Amendment to class size limits goes up for vote

JOE FOLLICK

Gainesville Sun Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE - Lawmakers may take another shot at asking voters to revise their 2002 decision to limit class sizes in the state's public schools.

A House committee is scheduled to vote on a bill this morning that would give voters a chance in 2008 to change the strict limits on class sizes set to go into final effect in 2010.

Rep. David Simmons, R-Maitland, is pushing the bill. He said money spent for building new classrooms would be better used to pay teachers and school employees more.

He said that in 2010, when the class size amendment requires strict limits on each classroom in the state, the result will be disrupted classes and required busing as schools shuffle children around to avoid violating the constitutional limits.

"The rigid requirements of that constitutional amendment are disrupting the classroom,'' he said. "The end result is it's tearing families, schools and friends apart.''

The 2002 voter-approved constitutional amendment limits class sizes to 18 students in classes in kindergarten through third grade, 22 students in grades four through eight and 25 students in high school. The limits are now based on the average of each class size in a school. By 2010, each classroom will have to meet the limit.

Simmons' bill would raise the limits by five students and require only that the average of each classroom in a district meet the 18, 22 and 25 student limits. All districts have already achieved that level, so the bill would effectively end further mandatory reduction.

Simmons said the $370 million set to be spent for class size reduction in the future could instead give each teacher and school employee about a $2,000 raise. And he said that when the 2010 limits kick in and schools are forced to adjust if they are just one student over the limit, lawmakers will have to make changes anyway.

"If you wait, it's too late and people are going to be so outraged,'' he said.

Gov. Jeb Bush battled the class size limits ferociously in his last four years in office, but failed to persuade the Senate to propose a change for voters to consider.

Gov. Charlie Crist has repeatedly said that voters have spoken and he hasn't endorsed any efforts to revise the constitution. But proposed constitutional amendments approved by lawmakers don't require the governor's approval.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is chairman of the Senate Pre-K-12 Education Committee. He said he supports Simmons' effort, but thinks it has little hope in the Senate.

"I fear that that train has already left the station in the Senate,'' he said, noting that the seven Republican senators who joined Democrats in killing a similar effort last year are still in office. "I think it would be tough sledding.''

And unlike the 2002 vote, another constitutional change approved last year requires 60 percent approval from voters to change the constitution in the future, making an effort to revise the class size amendment much tougher. Full Article

By S.V. Date
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau

Monday, April 10, 2006

TALLAHASSEE — Since 2002, state Republican leaders have argued that complying with an amendment to shrink public-school classes would cost too much money.

Four years later, flush with extra billions of dollars in tax revenue, leaders have turned to a new reason: There is now not enough time to build the necessary schools by the required deadlines.

"In Duval, for example, we have to build over 20 schools in two years," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who was Senate president immediately after the amendment passed in 2002.

During King's two years as Senate president, state economists had estimated that lawmakers would have had to set aside $4.7 billion to start building schools in time for full implementation of the amendment in 2010. Instead, King, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and Gov. Jeb Bush spent a total of $700 million.

And even though GOP leaders now have on their hands $7 billion in new money — with another $500 million expected next week after a tax revenue estimate — it appears unlikely they will commit the needed money this year, either.

In his budget proposal in February, Bush recommended $1.9 billion for new schools, but neither the House nor the Senate is considering a figure that large. The House has set aside $1.1 billion, but only if implementation is delayed by a year. The Senate has not settled on a number.

"The governor put $1.9 billion, roughly, in his budget for class-size reduction," said Senate President Tom Lee. "You couldn't spend that kind of money for class-size reduction in this state over a five-year period, probably. There just isn't the construction capacity. There's not the planning system in place. There's not the school sites ready to receive that level of spending."

Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami, the incoming House Democratic leader, said the excuses would be comical if they weren't so pathetic. "I don't think that you can use this excuse with parents. They just won't accept it," he said. "Your procrastination is not my problem. It's their (Republicans') problem. Their procrastination is their problem."

