Puerto Ricans
overwhelmingly voted for statehood recently, and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy says it is time they achieved it.
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy pushed for Puerto Rican statehood and for ending a funding loophole for English language education at a meeting on Puerto Rico issues Monday in Orlando.
Puerto Ricans “overwhelmingly voted for statehood,” Murphy said before the event at the Acacia Banquet Hall. “It’s not a question of whether Puerto Rico should be a state, but when.”
Murphy, D-Winter Park, state Sen. Victor Torres, D-Orlando, and Joie Cadle, Orange County School Board member, took questions from the audience through moderator Anthony Suarez, president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida.
More than 1 million Puerto Ricans live in Florida, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with more than 170,000 in Orange County, 87,000 in Osceola County and 40,000 in Seminole County as of 2015. The huge growth in population has only increased after the Puerto Rican fiscal crisis.
“Simply put, this is a vibrant and powerful community that deserves recognition and respect,” Murphy said.
The influx has also increased Central Florida’s school systems, but the amount of funding for English language programs has not kept up.
Murphy cited an Orlando Sentinel story from March that reported how parents were upset that Orange County Schools weren’t accommodating Spanishspeaking students who were learning English.
In response, she said, she would be introducing a bill in Congress to change the funding formula for English as a second-language education — which is based on the number of immigrants in a state — shortchanging Florida, with its large percentage of U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico.
“Students who move from the island to Florida are not sufficiently counted in that formula,” Murphy said. “Because so many families have moved from Puerto Rico in recent years, there just aren’t enough resources to hire bilingual teachers and to provide these students with the assistance they need, and this is a real problem.”
Children who speak both English and Spanish are in a better position to perform well in school and in higher education, she said, a message echoed by Torres.
“Our children deserve a firstclass education,” Murphy said. “I hope that this bill, if enacted into law, will help.”
The event came a few weeks after more than 500,000 Puerto Rican voters supported statehood in a June 11 referendum, with another 7,600 for independence and about 6,700 if favor of remaining a U.S. territory. But because several parties boycotted the referendum, turnout was only 23 percent of the island’s 2.26 million registered voters.
“In a democracy, only those who come out to vote can be counted,” Murphy said. “The ballot was fair and it laid out the three options.”
The Puerto Rico issue is a civilrights issue, she said, arguing that as U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans should have the same rights — including the right to vote for president — as other U.S. citizens.
Federal Medicaid funding to Puerto Rico is also capped at $300 million per year, she said. States have no cap under current law,
with funding to the similarly-sized state of Oregon estimated at $5 billion.
“There’s no reason a citizen living in Orocovis (Puerto Rico) is different from someone living in Orlando,” she said. “Florida always welcomes Puerto Ricans to the Sunshine State … but at the same time, Puerto Ricans should not have to move to Florida or another state in order to be treated equally.”
Torres cited Puerto Ricans’ service in 20th-century wars as a reason the island should become a state after more than a century of territorial status.
“My great-grandfather fought for this country, my uncle fought in the Korean War, my father fought in World War II,” Torres said. “[Those] in Puerto Rico fought for this country and they’re still doing it today.”