Letters to the Editors

Managing growth is a top priority for Gov. Bush

Re: An uncertain future for DCA, Jan. 7.

Your editorial accused Gov. Jeb Bush of "delivering little more than speeches" on the issue of growth management. We would like to set the record straight. Gov. Bush advocates growth management policies that ensure the sustainability of Florida's communities and the continued growth in our local economies. Toward that end, we are working to combine our two state agencies to better manage growth and serve the people of Florida.

Community support is one common denominator that makes this a logical consolidation. Whether the focus is elections oversight or new business development or restoration and preservation, the Department of State's programs have always had a common theme: working together with Florida's communities. Similarly, the Department of Community Affairs' entire mission has revolved around community partnerships, providing both technical and financial assistance to Florida's communities through planning, housing and community development, and emergency management programs.

Second, this proposed merger is in keeping with the governor's principle of a smaller, more efficient government. Creating partnerships that help communities will not only provide greater efficiencies in delivering important government services, but it will also provide more structured opportunities for local governments to strengthen their communities. A more streamlined program will benefit those who use community programs and will achieve savings in administration and management at the state level.

Managing Florida's growth to build a strong foundation for diversifying our economy is essential. That is why growth management remains a top priority of Gov. Bush's administration. We share the governor's vision, and are always mindful that, ultimately, our decisions must have positive consequences for our schools, our infrastructure, our environment and our overall Florida quality of life.
-- Glenda E. Hood, secretary of state-designate, and Colleen Castille, secretary, Department of Community Affairs, Tallahassee

A sorry School Board performance

Re: School choice notices get delay, Jan. 8.

I can't say that I am shocked by the Pinellas County School Board's notice that the choice applications won't be processed now until mid-March, but I am appalled. Originally, parents were told they would find out which school their children would be assigned to in January. Then they were told February and now it's mid-March. This is just one more thing to prove how inefficient the Pinellas County School Board is.

Those of us fortunate enough to have our children in private school won't be effected by this. But how about those families that have struggled financially to keep their kids in a private school because they were not happy with their public "zoned" school? Finally, with "choice" they could possibly have the opportunity to put their child in a public school of their choice. However, with the notice date being delayed until mid-March, most private schools will have already finished their 2003-2004 registration. Will parents risk the chance of losing their child's place at their private school to wait until March only to find out that their child will not be going to one of their top choice public schools?

I have had my own dealings with the Pinellas County School Board and although the members will tell you that they are working for the best interests of the children, stunts like this prove otherwise.
-- Kimber Hartman, Largo

Diligent parents deserve to know

I am writing to express my extreme frustration and disapproval of the Pinellas County School Board in regard to the choice plan process.

As parents of a child entering kindergarten in the 2003-2004 school year, my husband and I have taken every measure possible to ensure that our child would receive the proper education in the Pinellas County schools. In September and October we toured 11 schools in our attendance area, plus several fundamental schools to gather information on the best school for our child's needs. Prior to each visit we researched the school on the Internet, interviewed parents and teachers. We applied to a fundamental school, our child was put on a wait list and then we completed our school choice application with our top five schools well in advance of the Dec. 13 deadline.

We were promised a letter in late January/early February with an assignment for our child. The School Board should give a school assignment to the Pinellas parents who have diligently met the requirements for their child's education,

What kind of example are the board members setting for children when they effectively punish the people who completed the requirements? By allowing change at this late date they are penalizing the children whose parents completed their homework on time, favoring those who haven't.

Our family is forced at this point to consider a private school over a public education because the "choice" plan has failed us.
-- Mrs. Beth Walters, Madeira Beach

Just let Hinesley go

Re: School choice notices get delay.

This latest round of news is just what we should expect of a "lame duck" superintendent like Howard Hinesley. And he has been for a long time.

I cannot understand why the Pinellas School Board doesn't just terminate its relationship with Hinesley. Buy him out and change the locks. The board should have done it when he pulled the salary/benefits extortion trick two years ago. He bluffed us with his threat of departure and the suckers on the board bet the house. This guy is going to tour the world in retirement very soon. Why don't we just let him get an early start.