And of Lee's belief that schools simply cannot be built quickly: "That's sort of a silly argument. You wouldn't use it for prisons. We shouldn't use it for educating children."

King said he did not push for more construction money when he held the gavel because he believed Bush and others ultimately would succeed in repealing or watering down the amendment.

"That was a political decision that was made — thinking that would be the less expensive of the avenues available. The fact is we, the state, may not have a requirement to build bricks-and-sticks schools," King said, alluding to the latest effort to undo the class-size amendment.

Measures in both the House and the Senate would increase the classroom caps by five students at each grade level, as well as permit "co-teaching," in which two or more classes share a single room. Lawmakers will have to pass the proposal by a three-fifths majority in each chamber before it could be put on the November ballot so that voters could decide whether they want to weaken the limits they set four years earlier.

In this goal, Republican lawmakers this year have the support of most of the state's school boards, which complain that they don't have the money to build the necessary schools.

"We can't keep up. We're four and a half billion dollars short on the construction side," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association. He said lawmakers may be willing to spend $2 billion more for school construction this year. "If that's what you have to trade for five more students, then that's maybe what it takes to trade."

Palm Beach County schools Superintendent Art Johnson said his district has managed so far because of the half-penny sales tax that voters approved, but it soon will need help.

Frank Till, schools superintendent in Broward County, said his district has been able to get by because its discretionary property tax has generated so much extra money from rising property values.

Martin County school board members have raised impact fees on new houses, blaming in part the class-size amendment. St. Lucie officials also argue that the state has not given them nearly enough to build enough schools.

Lawmakers, too, use that argument.

Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, last year urged his colleagues to repeal the amendment, saying: "Counties all over this state are having to borrow money to build schools to comply with the mandate. School districts are fighting a losing battle to keep up with enough construction funding to be able to keep with the requirement.... School boards and counties across Florida are having to hold referendums and do bonds to be able to keep up with it."

Class-size proponents say school boards should not have to spend their own money because the language of the amendment is unambiguous. The amendment states: "Payment of the costs associated with reducing class size to meet these requirements is the responsibility of the state and not of local school districts."

"It's crystal clear," said Damien Filer, who helped then-state Sen. Kendrick Meek, now a Miami congressman, get the question on the ballot. Filer said the amendment language gave lawmakers a full eight years to build the needed schools. "They're running out of time, and that's their own fault."

Rep. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, defended his and his colleagues' efforts to weaken the amendment this year by increasing the caps by five students at each grade level and by allowing co-teaching.

"We should reduce class size. We should just do it in a way that's more workable," said Rubio, who is slated to take over as House speaker this November. "The problem is about school districts that are going to be forced, with gun to head, to build classrooms with bricks, when that money may be better spent giving teachers a raise or doing something else with it."

Rubio is one of 11 Hispanic House members from Miami-Dade County, Bush's home county, who voted to repeal the amendment last year, even though voters in each of their districts had approved the 2002 amendment by at least 58 percent and as much as 65 percent. In the Senate, the three GOP senators from Miami-Dade, all Cuban-Americans, voted with the majority to leave the amendment intact.

"A representative's job is to fulfill the mandate of the constituents in his district. In this county, they are working against the best interests of the children in their district, and I can't understand it," said Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade union. "Who are these people representing, and to what end?"

But even districts in South Florida, where voters overwhelmingly approved the amendment in 2002 by 2-to-1 margins, have not embraced the amendment's mandate.

For example, whereas Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have spent about $1 million pursuing an unsuccessful lawsuit during the past two years over a re-jiggered cost-of-living formula that costs the districts tens of millions of dollars each year, they have not considered legal action over the inadequacy of legislative funding for class size, which represents hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Why the difference?

Johnson said a class-size lawsuit may be more a "question of timing."

