Four years ago, the governor and Florida Legislature took bold steps to improve education by increasing standards and offering educational alternatives for children trapped in failing schools.
As the state's education commissioner at that time, I fully supported these new initiatives and helped implement them. I continue to strongly support these public policy changes and believe the results speak for themselves - we've seen the number of "A" schools grow five-fold and witnessed a 10 percent increase in the number of fourth-graders reading on grade level.
Since that time, state lawmakers have approved other innovative educational programs, including the McKay Scholarship program, which gives disabled students the option to attend private schools, and the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program, which provides tax credits to businesses that fund scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools.
These vital programs now serve an estimated 24,000 children in Florida, with the option to serve thousands more. I say "vital" because these programs empower parents to pursue high-quality educational opportunities that were, at one time, not available to their children.
In January of this year, I was sworn in as the state's chief financial officer. With this position comes the responsibility for keeping track of a $53-billion state budget and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are accounted for and spent wisely.
Audits are one method for ensuring good stewardship of public dollars. Thousands of audits have been conducted by our office over the last year, including audits of Florida's school choice programs.
Two reports on the audits of school choice programs were released earlier this month and offer solid recommendations to both the Department of Education and state lawmakers that will help enhance the fiscal integrity and strengthen the management of the programs. In fact, many of the recommended changes are already under way at the Department of Education.
Much has been written recently that calls Florida's school choice programs into question. Let me be clear. Oversight of these programs, not the programs themselves, is what our audit found to be lacking. And the lack of oversight has put the success of our state's school choice programs at risk.
I firmly believe that just as we hold Florida's students to high standards, we must also hold government to the same standards. With proper safeguards, accountability measures and strong oversight in place, these programs will operate effectively and continue to offer thousands of children the educational opportunities they so richly deserve.
-- Tom Gallagher, Florida's chief financial officer, Tallahassee
Voting should have a paper trail
It is imperative that this country be able to hold accurate and free elections. With the debut of the computerized voting machines, I along with many others are concerned that our most valuable right as Americans will be lost.
After the punch card voting disaster that occurred in Florida, this state as well as many others, with the help of the federal government, have begun purchasing a new type of touch-screen computerized voting machine. These machines register votes on a memory chip and then digitally transmit the results via telephone modem to election headquarters.
The fact that companies such as Diebold will not divulge even to senior election officials any concrete information with regard to the software they have created leaves this nation's voters with no tangible proof of how they voted. This is outright reprehensible as well as suspicious. What would happen to our votes if some glitches or - worse yet - tampering occurred? Our votes would be lost forever. Please support legislation that would simply require that we as voters would be able to approve a paper copy of our choices before they are registered in the computer. These anonymous paper copies can then be saved. If there is ever a question about the intent of the voters, the paper ballots can be checked and both voters and candidates can be confident in the outcome. I urge you to support this simple measure that can prevent a real crisis in our democracy.
-- Marge Culkin, St. Petersburg
The technology is available
I recently read a quote, I forget the author, but he said, "If there's a way to fix an election, someone will try it." Why would anyone not want to ensure the security and accuracy of the ballot?
At the Florida Democratic Convention, there was on display a touch-screen voting machine which was tamper proof, with several layers of voter verification along with a paper trail. The voters stuck their smart card and paper ballot card into the machine. They then made their choices and the machine walked them through, verifying the choices. Then they pressed the button to vote. The ballot then went through the machine, which printed a bar code on the ballot and a sequence of numerical codes, and gave the ballot back. The voters could then walk over to a chart and verify their choices by the numerical code, or place the ballot under a bar-code reader and it would tell them what their choices were.
Voters then wrapped the ballot in its privacy envelope and put it in the ballot box. The votes would then be tallied by another scanner, and because of the bar code could not be tallied twice. The voting machine itself had no modem connection, and no software that could be hacked. The technology is available, and competitive. Makes you wonder why supervisors of elections wouldn't want something like this.
