Miami-Dade and Broward school boards have taken dissimilar positions on the slots question, which mirror the positions of their consultants, who happen to have clients on either side of the ballot issue.
A key Broward County School Board member complained this week that a proposal to help fund education by allowing slot machines at South Florida parimutuels would be a sucker's bet -- but in Miami-Dade, School Board members have remained silent on the question.
Don't look for high-minded policy debates to explain the difference, critics say. Instead look to the highly paid political consultants and lobbyists who advise each board:
Broward officials have long-standing political ties to Dan Lewis, a consultant who was recently hired to coordinate the unlikely collection of activists, Indian casino owners and gambling boat operators who form the anti-slots movement.
The Miami-Dade board is represented in Tallahassee by Ron Book, an influential lobbyist who represents the dog track, horse track and jai alai fronton owners who want slots.
Consultants on both sides say they haven't tried to influence any School Board members on the slots question, which goes before voters in Broward and Miami-Dade on March 8.
But critics say it's naive to believe that politicians don't consider advice from their own lobbyists and consultants -- despite the potential for conflicts of interest when those consultants also work for others.
''The children and the families are the last thing on their agenda. It's all about money and power,'' said Charlotte Greenbarg, chairwoman of Independent Voices for Better Education, a conservative group that supports school choice.
''This has nothing to do with giving kids better schools,'' said Dan Hendrickson, vice chairman for campaign finance reform for the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club and a veteran observer of Tallahassee lobbying.
If the measure passes in both counties, and the terms of the deal are not altered later by the Legislature, the parimutuel industry will contribute at least 30 percent of the slots revenue -- some $438 million in the first year -- to public education, Book said.
That money would then be divided among school districts in more than 60 Florida counties, leaving only a relatively small share for Broward and Miami-Dade.
''I can't even fill up the gas tanks of my school buses for that kind of money,'' said Broward School Board Chairwoman Stephanie Kraft.
On Tuesday, Kraft urged her colleagues to take a public stand against the slots proposal unless the gaming industry guarantees Broward more money. The board backed off her suggestion, though, and instead passed a watered-down measure that asks the Legislature to ensure the district gets its ''fair share'' of the proceeds.
Kraft's support for a guarantee echoes the name of an anti-slots organization formed by Lewis: Citizens for a Guarantee.
Nonetheless, Kraft said that she has never discussed the slots issue with Lewis. She said she was upset when she heard he'd been hired to fight the measure. ``I didn't want people to think I was opposing the slots because of him.''
Kraft, like at least three other Broward board members, has hired Lewis as a consultant during her own campaigns.
In 2002, when she ran unopposed, she paid his firm more than $20,000.
Lewis referred questions for this story to Roy Teicher, a consultant he recruited to help defeat the slots issue. Teicher said he has not even attempted to persuade the School Board to adopt an anti-slots stance.
Likewise, in Miami-Dade, Book said he has not tried to lobby School Board members to support the parimutuels.
''I have not had any discussions with board members in any way, shape or form on this issue,'' he said.
Book did, however, make clear in an e-mail to Miami-Dade school officials that his gaming clients seek a slots law that imposes little regulation. ''We encourage a good regulatory bill with little or no limitations on the number of machines, no limits on days or hours of operation, and the ability to physically build or rebuild our existing facilities,'' Book wrote on Jan. 21 to Alberto Carvalho, who oversees the school district's lobbying and reports to Superintendent Rudy Crew.
''I'm not sure I remember that being in there,'' Book said when the passage was read back to him this week. ``But I don't have a prohibition in my contract against lobbying the Dade School Board.''
Carvalho said he requested the e-mail explaining the issue from Book. The Herald obtained a copy of the e-mail under state open records law.
Crew has no plans to ask the School Board to take a position on the March 8 vote, his spokesman said.
Herald staff writer Matthew Pinzur contributed to this report.