Privately, education officials, lobbyists and legislators say suing and angering a group of Central and North Florida lawmakers is one thing. Suing and enraging the most popular political figure in Florida and the brother of the president of the United States is another.

"I think people are trying to get by through January of 2007," said Marshall Ogletree, a lobbyist for the Florida Education Association teachers union, one of the few groups that has not been reluctant to quarrel with Bush, who must leave office at the end of his second term, in January.

Ogletree said not only large counties with the worst crowding should be fighting for the class-size amendment.

He said even smaller counties that do not have a crowding problem should be among the amendment's biggest defenders because they have been able to use their share of the class-size money to pay their teachers more. He pointed to salary and benefits package increases during this school year of 13.5 percent in Hamilton County, 11.3 percent in Dixie County and a two-year increase of 15 percent in Gilchrist County. In contrast, increases in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties this year were 6, 6.5 and 3 percent, respectively.

Given the state's history, Ogletree said, school districts are mistaken if they believe they would receive enough state money if the class-size amendment were weakened.

"I don't know how anybody can think we would get that amount of money without this," he said.

Source: Palm Beach Post Full Article

Seventy percent polled by the Times want to keep the 2002 reductions. But many agree compromise is needed.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times Staff Writer

Seventy percent of Florida residents want to keep the class size reductions approved by Florida voters in 2002, a new St. Petersburg Times poll found. And they aren't budging even though many of them think smaller classes could lead to tax increases and the hiring of mediocre teachers.

"I definitely believe that small class sizes are better. But I also believe that's what is going to happen," said Tony Perez, who lives in eastern Hillsborough County and has two children attending public schools.

But Perez, like almost half of Florida residents, is open to one alternative being considered by state lawmakers: easing strict students-per-classroom caps in exchange for a guarantee that at least 65 percent of education money goes directly to classroom expenses.

Floridians could be asked to vote on that tradeoff if a constitutional amendment makes the ballot in November.

The Times telephone poll of 872 Florida adults was conducted March 14-26 by RSVP Research Services of Tampa. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A statewide poll done recently by Mason-Dixon Research also shows majority sentiment in favor of retaining strict class size caps, though not by as wide a margin as the Times survey. Fifty-one percent of Florida voters oppose changing class size requirements, Mason-Dixon found. The amendment was approved by 52 percent of voters in November 2002.

Mason-Dixon interviewed registered voters. The Times poll included nonvoters.

Those in the Times survey who harbor some uncertainty about the so-called "65 percent solution" point to the proposal's failure to define what constitutes a "classroom expense."

"When you have vague bills like that, it's hard to interpret what they really mean," said Dean Berkey, a Sarasota County schoolteacher who has four children in public schools. "Just give us a definition and let us apply it."

The confusion crossed political, economic and racial lines. And it was not limited to the general public. Even educators have confessed to needing more explanation before making up their minds.

"It sounds pretty simple until you start asking the questions, such as what is the definition," said David Mosrie, executive director of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

Mosrie noted that one superintendent he knows recently wondered whether utilities might count. Not much education takes place in Florida classrooms without electricity and air conditioning, he said.

It's unclear whether the Florida Senate will back the proposal, which is moving swiftly through the House. Sen. Alex Villalobos, the Republican majority leader from Miami, said he will not support changes without answers to several questions, including how much additional money would go into Florida classrooms.

Lawmakers pushing for class size changes say they would craft a definition for classroom expense if and when the amendment succeeds. They say the poll results indicate a portion of the public is open to compromise.

"Those numbers are good news," said Rep. Joe Pickens, the Palatka Republican who is sponsoring changes to the class size mandate. "We have to get the message out that we are not repealing class size. We never intended to. The class size requirement that we have in perpetuity needs to be a little more flexible."

Many school district officials are counting on it.

Several districts are backing the 65 percent concept because they think it will ease the pain of class size reduction without forcing them to spend any more money in the classroom. The law currently sets class sizes at 18 for kindergarten through third grade, 22 for fourth through eighth grade and 25 for high school.

