Category: Florida

The adage hasn’t changed. Some pictures are, indeed, worth at least a thousand words. The photo on the front page of last Friday’s Tampa Bay Times spoke volumes. It showed three Twin Lakes Elementary teachers standing behind Gov. Rick Scott as he announced his proposal to give every Florida public school teacher a $2,500 pay raise.

Normally, this would be cause for high fives all around, and they would be wearing animated, thankful expressions: $2,500 makes a difference in teacher take-home pay. Instead, they looked like they knew they were political photo-op props. Like they knew that this was the same governor who had chopped $1.3 billion from education in his first year. Like they knew he was the one who had used teachers as political piñatas by railing against tenure and leading lawmakers in adopting morale-killing merit-pay measures. They wore vacant, impassive expressions and stared straight ahead. The governor could have been talking post-Newtown security instead of a pay raise. Let Superintendent MaryEllen Elia do all the smiling; it comes with her job. The teacher trio looked like they were seeing right through the stage craft.

Maybe this was, in effect, the editorial the Times didn’t quite write. The one that still seemed a little too eager to credit the uber unpopular governor for something other than early re-election posturing, expedient makeover and blatant bribery.

This is, after all, the same governor who takes credit for an unemployment rate now down to 8 per cent, but no blame for the 749,000 Floridians still unemployed or the 15,300 jobs lost in December. Or all the venture capital dollars that still don’t find their way to Florida. Or the governmental inertia on the collection of sales taxes owed on Internet sales. Or an agenda that now acknowledges the need for voting reform after having championed voter-suppression efforts–and then arrogantly distancing himself from the issue with national media. He looked better in his Medicare-fraud deposition.

You can’t have it both ways. Unless the mainstream media lets you.

Gov. Rick Scott was in our region last week when he visited the Honeywell Aerospace plant in Largo to promote proposed tax cuts for manufacturing plants and to bask in any new Honeywell orders that might have come in the last two years. Another day at the self-serving office.

But non-fawning media got off message and asked him about Florida’s gun laws. In response, Scott allowed that it would be proper to look at such laws during the upcoming legislative session. But, no, we shouldn’t expect any specific recommendations or a “call to action” for reform, explained his press secretary.

But there was an insightful reference by Scott in acknowledging support for a broad legislative review of this state’s gun laws. His motivation: the tourist economy. Imagine if visitors didn’t  “feel safe” in the Gunshine State? This wasn’t just a matter of life and death–but a matter of dollars and cents. Now we’re talking.

Maybe there’s actually an upside, however perverse, to no limits on the number of guns a person can buy at one time in this state. Maybe there’s also an ironic upside to more than a million concealed-carry permits–as well as “Stand Your Ground” veneration.

Indeed, Second Amendment perversion and a heat-packing culture could wind up costing Florida business. So, yes, there’s hope on gun policy, however crassly motivated.

Not every student who graduates from a Florida high school has to take the FCAT. Those who score high enough on the traditional ACT or SAT can bypass it. Sounds reasonable. But this is Florida, and nothing involving education is ever quite so.

State education officials have indicated that those FCAT-bypassing scores will likely be changing. But they haven’t said to what. Nor have they said when. Which is all kind of unnerving to students who very much would like to avoid the dreaded FCAT. And lest we forget, it is, after all, their educational experience that this is all about.

So advice is being proffered to the new education commissioner, Tony Bennett, in hopes that he can straighten it out and fairly manage the expectations of students with a lot riding on the outcome.

But lost in the confusion over timing and new numbers is this: the current FCAT-bypassing SAT score is 760. As in a minimum of 420 in reading and 340 in math. And, yes, this is still based on the 1,600 system. And recall that the reading and math numbers were reconfigured up about 20 years ago. A 340 in math gets you out of the FCAT? It should get you into remedial math class.

What are the odds that Marco Rubio, one of the senatorial “Fiscal Cliff 8” who voted against the budget compromise, employed the ultimate political calculation before going thumbs down on the deal? Might it have been that he first had to feel confident that the uber-hyped deadline–with all its attendant controversy, international interest and apocalyptic speculation–would, indeed, pass?

Then, presumably, he couldn’t be vilified as a party-first obstructionist. He would, ostensibly, simply have been voting on “principle”–the one that demonizes tax hikes for anybody anytime–especially in the absence of spending reforms. The one that would–when rationalized with that customarily glib Rubio charisma–likely play well down the road in certain caucuses. Just askin’.

Much has been made of the refreshing youth of the new Speaker of the Florida House, Wesley Chapel’s Will Weatherford, who recently turned 33. He came in with the class of 2006. By all accounts, the District 38 Republican is not, mercifully, another central casting pol prone to further polarizing Tallahassee politics. We’ll soon see how he handles both sides of the aisle.

While Weatherford’s 30-something Speakership is noteworthy, it should be noted that it isn’t historic. We were reminded of this fact last week with the passing of Doyle Conner, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner from 1961-91. Before that, the Bradford County Democrat had been elected Speaker in 1957–at age 28.

