I think what this demonstrates is what I have already said, that there are good part 141 and 61 schools and bad ones and you can add JAA schools to that list. The lack of JAA schools over there limits your choice so the odds are you will be able to find a better FAA school due to choice available but what it really boils down to is individual instructor.

Most of the guys I flew with over there had come through an academy zero to hero type school which gave them 750hrs+ by taking them through ppl to cfii then building hours by teaching new ppls starting the cycle again.

At 750+ hrs these guys were excellent instructors, at 250hrs they may not have been quite so good, this is where being a local would help as you could pop in and find out how the school opperates, speak to the students and find out what their sucsess rate is like etc, otherwise you are going to have to take a chance. In my experience though the higher hour instructors tend to be teaching at the smaller schools after leaving the academy type school continuing to build hours while they look for their first break with the regionals.

Choosing a JAA school should at least ensure a reasonable level of instruction by the time you reach cpl, and you will be taught to pass the CAA GFT which is quite different to the FAA CPL. In some cases you will be taught by JAA FIs over from the UK and of course you wont have to convert or study for 2 sets of exams.

Weather in FL may not be great all the time but it is certainly better than the UK, I found late winter through to early summer to produce many great flying days.

If you are going to choose the FAA/conversion route I would budget for a lot more than you have been quoted, indeed even more than I have suggested to honest.