The 65 percent proposal would allow district averages rather than classroom counts, and cap individual class sizes at five students higher than the district average.

"We believe we need more flexibility, the ability to react to high growth and things going on locally, without having to worry about being in compliance" with strict classroom counts, said Wendy Hosking, a Polk County schools lobbyist.

Few of the Floridians polled seem interested in codifying the status quo. If they are going to give up some of the class size reductions, they said, they want to see more money going into classrooms.

"I feel like if you can put more money into the classroom, that's where it is needed," said Lynn Randall, a Pinellas County nurse with adult children who voted against the 2002 amendment but has since changed her position. "It scares me. I see the schools not putting out the education that I know I had."

Rep. Ralph Arza, chairman of the House PreK-12 Committee, said he thinks the class size changes working through the Legislature would allow school districts to spend their money more judiciously because they won't have to put as much into school construction or transportation.

"We are honoring the voters' desire - that 70 percent that support class size," said Arza, a Hialeah Republican. "We're putting a proposal before them that honors class size reduction but does it in a common sense way."

He said GOP polls have shown about 80 percent of voters back a mandate to put more money into the classroom, even when the details aren't explained.

Why tie the ideas of class size and classroom spending together?

"I'm a former football coach," Arza said. "Why put in one star running back when you can put in two?"

Source: St. Pete Times Full Article

Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board

Our position: It's time for Gov. Bush and lawmakers to give up on class size.

Remember the villains from the old Bullwinkle cartoon show? Boris and Natasha always had some devious plan to do in the intrepid moose and his sidekick, a flying squirrel named Rocky.

The plans failed. Hilarity ensued.

If only real life were that funny. When it comes to Republican-led efforts to overturn the class-size caps voters approved in 2002, the devious plans aren't likely to be any more successful.

And no one is laughing.

Another opinion survey published this week in the Orlando Sentinel and other Florida newspapers shows that 51 percent of voters polled oppose raising the class-size limits while 40 percent support the idea that would, in effect, repeal the 2002 vote.

Sooner or later, Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican lawmakers will get the message that voters knew what they were doing four years ago when they approved the caps and wrote them into the state constitution. No issue attracted as much attention then, and few issues have attracted more attention since.

During the heat of the 2002 campaign against class-size caps, Mr. Bush quipped that he had some "devious plans" to upend the amendment should it pass. Obviously Mr. Bush wasn't kidding.

For the second time in four years, Mr. Bush is urging the Legislature to place another constitutional amendment on the ballot to repeal class size to squeeze more students into classrooms.

In 2004, Mr. Bush tied the idea to raising teacher pay. The measure passed the House, but state senators didn't bite. This year, Mr. Bush is back with an even more specious idea -- linking the repeal to a dubious proposal to require districts to spend 65 percent of their budgets "inside the classroom."

How would districts pay for school buses, food service, guidance counselors and a host of other "outside-the-classroom" items? No one is saying.

The gullible House bought this hook, line and sinker, so it is again up to the Senate to reject this bad idea.

We, too, urged voters to reject the costly amendment that gives districts until 2010 to cap class sizes at no more than 18 students in pre-kindergarten to third-grade classes; 22 in fourth- to eighth-grade classes; and 25 in high-school classes.

But the voters spoke. Since then, Mr. Bush, the Legislature and local districts have tried a number of ways to get around the law. If as much attention were put on meeting the requirements as overturning the will of the voters, Florida would be further along in attaining the smaller class sizes voters demanded.

Voters took matters into their own hands in 2002 because they had no faith their leaders would do anything about Florida's crowded classrooms. If lawmakers want to regain the trust, they will enforce the law and stop these cartoonish attempts to subvert it.

Source: Orlando Sentinel Full Article

By JOE FOLLICK
Sun Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE - Republican lawmakers are plodding toward virtually ending the voter mandate to drastically reduce class sizes by 2010, promising the move would increase spending while maintaining the nation's most stringent limits on the number of students in each class.

