The Education Governor - The "merciless cuts to the university system" have resulted in "desperate measures" by some. And the House wants to impose summer school mandates on school districts, yet fails to fund them (we love those unfunded Republican mandates).
Republican Backlash Against Bush Education "Reforms" - There may be a Republican"backlash" over Bush's so-called education reforms; and it includes white suburbanites. The Hispanic community is none too happy either; Peter Wallstein puts it bluntly:
"[A]fter three years in which the Republicans have spent millions wooing the state's non-Cuban Hispanic ''swing'' voters -- electing Florida's first Puerto Rican Republican legislator, for example -- Gov. Bush is in a bind that could jeopardize those gains just in time to hurt the president's reelection."
"The problem for the governor is that Hispanic lawmakers want payback for their loyal support: a loosening of the new graduation standards that could prevent hundreds, if not thousands, of Spanish-speaking high school seniors from graduating because they failed a test offered only in English."
GOP Opinion Police In The Classroom - "In October 2001, the Florida Department of Education tried revoking the teaching certificate of a Cape Coral teacher who told her third-graders on Election Day 2000 -- in response to a student's question -- that she supported Al Gore for president. The principal reprimanded the teacher and forbade her from having 'any further discussions of this type.' But a state-appointed administrative-law judge later found that the teacher did nothing wrong."
"Last year, a Collier County high-school teacher who organized antiwar protests in his spare time was demoted amid complaints that he used his classroom as a forum to promote his ideology, including his opposition to the war in Afghanistan. The state is pressing to revoke his teaching certificate." See "Teachers walk fine line when sharing opinions in classroom"
"The Catastrophe In Higher Education" - When you hear Bush blaming the economy, blaming the war and otherwise refusing to take any responsibility for the "catastrophe" that is our higher education system, remember that the "[t]he university system has endured a downward spiral that began when times were good. As the Legislature was busy giving away $8.1-billion in tax breaks in the past four years, the universities were losing money, per student, each of those years. In the past 12 years, they have been cut by $450-million; last year alone, the damage was $167.5-million. Seven years after a business partnership produced a report titled 'The Emerging Catastrophe in Higher Education,' the state still finds itself ranked at or near the bottom of most national indicators of university health."
In Case You Missed It Yesterday: Local Leader Of The "Only Major Party With Good Morals" Sues Fellow Party Member For Conduct "Utterly Intolerable In Civilized Society" - Seminole County Republican, and past vice chair of the Florida GOP, Jim Stelling, claims he was defamed by a letter sent out during his failed attempt to become chairman of the Florida GOP. The letter, from a fellow GOP stalwart, "questioned Stelling's character -- and reminded Republican committee members that the GOP was 'the only major political party with good morals.' The letter said that Stelling had been married six times, adding, God knows what went on between those times of marriages.'"
"Stelling says he has been married five times -- not six. 'That's a matter of public record,' he said. He says the rest of the accusations in the signed letter, which Stelling attached to his legal papers, are false."
Stelling's lawsuit says the letter "'exceeded all bounds of decency, utterly intolerable in civilized society.'"
There is much to chuckle about here, particularly the claim - and Republicans apparently believe this - that they are "the only major political party with good morals." Perhaps most interesting will be Stelling - local leader a political party known for its dirty tricks and "Willie Horton" tactics - attempting to prove that he, of all people, was the victim of communications that "exceeded all bounds of decency, utterly intolerable in civilized society." 6:53 AM
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