Here's a Local and News Update from Florida Today and WFIT. I'm Evan Niemczyk
Florida is among the top 10 states to see declines in children's Medicaid enrollment. That’s according to real-time data measured by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
Central Florida Public Media’s health reporter Joe Mario Pedersen tells us Florida has observed a 5-percent decrease in Children’s Medicaid enrollment since 2025.
"Over 121-thousand kids have dropped from Medicaid since the beginning of last year. What’s concerning experts is whether or not the uninsured rate has also risen. With changes to the Affordable Health Care Marketplace, options outside of Medicaid are few.
Joan Alker is the director of the Center for Children and Families. She says a big contributor to the declining rate of Children’s Medicaid has been the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. She says immigrant parents aren’t seeking their children’s Medicaid even though they legally qualify."
“So they're faced with this horrible choice of not accessing the healthcare their child is entitled to because they fear deportation,
Uninsured rates for 2025 won’t be released until August. Alker says data from the last decade shows that when Medicaid rates decline, the uninsured rate typically goes up… Joe Mario Pedersen, Central Florida Public Media"
A record-breaking sea turtle nesting season is predicted for Brevard County. WFIT’s Terri Wright explains.
"Brevard County is on track to break another record for the number of sea turtle nests.
Last year, researchers logged a record number of nests: 20,000 Green turtles and 10,000 Loggerheads. The Sea Turtle Preservation Society reports we are ahead of last year.
Space Coast beaches are estimated to make up 25 percent of the loggerhead turtle population on Earth. Education is the key to ensuring nests can thrive. Keep beaches clean, flat, dark, and don’t disturb turtle nests. Yellow markers are staked in the sand to mark sea turtle nests monitored by the Preservation Society."
Sea Turtle nesting season runs through October 31.
The latest labor data shows a bump in Florida's education jobs.
As WUSF's Gabriella Paul reports, the growth is not in public schools.
"Over the last year, Public Ed lost nearly six thousand jobs. That's a dip of about one-and-a-half percent -- while private K through 12 jobs grew by the same amount. Andrew Spar is the president of the state's largest teachers' union. He says this see-saw in the numbers does not surprise him because it reflects recent state policies favoring private school growth.
"When the private sector is being given basically a blank check with no strings attached to it to do whatever and however, I think that's why we're seeing that uptick."
The state invests about four Billion dollars a year into its private school voucher system.
At the same time, Spar says public school jobs are dwindling due to lower enrollment, rising cost of living and tightening school districts' budgets.
I'm Gabriella Paul, in Tampa"
For these stories and more, visit WFIT.org and Floridatoday.com. I'm Evan Niemczyk