Ever since voters in 2002 approved an eight-year path toward smaller class sizes, Gov. Jeb Bush has warned that the multibillion dollar cost to build new schools and hire new teachers would be an investment with little direct returns on quality education.

Having failed to put the matter back on the ballot last year, Bush has stepped out of the fray while House and Senate Republicans push a proposed vote in November on a measure to essentially freeze the reductions in class size while requiring districts to spend 65 percent of their money on classroom instruction.

Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, told the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday that his proposal would allow districts to avoid "drastic measures" such as rezoning, year-round schooling and double sessions in schools to meet the reduction mandate.

"It maintains the spirit of what those voters said, that they wanted smaller class sizes," Pruitt said.

But Democrats said voters wanted each class to be smaller, not simply to have each district meet the limits by averaging the number of students in each class.

"It seems to me the voters were real clear," said Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. "When they voted for class size, they were thinking of their child's class size."

The Republican proposal would require each district to have an average of no greater than 18 students in kindergarten through third-grade classes, 22 in grades four through eight and 25 for high school classes. Already 61 of the state's 67 districts meet that level, meaning the proposal would virtually end the class-size reductions. The proposal would also put a firm cap in each class of 23 in K-3, 27 in grades four through eight and 30 in high school classes.

Effective the beginning of this school year in August, under the current constitutional guidelines, each school's average class size must meet the 18-22-25 limits. If lawmakers approve the constitutional amendment and it's placed on the November ballot, the requirement to meet the limits with a school average would be postponed a year.

"There was no reason to do all of that if in fact two months later voters changed their mind," said Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Sarasota.

Unless voters change the constitution, each class in the state must meet the 18-22-25 limits by the beginning of the 2010 school year.

The inclusion of the so-called "65 percent solution" drew fire from Democrats and Republicans. With polls showing most voters support reduced class sizes, the inclusion of the requirement to spend 65 percent of each district's money on classroom instruction is widely viewed as political ploy to sway voters to support the measure.

Klein said that since the state wouldn't define what "classroom instruction" means until next year, voters couldn't know the impact of their decision.

Without knowing if guidance counselors and reading instructors, for example, would be included as expenses for classroom instruction, Klein said a vote on the 65 percent solution would be a "sham."

Pruitt, a conservative Republican, said the 65 percent solution would be an important step toward creating "a culture that stresses increased spending in the classroom."

While education groups like the Florida PTA and the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, opposed the plan, the Florida School Boards Association backs it, saying lawmakers will craft the definition of classroom instruction in a way that wouldn't harm schools.

The Senate Education Committee chairwoman, Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, voted for the measure Tuesday, but indicated she did so only so it could be considered more in the future. She said the 65 percent solution was only a political fix to win voter support and didn't belong in the constitution.

"People more and more are very concerned about changing back to what we had in class size," Lynn said.

Approval in the full Senate of a constitutional amendment requires 24 votes from the 40-member body. With Democrats in firm opposition, only three defections from the 26 members of the Senate Republican caucus would kill the measure. The measure must be considered by at least one more committee before the full Senate could consider it.

Support is more firm in the Florida House, where Republicans on Tuesday said the proposal would ensure the strictest class-size limits in the country.

Source: Gainesville Sun Full Article

By BILL KACZOR

March 22, 2006

* Class size amendments in both chambers (SJR 1150, HJR 447) include a provision that would require school districts to spend 65 percent of their budgets in the classroom. That's an idea opposed by Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach. "Sixty-five percent has no definition and it has no accountability to it," Lynn said. "We need to have school districts make decisions, and I think they make good decisions."

Source: Associated Press Full Article

Commissioner John Winn talks about class-size caps and a proposed amendment to force school spending on classroom expenses.

By RON MATUS, Times Staff Writer
Published March 21, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Florida's top education official expressed reservations Monday about legislative plans to mandate a rigid formula for classroom spending.

