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Thirty-four years ago, Floridians elected a little-known Democrat from Pensacola named Reubin Askew as their new governor. He's been out of office now for 25 years.
His legacy remains, and he long will be remembered by those who honor the gifts he brought us.
He left us with an education system that guarantees equal funding for public schools and a constitutional amendment that imposes ethical standards on public officials.
Other states still are fighting over how to level the financial playing field for education and avoid the problems that come when a school district's spending is based on the wealth of its community.
Askew's constitutional amendment established the basics of ethical conduct for public officials. Nowadays, Florida public officials routinely disclose their assets and income sources, allowing an easy way to determine when they are not acting in the public interest. Even those who filed a lawsuit to fight disclosure ultimately complied with the law or left public office.
The same amendment, approved by voters in 1976, forbids legislators from representing private clients before state agencies and requires them to wait two years after leaving office before returning to lobby their colleagues.
Askew knew he'd never get legislators to approve an amendment imposing such ethical restraints on themselves, so he took the measure to the people.
He distributed postcards that could be printed in newspapers to gather the necessary signatures to get the issue on the ballot. The reaction was overwhelmingly favorable.
Tonight in Orlando, Florida's First Amendment Foundation will honor Askew for his contributions to our state.
At 75, Askew remains busy teaching classes at Florida universities and presiding over an annual seminar designed to look ahead at important issues affecting all of us.
The Reubin O'D. Askew Institute on Politics and Society at the University of Florida was created after Askew, whose his middle name is O'Donavan, left office.
This week, for the 10th time in as many years, the institute pulled together academics, politicians, business people and journalists for two days to focus on a problem confronting the state.
On Thursday and Friday in Gainesville, the group took a hard look at public education, one of our thorniest problems.
Askew said the conference is designed to "look down the road" in fast-moving times.
"We have a lot of things clashing at one time, like two trains heading toward each other on the same track," Askew said.
David Lawrence, former publisher of the Miami Herald and president of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation in Florida, is helping the Askew group. Appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush as a special adviser to the Prekindergarten Initiative, Lawrence joked Thursday night that the Republican governor will forgive him for helping a Democrat.
Lawrence probably didn't mean to put his finger on part of the problem with his opening joke, but he hit the nail on the head. Too often, the state officials charged with fixing education look at it terms of Democrats and Republicans, winning and losing.
Lawrence said the achievement gap in education is closing in Florida. We are becoming a national leader in reading gains and have improved math scores, but there is an enormous distance to travel.
Carolyn Herrington, a professor at Florida State University and an expert on the state's role in education, said there have been improvements since the late 1990s, but said no one knows yet whether Bush's education policies are working.
"We've seen some remarkable student achievement. If it is sustained, we may be moving out of a low achievement era," she said.
But it could take as much as eight years to accomplish real gains, she said.