washington?

Well, at the moment, the proposed budget cuts do include major cuts to Medicaid.

We are afraid that there could be as much as $880 billion taken away from the Medicaid program, which would be absolutely devastating to seniors in nursing homes, low income children and parents and people with disabilities across the state.

Let's talk about seniors in nursing homes.

A lot of people at the end of their lives run out of money while they're in a nursing home, and they transfer over to get their nursing home care paid for by Medicaid.

That's the way I understand it.

Is that what happens?

Yeah, that's absolutely right.

In fact, Medicaid covers the care of more than half of Floridians that reside in nursing homes.

You know, really the the program is essential for seniors in Hillsborough County.

Uh, 1 in 5 seniors are covered by Medicaid.

Um, and across the state, more than 700,000 seniors are receiving essential coverage through the Medicaid program.

So really, this is a lifeline for our our aging population in Florida.

Does it mean that some people who are now in nursing homes, if these cuts go through, they may not be able to afford the nursing home they're in?

Well, the challenge that we're facing right now is we really don't know the specifics of how these cuts would play out the way, the the way the system functions right now is that Medicaid is a program where the costs are split between the state and the federal government.

But if these cuts go through, the federal government is going to cap its share of payments, really leaving the state holding the bag for additional costs.

And what that's going to mean is the state is going to have to make impossible choices about where to cut funds.

So it could mean that people who are today eligible for Medicaid, long term care, once the cuts go through, will no longer be eligible.

Or it could mean that there's a long waiting list to receive services.

It could mean that care is cut off for some people if eligibility changes.

It could also mean that reimbursement rates to providers change, and some some facilities that accept Medicaid now might decide that reimbursement rates are too low and no longer participate in the program.

So.

So the specifics of how this plays out are still to be determined.

But what we do know is it could have a crippling effect.

It would have a crippling effect on our health care system.

And these cuts would also affect people who are low income families and children who are now on Medicaid.

How many families in Florida have to rely on Medicaid for their health care insurance?

Yeah, well, what we know is that there are over 2 million kids, which translates to about 40% of our state's children who are covered by Medicaid.

So this is not a marginal program.

This is a huge program that so many Florida families rely on to ensure that they can take their kids to the doctor for preventive care, for annual checkups, but also for kids that have ongoing medical conditions.

This program is absolutely essential to keeping those kids alive, quite literally.

The one of the ideas is to have those Medicaid recipients be required to do some work.

Have you heard that proposal in Washington and how would that play out here in Florida?

Yeah.

So work requirements if they came to pass, would account really for a small fraction of the savings, and that savings would really come from eligible people getting disenrolled from the program because of a whole, a whole new slew of red tape requirements, uh, reporting requirements.

But in fact, the vast majority of the cuts really would need to come, um, from areas beyond those savings, from disenrolled folks, from work requirements.

So really, we are still looking at, um, drastic measures that would take health care away from these vulnerable populations that we've just been talking about seniors in nursing homes, low income kids, pregnant women, people with disabilities.

So the work requirements are in some ways really just a small fraction of the damage that we're looking at.

You know, if there is a work requirement, as you pointed out, there's a lot of people who who can't work.

Children, people who are disabled, women who are pregnant.

I mean, it really doesn't do much I would gather to, to create more efficiency or, uh, you know, change the program.

That's absolutely right.

And in fact, in other benefits where work requirements have have have been imposed, they're typically for able bodied, um, recipients.

And as exactly as you just said, virtually everyone in in the Florida medicaid program is unable to work because either they're a kid or they're a senior or they're disabled.

And for the parents of low income kids who are covered by this program, the fact is most of them are working.

So, uh, it's sort of it's sort of a misconception that the people who could work aren't the folks who who can work are typically working, but most of our covered individuals are unable to work.

Well, Alison Yeager of the Florida Health Justice Project, thanks a lot for coming on Florida This Week.

Thank you so much for having me.

On Monday, President's Day in Sarasota, Tampa, Tallahassee and 12 other cities across the state, there were peaceful protests against the policies of the new Trump administration.

As USA Today reported in Sarasota, more than a thousand activists peacefully marched from Bayfront park to the federal building, where they waved signs warning that billionaire Elon Musk has been given too much power and that democracy itself is at stake.

