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Teens cling to a lifeline as budget knives loom
© St. Petersburg Times The words are posted up on one wall of the lunchroom of the cramped and noisy Tampa Marine Institute: Humility. Self-Control. Love. If you want to succeed in life, the sign on the wall says, you need to practice these things. They're big words for a kid. And hard words to swallow when you're a kid on the skids. Tampa Marine Institute is one of those places for kids on the skids -- teenagers who have messed up their lives so much they're just this side of jail. TMI is their school. More important than math and reading are other things they're taught: to behave, to live within the lines of normal behavior like the rest of us. TMI is a good place. It does good work. And the governor wants to destroy it. You'd think that, of all people, Jeb Bush would understand. The governor knows about troubled kids. His daughter, Noelle, is still struggling with her drug addiction. He has said he wishes his daughter's difficulties could remain private. That's understandable -- the product of a father's protective instincts. But in the case of TMI, and other programs for young offenders, he would throw troubled kids to the wolves. State money for their programs would be axed so deeply that even some Republicans are upset. At TMI, about 70 kids, just out of jail, or on probation, or kicked out of traditional public school, take classes in a small building in the Port of Tampa. They have teachers and counselors who keep a close eye on them. If they do well, within five to six months, they're back in traditional school or have their GED diploma. If they screw up, it can cost them a probation violation, even send them back to court. Bush's budget would cut out the state's $500,000 contribution to TMI. With the state's share gone, the School Board would probably withhold its share. TMI would be gone, says Mike Thornton, its executive director. Closed. Shut down. Crunch time is not so far away. TMI's school runs year-round, even in summer. The agency's funds run out on July 1. After that, Thornton says, its kids would have no place to go -- unless you count the neighborhood corner where the dope dealers hang. TMI is one of 19 marine institutes across the state that rely on our No. 1 natural resource, the coast, the water, to help kids. Other institutes are in Pass-a-Grille and New Port Richey. The cuts affecting TMI will hurt the others too. Picture this massacre of programs 19 times over again, and you will get a feel for the nature of what Bush has in mind. "You've got to pay now or pay later," said Mike Thornton. In other words, if the state doesn't spend now to turn around the kids in Thornton's care, the bill will come later in the form of the three hots and a cot of a prison cell. Thornton says it costs $44 a day to take care of a kid at TMI. The governor's budget says the work can somehow be done by probation officers for $5 a day. "The number $5 a day just blows my mind," Thornton says. It also blew the minds of TMI's supporters in the state Legislature. One of them, state Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, says he expects TMI to get 80 percent of the money it now has. But the legislative season is early. Who knows what fights will be waged? Around TMI, Mike Thornton has a nickname. His kids call him "Mr. Mike." These are not kids prone to reading the newspaper or paying attention to politics in Tallahassee. Nevertheless, Thornton has tried to explain to them what's in the works. They always come back with one question, he says. "What's going to happen to me, Mr. Mike?" He doesn't know how to answer. -- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com
or (813) 226-3402.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
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Times columns today From the Times Metro desk |
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