8/22/2003
Vetoing the people
Good bit of editorial outrage at Sec. of Ed Horne's grandstanding on the class-size amendment -- Class-size jeremiad. (Look it up. If editorials can't use words like that, nobody in the paper can. More of a Jebemiad actually. Hyuk, hyuk.)
Horne's Armageddon rhetoric and his fiscal exaggerations only alienate parents who already think his main objective is to teach their children as cheaply as possible. ... The amount allocated to class size reduction this year, for better or worse, is less than 1 percent of the state budget. If that's a hurricane, then Florida needs the rain.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd wants to put a revised and weakened class size amendment to the Legislature in the fall special session along with some kind of teacher pay amendment so it won't look like they're just looking for ways to cut money for public schools and turn the savings into tax cuts for the rich.
(Teacher Union Spokesman) Pudlow said teachers will continue to support the (the original) class-size amendment, noting, "Their suddenly having concern about teachers' salaries is kind of funny."
The fall special session is beginning to turn into something of a mini-constitutional convention with an anti-abortion amendment already scheduled to be considered.
Bold Prediction -- The fall special session will become so overloaded that it will either be cancelled or deadlock.
Horne's Armageddon rhetoric and his fiscal exaggerations only alienate parents who already think his main objective is to teach their children as cheaply as possible. ... The amount allocated to class size reduction this year, for better or worse, is less than 1 percent of the state budget. If that's a hurricane, then Florida needs the rain.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd wants to put a revised and weakened class size amendment to the Legislature in the fall special session along with some kind of teacher pay amendment so it won't look like they're just looking for ways to cut money for public schools and turn the savings into tax cuts for the rich.
(Teacher Union Spokesman) Pudlow said teachers will continue to support the (the original) class-size amendment, noting, "Their suddenly having concern about teachers' salaries is kind of funny."
The fall special session is beginning to turn into something of a mini-constitutional convention with an anti-abortion amendment already scheduled to be considered.
Bold Prediction -- The fall special session will become so overloaded that it will either be cancelled or deadlock.