A similar sized demonstration took place in downtown Tampa, where activists warned against deep budget cuts, defended immigrants, called for Palestinian human rights, criticized delving into personal tax records, and said it was time for people to stand up and resist what they described as the dangerous actions taken by Donald Trump.

>> My biggest fear right now is that we are in a constitutional crisis, and that it's a coup being taken over by oligarchs, and that if we go to a certain point, we won't be able to turn back.

We have to act quickly to get something done because they're dividing.

I feel like the Republican Party is dividing us with culture wars, and I'm concerned about the culture wars, but I'm really concerned that we may not we may lose our right to even vote.

And joining us now, Eric Deggans is an author and the TV and media analyst for National Public Radio.

State Representative Berny Jacques represents parts of Pinellas County and is a Republican state representative.

Michele Rayner represents parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and is a Democrat, and Trimmel Gomes is a journalist and the president of Gomes Media Strategies.

Nice to have all of you here.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

So, Berny, I want to start with you.

What do you make of the protests around the state against the president's policies?

>> Well, look, these folks that are protesting are clearly not part of the majority of Americans who actually elected President Donald J. Trump to do exactly what he is doing.

And it is refreshing to actually see a president follow through on his campaign promises.

And central to these promises was his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration, to reform government by rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, thus DOGE and Elon Musk efforts.

And so, although they are protesting, they are not in sync with the majority of Americans.

And I mean that sincerely, because the majority of the voters went with Donald J. Trump.

This is a man who won the popular vote and of course the Electoral College, and he is acting and making good on the mandate that he was given.

So, Michele, let me go to you.

This week, CNN and The Washington Post both had polls showing the president's poll numbers were dropping.

What do you make of the polls?

And and what do you make of what Berny just said about the president having support from the majority of the country?

>> I mean, I think Representative Jacques, you know, he's a colleague of mine and a friend.

Yes, I mean, that that is a fact.

You know, he won the popular vote.

He won the Electoral College.

I think that people, even folks who supported him, are really beginning to see the impact of their decision, which is why you're having folks who initially supported him, you know, who are you know, who are now protesting, who are now, you know, saying, hey, wait, I didn't know it was going to be like this.

I don't know how they didn't know, because when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them.

And I think ultimately, you know, people elected Donald Trump.

They didn't elect Elon Musk.

They didn't elect this, you know, person to come in and basically be a pseudo president.

And so people are exercising their right to protest.

And I think that we're going to continue to see a surge of that.

And hopefully in the midterm elections, there will be a turning of the tide.

Eric, the president did promise that he was going to cut the size of government.

He seems to be doing that.

How are those cuts being received outside of Washington, D.C.?

>> Well, I think one thing that's happening is that people don't understand the thinking behind many of the cuts.

And we've seen situations where tons of people have been laid off from offices, and then they've had to hire them back once they've realized that the things that they did were important.

And so it's it's there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to some of the cuts that we've seen.

I would, um, I would push back against this idea that a majority of Americans elected Donald Trump.

A majority of Americans did not elect Donald Trump.

A majority of the people who voted elected Donald Trump.

And there were a lot of Americans who didn't vote.

There were a lot of people who supported Joe Biden in 2020 who didn't vote.

So, so and, you know, he got 78 million votes or so.

There's 350 million people who live in this country, or 330 million people who live in this country.

And in, in years past, we've always had the sense that once a president is elected, they understand that they are president for everyone who lives in America, not just their supporters.

And so I think one of the things that we're seeing now is that people are saying we want a president who is president for everyone, not just a president who pursues the goals of the oligarchs who supported them.

And, and this very, you know, cohesive base and what they want, regardless of how it impacts people who are not part of that base.

Trimmel, what do you make of the protests around the state?

There was one in Tallahassee where you're based.

Uh, there's a groundswell of protests, and I've been fortunate to be traveling a lot this week from Ohio to New York, Washington, and there were protests in all of these states and cities, and it's growing.

And I'm not sure the Trump administration is going to be able to contain with a PR strategy to help calm things.

People are not seeing or feeling the relief Trump promised.

Instead, they're seeing public servants, as just mentioned, doing very important critical work for the federal government lose their livelihoods.

Uh, the price of eggs have increased, and people are just wondering what's going on.