But Education Commissioner John Winn said the so-called "65 percent solution" is worth supporting when coupled with efforts to ease multibillion-dollar class-size caps.

"Without the context that we're in, I would not be in favor of just passing (the 65 percent rule) in a constitutional amendment," Winn told the St. Petersburg Times editorial board.

But, he said, "I've been on record for quite some time saying that this particular class-size amendment ... is too restrictive for Florida schools."

At issue is a proposed constitutional amendment being considered by state legislators and backed by Gov. Jeb Bush, the Board of Education and legislative leaders. If the Legislature approves it, voters will see the measure on the November ballot.

The amendment would force school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their operating budgets on classroom expenses including teachers, computers and student supplies. At the same time, it would water down the stringent class-size caps voters approved in 2002.

Supporters see that as an easy way to shift $1-billion per year into Florida classrooms without raising taxes.

Critics call it a cynical ploy to cripple the class-size rule.

Winn said both the class-size caps and the 65 percent threshold were picked "out of the blue," echoing observers who see the proposed amendment as an attempt to substitute one gimmick not grounded in education research with another. But he also said that given the huge costs of fully implementing the class-size amendment, the new measure offered a more "balanced approach."

By 2010, the class-size amendment would limit schools to 18 students per classroom for kindergarten through third grade, 22 students for grades four through eight and 25 students for high school.

The proposed amendment would re-set the caps as districtwide averages. But it would prevent any classroom from being more than five students above the average.

Winn said that revision would still be enough to fix school overcrowding, while the 65 percent measure would ensure more money is funnelled to smaller class sizes or higher teacher pay.

Still, he remained concerned about how "in-the-classroom" expenses would be defined.

Some amendment backers want to use a federal definition, which counts teachers as in-the-classroom expenses, but not administrators, librarians, guidance counselors or many other personnel. Under that definition, none of Florida's 67 school districts in Florida meet the 65 percent standard.

Reading coaches - a key part of Bush's education revamp - also wouldn't count toward classroom spending under the federal definition.

Other amendment supporters say a more flexible definition is likely, prompting some education groups, including the Florida School Boards Association, to sign on. Lawmakers wouldn't craft the language until 2007.

"I'm supporting the 65 percent solution, but ... as we define it in Florida," said Winn, who is expected to recommend a definition at a later date.

Also Monday, Winn defended the state's proposed performance pay plan for teachers, which has drawn fire from teachers, superintendents and school board members since Winn unveiled it last month.

Under the plan, the state's top teachers would earn 5 percent bonuses, with performance in many cases measured by student scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

"Like it or not," Winn said, the FCAT "is probably the best assessment in the nation."

-- Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com

Source: St. Pete Times Full Article

Palm Beach Post Editorial

State Education Commissioner John Winn says Florida’s K-12 schools should get all of a $480 million budget surplus. Does that mean that Mr. Winn has become a champion for K-12 schools?

Of course not. Mr. Winn merely is trying to start a fight among groups that should be education allies in hopes that the class-size amendment will take it on the chin.
Mr. Winn says the voter-approved requirement to lower class size in K-12 schools will eat up all of the surplus so colleges and universities should have to forgo their 31percent share.

“I really do believe that this is a sign of the impending funding crisis associated with the full implementation of the class-size amendment,” said Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan.

Not quite. It’s a sign that Gov. Bush and his education bureaucrats haven’t given up on their strategy to inflict pain — for example by forcing districts to cut electives — in hopes that voters will repeal the class-size amendment.

Gov. Bush relentlessly has overestimated the cost of lowering class size and underfinanced the actual, more modest needs.

Instead of fighting over a state-invented shortage, university presidents should join K-12 principals in asking how the state can plead poverty even as Gov. Bush proposes $1.5 billion in tax cuts that predominantly enrich Florida’s wealthiest residents.
From K-12 through colleges and universities, education needs real champions.

