Southpinellas: Teaching center opens under cloud of budget cuts

Teaching center opens under cloud of budget cuts

Charlie Crist promises to return to the state capital and fight for funding for the education program at USF.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

ST. PETERSBURG -- Legislators, teachers and university bigwigs gathered at the new Florida Center for Teachers here Saturday for a ribbon cutting. But the talk of the day was about budget cutting.

Even as the new facility on the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus was being dedicated, Gov. Jeb Bush and some state senators are recommending slashing its $275,000 state budget in favor of allowing individual school districts to handle teacher training.

Speaking at the dedication, Florida Commissioner of Education Charlie Crist promised that he would go back to Tallahassee to fight to keep the funding for the program, which helps energize teachers from across the state with seminars in Florida history, multiculturalism, archaeology and other topics.

"I commit to you that I will fight for that very hard," Crist said, with a huge round of applause greeting the comment.

The Center for Teachers is operated by the Florida Humanities Council, which shares office and classroom space in the new building at 599 Second St. S with USF's Mass Communications program.

"We know it can be a hard sell in the days of measurement, accountability and testing," said Susan Lockwood, director of the Center for Teachers. "Some people don't think a program like ours fits into all that. We'll just have to make our case more strongly."

After the official speeches Saturday, teachers in the audience gathered around Crist and state legislators to urge them to keep the program in the state budget.

"It re-energized me to go back into the classroom and share the ideas with kids," said Judith Overcash, who attended a seminar on Asian religions in Florida while she was teaching second grade in Clearwater. "It opened me up to some of the diversity around me."

Retired teacher Annette Lewis said she remembers how she returned to the classroom reinvigorated after the program, which was about her personal enrichment and mingling with other excited school teachers, as opposed to the latest classroom management techniques.

"It was just so interesting," Lewis said.