So the protests are growing, and we're waiting to see what the Trump plan is as far as, um, trying to provide that relief.

But so far, the messaging is not there.

All right.

We're going to move to our next story.

This is Black History Month, which was first proposed by educators and students at Kent State University in 1969.

Seven years later, in 1976, President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month as a national celebration.

Four years ago, Florida became ground zero for the modern battle over black history.

Under governor DeSantis, the state launched an all out attack on how race could be taught in public schools.

First came the Stop Woke act, which restricted how and what educators could teach about racism and slavery.

And then the state made it easier to ban books.

That was followed by a crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion, and then the removal of any black history lessons deemed too divisive.

Florida drew national attention in 2023 for rewriting its African American history curriculum, with new standards suggesting that enslaved people benefited from slavery because they learned new skills.

And when the curriculum was updated this year, the Florida Board of Education left in the controversial language requiring middle school students learn how slaves develop skills, which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.

News four in Jacksonville talked with the Florida teacher this week about the state's requirements on how black history is taught.

>> What you're going to find is most of the honors courses for African-American history in our state.

They're pretty much the same, just with an actual standard skeleton now.

So teachers actually have stuff to go over that the state puts out that, you know, I don't really see too much of an issue with, um, because at the high school level, it's pretty much business as usual.

Yes, we have to teach about racism.

Yes, we have to teach about economic inequality and systemic oppression.

But, you know, there's way more to black history than just talking about the problems.

You got to celebrate all these achievements that they've done throughout our nation's history.

You got to celebrate their resilience for making it through that time of enslavement and empowering themselves through things like the civil rights movement.

If we can really show students that these things matter more than the hatred and the prejudice that was caused then I think we really are setting them up to be better global citizens that can compete in an international world.

Eric, there's no doubt that the governor has made a major impact on how black history is taught in the state.

How do you think that's worked out over these last four years or so?

Well, first of all, I got to say I'm a little concerned that you had a white teacher talking about this because I think for black folks, we feel as if our history is is being erased.

And and when you erase a people's history, you erase them.

So I wonder if you would get a different answer if you talked to a black teacher who's been teaching black history.

And certainly as someone you know, I teach at the college level, and I talk about a lot of things that are considered diversity connected.

I'm very troubled by what happens here.

And and it's not so much are things different right now?

What's happening is that there's this atmosphere of intimidation that academics are facing, where they're not necessarily sure what they can teach and what they can't teach without facing some sort of negative consequence.

And that's by design, because the idea is to get people to limit themselves, not provide all these strictures that people can follow to know they're okay, or provide strictures that people can circumvent if they want to teach a certain way and still get it past the the state.

Trimmel, what do you think of the changes over the last four years or under governor DeSantis.

As just mentioned?

While I'm impressed a little bit to see that this teacher is able to go forward with teaching the subject matter of black history, it's concerning and wanting to see more of.

Are you able to teach what's currently happening today?

The suppression of information.

What's happening in the past is actually happening right now.

Those who are close to the administration here in Florida, the DeSantis administration, in putting forward these policies, who is pushing back to be able to to accurately say, hey, let's tell the truth in terms of history and what's happening now.

So in terms of what he said about history repeating itself, that's happening also, can you modernize it and show in real time what we're seeing into having this discussion right now?

That information is being suppressed.

Michele, I was surprised when the state renewed its curriculum standards this year.

It said that enslaved people develop skills under slavery.

Kept that in that language in.

That could benefit them.

So let's also keep that in.

You know I'm not surprised.

This is a conversation that we've been having.

This is, you know, legislation that I've debated against on the House floor, um, these kinds of bills that has now become, you know, standards have probably been one of the most defensive pieces of legislation that I've been able to encounter.

And it also shows what the majority party feels and thinks about African Americans and black folks and their contribution.

And so what I'm happy about is that even despite that this is happening, you have communities that are setting up their own schools, setting up their own Saturday classes to teach accurate telling of history, of black history, not only the enslavement.

And really, I want to say this, the the enslavement portion of black history is really white history.

The fact that black people were able to overcome it, that is, black history.

And so if we're going to really name it, let's talk about that.

And so for me, um, you know, we as a people will always, you know, achieve and strive even beyond all of this.

Berny was the governor, right.