Source: Palm Beach Post Editorial Full Article

Letter to the Editor
Palm Beach Post

Outrage is the only way I can describe my reaction to the article, "Smaller classes under assault" (Feb. 27).

In 2002, the voters of Florida sent a message to the governor and the Legislature that we believe that small classes and more individualized attention are critical to the education of Florida's children. Cost estimates were provided, the pros and cons debated and 52 percent of the voters said YES, we are willing to pay for those smaller classes. There was no confusion on the people's part. There was no misunderstanding on the people's part. The only thing that happened is that the governor and his cronies who lobbied against the amendment lost.

And now we find that they still are trying to overturn the will of the people by placing a new constitutional amendment on the ballot that would redefine what the class sizes would be rather than the ones approved in 2002. Whether you were for the amendment or against it, there is a principle involved, and it is that the people made a decision and it is the job of our elected officials to implement that decision, not amend it.

If anyone out there doesn't understand that these leaders are telling us that they have no respect for our intelligence and judgment and that it really doesn't matter how we vote because they will do what they want anyway, then the people are either deaf, blind or just plain fools. Well, I am no fool, nor am I deaf or blind. I pledge to do whatever is within my power to make sure that every legislator who votes for this new constitutional amendment is defeated if he or she seeks reelection.

Shame on them and shame on us if we reelect these phonies. Stand up for principle and stand up for Florida's children.

BRUCE BRODSKY
Boynton Beach

Source: Palm Beach Post - March 15, 2006 Full Article

Jeb chooses tax cuts over investment

Gov. Jeb Bush says this is "not a year for legacy. This is a year for taking our progress to the next level to build an even bigger future for Florida."

But legacy is exactly what it appears he is aiming for in his final year as governor. Tax cuts and education vouchers were the highlights of Bush's State of the State message to the Legislature Tuesday. Having made both the centerpieces of his administration for the last seven years, Bush clearly wants to be remembered as the Education Governor and the Tax-Cutting Governor. Which would position him nicely for the next phase of his political career, whether it be the presidency in 2008 or the U.S. Senate later this year.

As for the issues that average Floridians are worried about, like finding affordable homeowner's insurance or being able to drive on roads not overwhelmed with traffic, Bush felt confident in leaving such devilish details to the Legislature. This session is all about vouchers and tax cuts as far as the governor is concerned.


Well, sure, homeowners will like getting the $100 check Bush proposes as the centerpiece of his tax cut package. And affluent owners of stocks and bonds will appreciate the relief from what he termed an "insidious" tax. But doubtless the vast majority of Floridians would rather have seen the $150 billion given up by his proposed cuts applied to the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. deficit to avoid surcharges on their next insurance bill. Or to a few of the many key highway projects that the state can't afford because of inflated costs, like S.R. 64 east of Upper Manatee River Road in East Manatee. Or even to respecting their 2002 vote to actually fund the class-size amendment instead of trying to repeal or circumvent it, as he is doing.

The state's good fortune in having a huge surplus was a rare opportunity for the governor to invest in schools, roads and other infrastructure that would have long-lasting benefits for Florida - a legacy that would endure much longer than a $100 check in the average household budget.

As for his obsession with school vouchers, Bush acts as if the Florida Supreme Court ruling declaring vouchers unconstitutional meant nothing. He continues to push for a constitutional amendment to restore the Opportunity Scholarship Program that gives students in consistently failing public schools a state voucher to attend a private school of their choice. Instead of fixing the schools in which students don't measure up, Bush would further weaken them by shifting funds to private schools that are less accountable.

This is far from a record that would qualify him as an Education Governor. Indeed, with the state's graduation rate among the lowest in the nation and academic achievement among minority students at abysmal levels, Bush could go down as the Anti-Education Governor.

But that isn't what will be touted in the snappy commercials for his next campaign. Tax cuts and vouchers make much more appealing sound bites than dull insurance, transportation and class-size issues.

Source: Bradenton Herald Editorial Full Article