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May 15, 2000

Editorials
Schoolchildren as voucher pawns
When Leon County Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. ruled in March that school vouchers violate the Florida Constitution, Gov. Jeb Bush talked passionately about his concern for the educational stability of the 52 children who already were receiving vouchers. "I personally am not going to let parents who have been given assurance that their children could go to another school," Bush told reporters, "I'm not going to force them to go back to schools they don't want to go to."

A question of security
The idea of investing a portion of Social Security funds in the stock market deserves serious debate, not partisan posturing.

A police dog's best friend
If you believe the nightly news, America's kids are spoiled and violent and addicted to vices that will be the ruin of the country. Courtney Demmi shatters that stereotype. The 10-year-old Tampa girl has already given more to her community than most adults, and her compassion is a reminder that no life is too insignificant and that role models come in all sizes.

Letters
Republicans have come to the aid of environment
Re: Environment has few GOP friends, by Martin Dyckman, May 9.  

Perspective
Taking jobs, alienating customers
For weeks Americans have been told that the outsourcing of high-tech jobs is good for our economy. So said Greg Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a recent report signed by President Bush. So, too, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in articles praising the rise of call centers in India used for everything from making airline reservations and reading medical X-ray films to providing tech support for American computer firms.

Philip Gailey: Democrats fall off campaign finance reform wagon
Well, what do you know. Soft money is back, and it's making hypocrites of all those Democrats who fervently championed the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, not to mention those Republicans who objected to the law's restrictions on issue advocacy.

Bill Maxwell: Who is for the farm worker?
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is touting legislation to improve the lives of Florida's 300,000-plus farm workers, who endure institutional and systemic injustices each day in our fields and groves and their personal lives.

Robyn E. Blumner: For some defendants, an American gulag
In Bernard Malamud's masterpiece The Fixer, inmate Yakov Bok was subjected to psychological torture in a Soviet gulag through the humiliations of constant shackling and repeated strip searches.