Lord knows, we have put too much on the plate. School choice, reduced class size, pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds. Even if we keep Hinesley around, we are still going to need David Copperfield.
-- Jason LaCroix, St. Petersburg

Low-income students poorly served

Re: Study: Poor getting rookie teachers, Jan 8.

The article about the annual report of Education Week confirms what many of us have suspected: Children from poor families in Florida, including Pinellas County, are being shortchanged when it comes to receiving a quality education in our public schools.

The practice of having teachers teach subjects in which they have no expertise has been criticized before by high school students in Pinellas County. Teachers teaching out of their fields cannot fool students at any school because they immediately recognize when the teacher does not have total grasp of his or her subject matter.

Of course, what the report dwelled on is the fact that, in Florida, the out-of-field teachers are getting assigned more often than not to those schools where there is a high percentage of students who come from poor families. Doing this turns students from poor families into poor students. School boards have an obligation to spread around the weaknesses, so to speak, so that there is no economic discrimination in the county.

School boards throughout the state need to study the issue of assigning out-of-field teachers and develop policies that drastically reduce the practice and ensure that, where necessary, it is put into effect across the economic board.
-- Howard Feldman, St. Petersburg

Teacher unions have failed

Re: Count on teachers to vote, but not as one bloc, Jan. 5.

It's no surprise that most teachers are not following the union line to vote Democrat (and I am a liberal Democrat). The unions are botched up as they have been for so many years. Years back, when A Nation at Risk was published, you'd think unions would have figured out that they had better get with it, prime their school boards to improve education and not wait for politicians to get into the act.

It's no surprise that teachers did not vote the Democratic line. Most of them are too smart to think the teachers' unions have all the answers. Most teachers know that small class sizes have nothing to do with good teaching. As a mother told me once, "I'd rather have a good teacher with a large class for my kid, than a mediocre teacher with a small class."

Most teachers know, too, that giving money to schools that perform well is educationally unsound, and they know that overemphasis on testing is not the answer -- only the testmakers come out great on that one.

The teachers are smarter than their unions, but, unfortunately, they don't speak up. And the unions are now playing ball with the politicians, most of whom never even took Education 101. If we don't give education back to our school boards, and if our school boards don't take on the administration, our nation will get more and more "at risk."
-- Amelia Nugent, Largo

Bonuses work fairly

Re: School bonus battles, editorial, Jan. 3.

Your characterization of school bonuses is as biased as your reporting of the Bush A+ Plan. Seminole County received more money than Polk because Seminole County made more improvement across the board than Polk.

It's not that our students are smarter by genetics -- it's that Seminole students (both the smart ones and the dumb ones) made more improvement in one year than what the average student is required to make to be passed to the next grade. If we don't do it again this year, we won't get anything. If Polk County does a better job of teaching, it may get twice as much as Seminole for the next five years in a row.

It's how you break the habit of accepting the status quo by educational bureaucrats.
-- Bob Goff, Seminole County School Board, 1996-2000, Palmetto

Bonuses can be divisive

Re: School bonus battles.

I must agree with the editorial regarding school bonus battles. When the school I work at received its bonus, the arguing over how to dispense the money divided our school. It took away everyone's attention from teaching and serving children and pitted us against each other on who was more deserving of the money. As far as I am concerned, if we ever receive bonus money again we should send it back to Tallahassee.
-- Nancy Erdvig, public school teacher, Pembroke Pines

The ways they served

Re: The draft never worked well, letter, Jan. 10.

The letter writer states in his response to Two cheers for Charlie Rangel (Jan. 5), "George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Tom DeLay were able to dodge the draft in the '60s because of their connections with money and power."

For his edification and that of readers, George W. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard as an F-102 fighter pilot in the '60s.

Donald Rumsfeld was a U.S. naval aviator and flight instructor from 1954-1957, transferring to the Naval Reserve until 1975, when he became secretary of defense and transferred to the standby reserve, retiring with the rank of a captain in 1989.

Dick Cheney had a college student deferment during the '60s but served as secretary of defense from March 1989 to January 1993 and directed two of the largest military campaigns in recent history, Operation Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East.

Tom DeLay had a student deferment and graduated from the University of Houston in 1970. The draft ended in 1973.
-- Joe Mackay, Seminole

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