House District 89 Democratic candidate Debra Tendrich (left) and Republican candidate Daniel Zapata (right). (Photos via Zapata’s campaign Facebook page and courtesy of Tendrich)
Democrat Debra Tendrich and Republican Daniel Zapata are vying for the open Florida House seat in Palm Beach County. They both want more accountability regarding state funds going to private schools and parents homeschooling their kids.
Nonprofit executive Tendrich wants to keep House District 89, which Rep. Daniel Silvers is vacating because of term limits, under Democrats’ control. This election marks the second time Zapata, a teacher and former administrator at a local private school, has run for this seat.
The district, which encompasses part of Palm Beach County, is one of the areas in the state where Democrats hold an advantage in voters over Republicans. Of the more than 70,000 voters in the district, 39% are Democrats, 30% have no party affiliation, and 27% are Republican, according to voter registration data from the Florida Division of Elections.
If she wins, Tendrich, founder of Eat Better Live Better, is aware that she wouldn’t be able to undo the Legislature’s expansion of vouchers allowing families regardless of income to draw state funds for private school tuition. Her nonprofit provides grocery assistance, produce at health care practices, and nutrition education.
Ideas on school vouchers
(Left) Democratic candidate Debra Tendrich for HD 89 poses with yard signs and banners. (Photo courtesy of Tendrich)
However, she’d want to bring back income caps for the vouchers and require private institutions to accept students receiving state scholarships.
“Public funds should be spent for public benefit, and the fact that a private school can turn away a child with public funds — that takes away the entirety of the public opportunity,” Tendrich said in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix. “So, if a student goes to a private school where my opponent works, for instance, and they have a voucher, they don’t have to accept that child, right?”
She criticized the private schools for not providing other benefits to the community. The Classroom Teachers Association endorsed Tendrich.
“During hurricane season, those private schools do not open up as Hurricane shelters like public schools do. They’re not summer feeding programs like the public schools do. They don’t have an open curriculum for public input like the public schools do,” Tendrich told the Phoenix.
Although Zapata supports school vouchers, he wants to stop private schools from increasing their tuition to the point that they remain inaccessible to lower-income families. Zapata has worked as an athletic director and Spanish teacher at Atlantic Christian Academy but said he took the semester off to focus on his campaign.
“A major one that I’ve seen is schools raising their prices to where they’re still charging the same after the voucher, which is something that I want to look at and don’t have an exact answer for it yet, but it’s definitely something I want to look at and try to see if we can mitigate that a little bit,” he said in an interview with the Phoenix.
On average, the state grants families $8,000 a year for tuition at a private school through the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, according to the company handling the payments. Tuition at Atlantic Christian Academy ranges from $10,500 to $13,300.
Both candidates said they would support limiting what kind of items parents receiving state funds for homeschooling can buy. Lawmakers attempted to rein in homeschooling purchases after backlash over money going toward Disney World and Universal tickets and TVs, among other items. However, that legislation didn’t make it across the finish line.
“We should not be using these funds for personal vacation if that’s what it’s being used for,” Zapata said.
A special session to deal with condos
(Right) Daniel Zapata, Republican candidate for HD 89, at a polling location in Palm Beach County (Photo courtesy of Zapata)
Another topic Zapata and Tendrich agree on is the need for a special legislative session in light of the staggering fees to repair condos that owners now face. Following the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in 2021, lawmakers imposed a soon-approaching Dec. 31 deadline for associations maintaining the condos to assess repairs that need to be done.
“I definitely would support a special session,” Tendrich said. “This is a crisis that I need to make sure our senior citizens are okay, but our families who live in condos, too. They bought a condo because they thought it would be an affordable way to purchase and own and be able to have pride and ownership.”
Although Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for a special session and suggested no-interest or low-interest loans for the condo owners, legislative leadership has declined to come back to Tallahassee. But Zapata isn’t convinced loans would be the right approach.
“I’ve heard mixed messaging on that one from residents of these condos,” he said, adding that some who support the idea think it will help keep outside investors from buying up units. “And I’ve heard against it because they just don’t want to be in debt, and that is an understandable situation.”
Stance on Amendment 4
When it comes to abortion, Tendrich supports the proposed Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion access in Florida’s Constitution. She said voters have shared with her their worries about government involvement in their discussions with doctors.
“Banning abortion in Florida doesn’t ban abortion, it just makes it available for people who can afford a plane ticket, to drive or to fly into another area that allows it to get it done,” she said. “It only really restricts people who are financially unable to go to a place that does allow abortion.”
On the other hand, Zapata said he has voted against Amendment 4 but that he thought the existing restrictions banning abortion beyond six weeks in most cases go too far. That is a message other Republicans in Democratic-leaning areas have expressed, such as North Florida Sen. Corey Simon.
“The six-week ban is too extreme. I think Amendment 4 goes too far, as well, so I don’t want to go to either extreme,” Zapata said. “I would support going back to the 15 weeks that we had before.”
However, Zapata said he wouldn’t propose legislation to expand abortion access until 15 weeks right away because there are other problems, such as property insurance, that lawmakers need to focus on, he said.
Cash-in-hand in the homestretch
Stretching into the last two weeks of the race, Tendrich has spent nearly all of the roughly $66,000 she’s raised, citing the primary challenger she faced. She’s received $1,000 contributions from the Police Benevolent Association, Ruth’s List, real estate interests, and a firefighters’ PAC, according to campaign finance records.
A $50,000 donation from the Republican Party of Palm Beach makes up much of Zapata’s coffers. He has raised around $68,000 and has spent $18,000, according to the latest records.
Despite Dems’ voter registration advantage, Kevin Neal, the county’s GOP chair, said he’s optimistic about Zapata’s chances, considering that he drew 36% of the vote when he ran against Silvers in 2022. Neal said Zapata, who is of Cuban descent, could appeal to the county’s Hispanic population.
“We really like his chances to win this time around, especially with the open seat,” Nea said in a phone interview with the Phoenix.