Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, destroying infrastructure and leaving the island in shambles. With not much left for them on the island, over 200,000 Puerto Ricans have moved into Florida since the hurricane.
Typically, Republicans get a bad rap for not helping people in need, but it seems that they are determined to help evacuees from Puerto Rico. To welcome these evacuees into Orange County, on November 30, 2017, the Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC) hosted their Annual Party Outreach Dinner and made the theme of the night “Welcome to Our Newest Neighbors from Puerto Rico.” Evacuees could attend the dinner for free and a portion of the funds raised were given to Puerto Rican hurricane relief. In honor of the evacuees, Latin food was served, and Spanish music was played. After dinner was served, the members of OCREC spoke to the evacuees about what they were going to do to help them.
One of the main topics of the night was education. According to Bill Sublette, the Orange County School Board Chairman, there are a lot of new students from Puerto Rico which has caused overcrowding in the schools. “If all evacuees were put into their own schools, they would fill five elementary schools,” said Chairman Sublette. Orange County schools will need additional funding in order to achieve Sublette’s goal of making sure that new students have “rigorous, high quality education.” Sublette intends to work with State Representative Mike Miller, a representative who pledged to help Puerto Rican evacuees at the event, to increase funding for Orange County schools. With so many new students, Spanish speaking teachers are in demand. Florida State Representative Bob Cortes recognized that many evacuees were teachers in Puerto Rico and has worked to make it simple for them to become teachers in Florida by removing the requirement for them to show transcripts, which many don’t have as a result of the hurricane. Due to his efforts, 50 to 60 new teachers have already been hired.
Representative Bob Cortes stated that “The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that instead of wanting to give Puerto Ricans benefits, we want to give them jobs.” The talk of creating jobs for evacuees seemed to be an ongoing topic of the night. Cortes and Sublette want to give evacuees jobs with the city such as teaching, bus driving, or construction work. Cortes has worked to expedite the process of becoming a nurse for qualified evacuees. State Representative Bobby Olszewski, better known as “Bobby O,” stated that a strong work ethic will get evacuees far and that they have plenty of opportunities in Orange County to be successful. Representative Pete Clarke seemed to share the desire to have evacuees become a part of the county. “We want to make sure you can assimilate or if you decide to move back [to Puerto Rico] then we want you to have such fond memories of us that you come back on your vacation and pay the tourism tax,” he said jokingly.
With so many politicians promising to support them, it seems that Puerto Rican evacuees should do quite well in Orange County in the years to come.