Nie: You want the job? Please listen to us

During the school year, the St. Petersburg Times offers special stories geared to students who are using the newspaper in their classrooms. (Of course, you don't have to be in the classroom to read them!)

This year the Newspaper in Education series recognizes that you're never too young to pay attention during election season, even if you're not old enough to vote! Primary elections for state and local races took place Sept. 10; the general election is in November. Don't worry. Election 2002: Who cares? You should won't lecture you, but it will aim to inform you about the candidates and how their ideas might affect you, introduce you to young candidates and even younger politically minded teenagers, and suggest ways to be involved in the election process before you can cast a ballot.

Just think how prepared you'll be by November.

About the author

Sarah Wheaton, 18, served on the 2000-01 X-Team and was editor in chief of her school newspaper at Palm Harbor University High, where she graduated from the International Baccalaureate program. She calls herself a political junkie (one of her favorite TV shows is Crossfire), has volunteered with local campaigns and participated in the Presidential Classroom program, attending the presidential inauguration in 2000. She says her interest in politics began with her first experience of censorship of a student publication. Sarah is a freshman at George Washington University studying political science.

About Newspaper in Education

The St. Petersburg Times devotes news space to NIE features throughout the year, including this classroom series. The Times' NIE department works with local businesses and individuals to enrich the classroom experience by providing newspapers, supplemental guides and educational services to schools in the Tampa Bay area. To let us know what you think about this series, or to find out how you can become involved in NIE, please call (727) 893-8969 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 8969. For past stories, check out www.sptimes.com/nie and click on the Kids Only area.

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A letter to the gubernatorial candidates

Dear Jeb Bush and Bill McBride,

Although we cannot vote, Floridayoung people are worth listening to. We are cementing our views during this stage of our lives, so for the sake of your party (and in your case, Gov. Bush, your re-election), please take us seriously.

It should come as no surprise that the issue of greatest concern to us is education. Students in the Tampa Bay area generally agree that schools are not up to par. Funding is a major concern. What follows are the voices of middle and high school students around the Tampa Bay area:

"There are some things that most schools can't buy, like more book sets," says 11-year-old Vincent McCoige, a sixth-grader at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Clearwater. Meera Rao, 17, a senior at King High School in Tampa, questions whether "handing out private school vouchers to students from failing schools is a better use of state money than building up the schools that are failing."

Minh Nguyen, 15, wants to hear a concrete plan for improving education: "Step-by-step and not a bunch of mumbo-jumbo," said the sophomore at St. Petersburg's Lakewood High School.

Although we are not, as a rule, against the FCAT, we do see flaws. Thirteen-year-old Harrison Stern is in the eighth grade at Kennedy Middle. He says teachers teach to the test too much. "Base the FCAT on what you're supposed to learn, instead of what you learn on the FCAT," Stern suggests.

Josh Stearns, 13, also an eighth-grader at Kennedy, says the FCAT should be "more of a generalized test," and that it should be harder.

Despite the nation's current preoccupation with international terrorism, we are more worried about violence in our own schools. Kennedy eighth-grader Sabrina Lakhani, 13, says she has heard people talking about bringing guns to her school. She supports a "no-nonsense policy," also known as zero tolerance, to combat the problem.

Her classmate Harrison Stern says administrators should deal with students who fight on a "case-by-case basis."

Josh Stearns adds, "They should be punished, but not to the extent that they get thrown out of school."

Clearly, we will watch both the safety and zero-tolerance debates with interest, and your positions may affect our votes in the future.

Our concern, however, is not limited to education.

Vincent McCoige is worried about global warming. "We live in a coastal area. Ice caps might melt and flood us out," he says. The government should encourage companies to release less carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere, he says, although regulations would be "too restrictive."

Meera Rao is also worried about the impact that development has on the environment, in addition to development's effects on traffic, safety and historic preservation.

The quality of the environment is one of many factors affecting our health, and Minh Nguyen wonders how you, as the governor, "plan to improve the quality of HMO insurances, especially for single parents, children and seniors who have to decide whether or not their food is worth (more than) their medicine."

We care about the many senior citizens of our state who rely on Social Security (a program created by the government that pays retirees a monthly allowance) to pay their bills, and we want them to be healthy. Even though Medicare and Social Security are federal programs, due to Floridas demographics, your handling of health care is another factor that will affect our opinions.

Although many adults charge us with apathy and selfishness, the youth of Florida are informed about and care about a lot of issues. If popular campaign lines such as "children are our future" are more than just rhetoric, please consider what we have to say.

Sincerely,

Sarah Wheaton

Xpress Correspondent

[Times art: Teresanne Cossetta]

Log on, get involved

Check out www.FreedomsAnswer.net for information on how to be part of the Youth Voter Corps, high school kids who help register new voters. According to the Web site, the corps is "the ground troops of Freedom's Answer . . . a non-partisan, non-profit national campaign to achieve the largest voter turnout ever in a non-presidential election year." The site has connections to state contacts, resources and events.

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