-- Richard Chapman, Holiday
Ballots should be verifiable
I am writing to voice my deepest concerns about the integrity of the computerized voting systems which were rushed into service following the 2000 election.
Professional analysis of the Diebold system, which is used in many states, was accomplished by downloading unprotected software files from a Diebold Web site set up for the 2002 election. This analysis concluded that the vote can easily be altered to change the results without raising a flag or changing the total votes. In fact, any person vaguely familiar with computer programming could log in without detection and change the vote just enough to alter the outcome of a race or races. Other computer systems currently in use have similar problems.
We all know that computers sometimes crash and data are lost, yet the companies selling these machines refuse to let election officials from both sides inspect the inner workings of the machines or software, claiming that the software is "secret."
In some future political race, if a recount is requested because of a very close race or suspected improprieties (as the law requires in most states), it would be virtually impossible to recount accurately - there is no hard copy. These companies have sold the taxpayers machines that leave no tangible evidence of a person's vote!
Please propose and support legislation that would simply require that I as a voter be able to approve a paper copy of my choices before they are registered in the computer. Two copies of these anonymous ballots with the same identifying serial number could be printed - one copy for the voter and one copy to be stored by the county election supervisor to verify the vote in the event of a recount or lost computer data. If this system is not adopted, then some other accountable system must be devised. If there is ever a question about the intent of the voters, some system must be in place so that ballots can be verified and voters and candidates can be confident in the outcome!
-- Guy Bickerstaff, St. Petersburg
International court is best option
Saddam Hussein should be tried by an international court, rather than in Iraq, for three reasons.
First, only an international court and court officers, including a defense attorney, would have the expertise to conduct a trial that will stand the test of history.
Second, any trial in Iraq will inevitably be influenced by the U.S. military and President Bush and thus be seen by our opposition in the world as biased.
Third, and most important, his apparent crimes are international crimes, crimes against all those who are committed to justice and the due process of law over dictatorship, even if the only obvious victims were technically under his jurisdiction.
-- George Blanck, Tampa
Puzzling logic
Re: Try him in an international court, letter, Dec. 16.
After reading this piece several times, I remain at a loss to understand the logic. And I very much wanted to because we hear so little from someone who speaks for the Florida office of the "Council on American-Islamic Relations," (which presumably is in synch with the national council) and the Muslim community of Tampa Bay.
The writer says they "welcome the capture" of Saddam Hussein and that it should facilitate "the rapid transfer of sovereignty to a representative Iraqi government and the swift withdrawal of American military forces." He also says that "it is now time for the Iraqi people, free of despotic rule or foreign occupation, to take control of their own destiny."
But in the same letter he states, "We continue (my emphasis) to oppose the war in Iraq." How in the world does this council think the positive things in the above paragraph could have happened without the war in Iraq?
Sen. Joseph Lieberman observed that Gov. Howard Dean's war opposition would have led to Saddam Hussein still being charge. Is that what the council would have preferred? Accepting his downfall, does the council really consider that a country so long conflicted by despotic rule with so many different cultural groupings should now be left to fight it out among themselves after a "swift withdrawal of American forces"?
And why does the council prefer that an international court try him? What is wrong with Iraqi Islamic justice? I should like to hear more of this council's beliefs.
-- Charles Kottich, Largo
Selling out our children's health
Re: Junk food in schools.
I was appalled by the Hillsborough County schools contract with Pepsi. We are selling out our children's health to keep from paying for their education. With the current focus on the overweight population and the health risks of obesity, we need to encourage better eating and exercise habits at a young age. What kind of a message does the sale of junk food send to our children?
We need to make education a priority and stop funding it with lottery ticket sales and the sale of junk drinks and food. We are depending on the teen reliance on sugar and caffeine, and the hopes of the poor to finance our schools. What we need to be doing is to focus our tax money on education, which will surely get us a better return than tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Without an educated population, we will continue to have low-paying service jobs as the basis of our Florida economy.
We need to support impact fees from new housing and force our school boards and education hierarchy to be more accountable.
-- Lynn McGarvey, Tampa
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