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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 5, 2001
The Legislature has done an injustice to graduates of our nation's military academies. In their rush to do a political favor for a lobbyist, lawmakers sent Gov. Jeb Bush a comprehensive health care bill with a provision requiring Florida's three public medical schools to offer two seats in each entering class to military academy graduates.
The so-called "Spinelli amendment" was slipped into a 318-page bill containing dozens of health-related items important to the state. The name refers to Orlando-area lobbyist and Republican fundraiser Michael Spinelli, who initiated the idea and persuaded state Sen. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, to sponsor it. Spinelli's son, Joseph, was recently rejected by the University of Florida's medical school. He also happens to be a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman.
While Spinelli says his son will not be a beneficiary of the new law because he's planning on attending medical school out of state, the highly specialized amendment, passed on the last night of the session, was clearly a case of lawmaking for influential friends. Check for the new law in the statute books under "political favors."
The law does nothing positive for our state and creates mischief. Graduates of military academies already were given the same opportunity as every other college graduate to compete for the highly coveted seats in our medical schools. The University of South Florida's medical school has extended offers to two military academy graduates for its entering class, and UF has five in its current class of 100 students. These applicants won seats on their own merit. Our military academies such as West Point and Annapolis are fine institutions of learning, and their top graduates should not be tainted by the presumption that they qualified for medical school only with a boost from a politically imposed quota.
No one beyond Spinelli seems to approve of this idea. The state's medical schools are far from pleased. An official at UF's medical school called the measure an "outrageous" display of political favoritism, and a spokesperson at USF worries that the new law doesn't require the two military academy graduates to be qualified for admission. While there is no danger that the law will affect our medical schools' accreditations, it could affect their reputations and their ability to produce the finest doctors possible.
Because so many vital health provisions were bundled in the bill, Gov. Bush signed it, but he has challenged the provision in court as misusing the budget process to amend state law. The governor has a strong constitutional case. However, if the new medical school admissions rule can't be defeated in court, it should be repealed at the first opportunity.