Comments to the Honorable Vance Aloupis, Jr., Chair, and Members of the House Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee

Regarding HB 1119 – Water Safety and Swimming Certification for K-12 Students

My name is Dominic M. Calabro, and I am President and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, taxpayer research institute and government watchdog which, for more than 40 years, has worked to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability of Florida government and promote a fair and equitable system of taxation.

With more than 8,400 miles of shoreline and an estimated 1.5 million residential swimming pools, it should come as no surprise that Florida leads the U.S. in unintentional drowning deaths of children ages 1-4. State and local laws that require more fencing and security features around family swimming pools, and increased awareness of the dangers of allowing children to play unsupervised near family pools, have made a difference; however, the number of drownings among children aged 3-5 years has increased more than 50 percent in the past decade.

For children ages 5-12, the number of drownings has increased by more than 62 percent. The real tragedy lies in the fact thatmost of these childhood drownings could be prevented by making sure everyone in the family knows how to swim.

This loss of life is not just emotionally straining. Using the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission’s estimates of the value per statistical life, we found that if all of the 298 drowning deaths that occurred among Florida children five and younger from 2017-2019 – just two years – could have been avoided, the economic risk reduction would be between $3.1-7.8 billion.

In July 2020, Mason-Dixon Polling asked registered voters statewide the following questions: (1) Do you know how to swim? and (2) Do you think every child should or should not learn to swim as a basic life skill? Statewide, 90 percent of the respondents answered “yes” when asked if they knew how to swim, and 95 percent answered “yes” when asked if every child should learn to swim as a basic life skill.

Swimming is perhaps the only sport or physical activity that will save a life, so making sure children are comfortable in and around the water is paramount to their safety. Swimming also helps to build endurance, muscle strength, and cardiovascular fitness, and like other forms of exercise, swimming has been linked to improved mental health by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression.

Florida TaxWatch believes it is essential that children are taught how to swim at an early age and commends Representatives Daley and Mooney for their efforts to prevent unintentional childhood drownings. Yesterday, we released a summary of our findings related to our research on water safety and swimming. You can find the briefing document, Every Child A Swimmer, on our website, FloridaTaxWatch.org.

Thank you for your efforts to help protect Florida’s youngest residents. We look forward to working with you and your colleagues as this issue is addressed.