There is, of course, no dearth of pointed opinions when it comes to the gubernatorial prospects of Charlie Crist in 2014. Personally I hope some genuine Democrat without baggage earns the Party nod. I think she will then beat Rick Scott like a cheap rug.

The biggest problem I have with former Gov. Crist, a genuinely nice guy who would have some White House clout, is that he walked out on Florida when we needed him most. The economy had been blind-sided, we collectively cringed at the possibility of a hurricane hit, and Crist saw a career opportunity in Washington. He then hand-delivered an opening that would otherwise have been unavailable to Scott, an embarrassing, unmitigated disaster for the Sunshine State.

That, alas, is the Crist legacy.

As a former English teacher, I reserve the right to wax old school on certain subjects. One is the subject of ever-increasing online courses in public higher education.

The topic was broached prominently last week by former Gov. Jeb Bush in a co-written column with Randy Best, the founder of Academic Partnerships, a company that–unsurprisingly–designs online courses. The column, utterly relevant to our economically-challenged times, was run by a number of statewide daily newspapers.

Just as Jeb sold FCATs on the seemingly unassailable basis of “accountability” (anyone against “accountability”?), he’s pushing the exponential increase of online instruction in the good name of doing something meaningful to address higher education’s financial reality: decreasing legislative help as costs soar. Doing nothing about the status quo is obviously not an option.

The prioritized online approach has application, but it’s simplistic. That’s because the online experience works best as a complement. For example, those freshman survey courses with a junior instructor, a teaching assistant and 600 students are not to be confused with Plato’s Academy. Online, provided everyone is comfortable with the dynamic, can work and be pragmatically cost effective.

But a lot of courses and disciplines are clearly not suited to the online approach, especially where the premium is on “teacher” and not “presenter.”

No less important, however, is that a university is not a trade school. It’s also a rite-of-passage journey to adulthood, a venue and vehicle for behavioral growth.

Online education has its place, increasingly so. But its place is not as a de facto replacement for the real thing.

Just when you thought you’d heard enough of the election post-mortems, you realize you still haven’t heard it all. That’s after a question-and-answer session with Florida’s most quoted political scientist, Susan MacManus of USF. The Distinguished Professor and author held court the other day at the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa luncheon. Some MacManus outtakes:

* “Cable TV debates hurt GOP candidates” by providing a mother lode of material to the Obama campaign. Likely upshot: “TV debates in primary states will be minimized.”

* Fallout from Superstorm Sandy: “It helped Obama look presidential. And I think Republicans will lose (New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie) as a presidential candidate.”

* The Florida turnout, 71 percent, was down about 4 percent from 2008. It wasn’t so much a matter of suppression, noted MacManus, as it was “the negativity of campaigns and ad saturation.” In effect, some voters responded with: “Neither one.”

* Role of social media: “Not as much as people thought. Party and candidate intrusion (ad drops, contribution requests) alienated a number of younger voters.”

* Use of messengers, especially to younger voters:  “Messengers can be as important as the message. The Democrats sent Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama to key states. For the Republicans, where were the Nikki Haleys and the Susana Martinezes? It wasn’t helpful to send Newt Gingrich, although he’s smart, out there.”

* Democrats’ Hispanic approach: Included “effective use of Spanish language cable networks (Telemundo, Univision) with the message: ‘Let’s register and vote.'”

* “Generational replacement.” That’s what’s occurring with the Cuban vote in Florida. As a result, it’s no longer “solidly Republican.”

* “Democrats always assumed there would be late deciders, often younger, female voters.”

* Democrats were much less concerned with yard signs and bumper stickers than with developing an “incredible data base.” Door-knocking was more effective than calling.

* So-called fiscal cliff: “Expect a band aid on a deep gash.”

By all accounts, the ascendancy of Republican Will Weatherford to Florida House Speaker is grist for the optimism mill. The clean-cut, collegial 33-year-old, who is the youngest Speaker in modern Florida history, is the antithesis of Ray Sansom.

The Wesley Chapel resident has been saying all the right things since the election. Inclusion and cooperation have become mantra-like references, which is not unimportant in a Legislative House that still has 76 Republicans out of 120 members. That still has 26 Republicans out of 40 Senate members. That still has a Republican cabinet. And still has GOPster Gov. Rick Scott, now trying to regain the respect of the Koch Brothers.

The test, of course, will come in March. That’s when the 86th Legislature will convene and the people’s business moves from the rhetoric of reconciliation to the reality of law-making. Hopefully–in a state with 8.5 percent unemployment and budgetary subplots–it won’t be ideological business as usual.

Speaker Weatherford is no miracle worker, of course. And the GOP majority still includes some Tea Party and Deliverance elements. But he can help put the House on notice by how he uses his good will, what tone he sets and what he actually prioritizes. Some suggestions: Consider blatantly necessary voting reform, meaningful health care cooperation, overdue internet retailer-tax remittances, genuine support for higher education and serious, distracted-driver legislation. If common sense, good faith and sheer need were the criteria, all this would be low-hanging fruit. Even in Florida.

Weatherford can’t do all the picking, but a savvy-beyond-his-years, ethical, moderate Republican with across-the-aisle instincts is surely cause for encouragement. Surely.