And doing what he did in outlining how black history should be taught in the state of Florida.

Yes, he has been correct on this issue.

He's been spot on, actually, and I just want to take a moment to push back against the earlier comment by one of the guests to assail this teacher somehow, because of his race, as if he cannot have an opinion and a perspective as an actual teacher.

I think there would be a lot of backlash had this been a black teacher, and he was somehow questioned because of his race.

So so I so I'm going to stand up to to this for this teacher.

I don't know everything that he's saying or why he's saying it, but um, but certainly he shouldn't be assailed because of his race.

Now, regarding the governor, I mean, look, he's been spot on.

We want real education and not indoctrination in our schools.

We want to uplift our students and not tear them down on the basis of race, which is what woke ideological ideology has done.

It basically says just because of the color of your skin, you're somehow oppressed.

And if you're somehow part of the majority race, you are somehow an oppressor.

This dichotomy is dangerous.

It teaches our students to hate each other and to hate their country.

It has no place in curriculum, and we need to get back to basics, to just teaching the facts the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between.

When it comes to the subject of black history that has been uplifted by people who are acting in good faith and are party.

Was the only thing I'll point out to to address what he said about what I said is that I was talking about a black teacher being not being included.

Okay.

I was not talking about I was not talking about that teacher's race.

I was concerned that black people who are teaching black history were not a part of this discussion.

And that doesn't make any sense to me.

All right.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

You will sell this teacher because of his race.

Now, going back to black history, I was just at the white House for the National Black History Month.

The reception hosted by President Trump with some great figures in current American life.

And so this notion that somehow Republicans are trying to erase black history is completely false.

It's being pushed by a woke narrative that is not acting.

In fact, that is not one of those.

Cases where we need an hour to.

And maybe we should come back to this topic on the show, and I'm.

Sorry to give it.

Let's talk about why the military and other public institutions have been banned from from celebrating Black History Month and celebrating.

State Senator Geraldine Thompson, a major figure in Orlando area politics for much of the century and an advocate for African American history, died last week at the age of 76 following complications from knee surgery.

Thompson was a Democrat representing western Orange County.

She was first elected to the Florida House in 2006, and served multiple terms in both the House and the Senate.

She founded the Wells Built Museum of African American History and Culture near Orlando, preserving the stories and memorabilia of the civil rights movement as well as African art.

In 2003, she authored the Orlando book in the Black America series, recounting 150 years of black history in the city.

Michele, you served with her.

How did she make a difference in the legislature?

Geraldine Thompson was a giant.

I had the privilege and honor of sitting behind her my first two years in the legislature.

There was never a time that she stood up to debate that she didn't weave the history of this state in her statements.

There was never a time that she didn't uplift black Americans.

So it's really interesting that this is the last story after that conversation there.

We owe a lot to her, not only with her contributions to black history, but also, you know, the fact that we don't have absentee voting and it's called vote by mail.

That is because of Geraldine Thompson.

And she devoted her life not only to her community and not only to the state, but to her family.

And, um, it is a great loss.

It is a great loss.

She is she was the conscience of the legislature.

She was a giant among legislators.

And her voice is, especially in this moment, is so needed.

And it is it was it is a devastating loss.

Um, uh, because I expected to see her and serve with her, um, that, you know, this, this, this term and, um, I think we we owe her a debt that can never be repaid.

It was.

Totally unexpected.

And I have a final thought.

This week, President Trump shared a poll on his social media account showing Naples Congressman Byron Donalds, the early leader in the race for next year's Republican primary for governor with 31% support, edging out Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who were all in the single digits not mentioned in the poll.

Casey DeSantis, the wife of the current governor.

Another poll out this week had her with the highest favorability rating among registered Republicans.

We don't know whether Trump touting the good poll numbers is an endorsement of Donalds for governor, but we do know that right now, a Trump endorsement is essential to win a Republican primary in Florida.

This is one of those.

Weeks where I wish we had three hours to talk about this, because we left a lot on the table.

I apologize about that, but we'll come back and we'll do it again.

And thank you all to our panelists.

Our panel members this week have been Eric Deggans, Berny Jacques, Michele Rayner, and Trimmel Gomes.

Send your comments about this program to ftw@wedu.org and from all of us here at WEDU.

Have a great weekend!