Florida claims to be first in many areas including politics and education. Where does the state rate in terms of severity of penalty for persons who provide alcohol to minors?
While Florida enjoys being first in the country and in the world in many different areas, penalties for persons who provide alcohol to minors is an area in which it lags. According to our research, Florida has the 39th most sever penalty, putting Florida and it’s “up to 60 days” penalty in the bottom 25% across the country. Of the top five states in terms of population of which Florida is number three, our state comes in last with the least severe penalty. Expand the number to the top ten, and Florida is second low behind North Carolina. (North Carolina has half the population of Florida.) Increasing the penalty for someone who provides alcohol to minors from a second degree to a first degree misdemeanor would make Florida’s jail penalty “up to one year in jail” and would bring our state in line with the other 75% of states who provide this same penalty.
Your question also stated that "Florida claims to be first in many areas including politics and education"; notice you said "claims" because Florida has notoriously ranked in the bottom 5 states in education for the past 2 decades. In regard to politics, you merely need to look at its crime rates, political voting histories (locally, in the senate and the house) to decide how they really rank in politics.
