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Make Special Session Special

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 24, 2008

Finally, it's official. There will be a special legislative session next month. Gov. Charlie Crist, not a proponent previously, is now on board. That (2008-09) $2.3 billion state budget hole - that could deepen to $3.8 billion or more in 2009-10 - plus possible harm to Florida's credit rating and Medicaid scenarios from hell has everyone finally fixated on a resolution. Presumably, everything is on the table, especially in a state that hasn't fundamentally changed its revenue-raising ways from the LeRoy Collins administration years.

But you would presume wrong.

According to House Speaker Ray Sansom and Senate President Jeff Atwater, the legislators will be focusing on a "combination of spending reductions and trust fund transfers." This is crisis management? This is a crisis made worse.

In the Republican-dominated Legislature, there's negligible support for a review - let alone an overhaul - of Florida's tax system. There's no-tax ideology and then there's no-responsibility idiotology. Now is not the time to tap reserves, such as the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, or employ accounting sleight of hand.

For openers, it would be expedient for the Legislature to stop pouting about being a "rubber stamp" and finally approve the gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and then get on with adding that $1 to the paltry (33.9-cent) state tax on cigarettes. Voluntary taxes should always be on the table, especially during a serious economic downturn. Especially those that would (combined) net the state more than $1 billion annually.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink seems the only one with clout willing to say what needs to be said - now more than ever. She said it was time to re-evaluate - drum roll, please - Florida's tax system. In short, "Every sales tax exemption ought to be back on the table," proclaimed Sink.

In other words, when rapidly ratcheting population growth largely insulated this state from recession, the old paradigm of a sales-tax skewed revenue system sufficed for the short term. The only term, of course, that mattered politically. But now that growth has flat lined, that system is insufficient.

Perhaps Sink could borrow Crist's unused bully pulpit to better make the case for forward-looking options. These would include the aforementioned general sales tax (6 percent) exemptions, including certain services, as well as becoming part of the concerted regional effort to collect sales taxes on catalog and Internet sales.

And if the effort makes Sink look, well, gubernatorial, good for her. Perhaps Crist will take note - as well as notes.

Big Turnout In Context

We now know that the recent election turnout, more than 131 million, was the highest ever. We also know that the percentage of eligible voters voting was the highest in 40 years.

Some context.

One of the reasons that more people voted is that we have a lot more people. But still this is a good sign.

That portion of eligibles who actually voted last month was 61.6 percent. It stands to reason that with the United States at war, at partisan fever pitch, in the throes of economic turbulence and at a crossroad in history, the presidential election would prompt a big turnout. Then add the historic African-American candidacy of Barack Obama.

A higher percentage of voters turned out for the Nixon-Humphrey election of 1968. It also means that with so much at stake, 38.4 percent - or nearly two out of every five eligible voters - didn't vote.

Bad Educational Parlay

It was not a good week for the Hillsborough County school district.

It began with the embattled principal of Alafia Elementary, Ellyn Smith, stepping down. She had her detractors and defenders, but ultimately the divisiveness at Alafia became a morale-sapping distraction impossible to overcome.

While that controversy has been quelled, another question arises. Smith is a veteran of the Hillsborough system. Her tenure has been marked by outstanding evaluations and promotions.

And yet, despite 34 years of experience, Smith had to be "mentored" and "coached" by a former principal for the two weeks prior to her announcement to leave. The mentor/coach was there at the suggestion of a school effectiveness assessment team that had reviewed the school in response to parents' complaints about Smith. The mentor/coach's responsibilities included helping Smith work on her personal interaction with teachers and parents.

And the coach/mentor, Grace Ippolito, was paid $340 per diem for her work. Smith was also slated for leadership training at Eckerd College that would have cost the county $4,500. What budget cuts?

So the key query is this: How do you get 34 years into your professional career and still need a mentor/coach? And more specifically, who did the evaluating? Who did the promoting? Who determined the criteria? And who is still perpetuating this system?

Another incident was worse. Much worse.

Christina Butler, a former Middleton High School special education teacher, was sentenced for having sex multiple times with one of her students. It brought back into public consciousness - aided by the media - all the other nefarious cases. May we never become inured to this sort of disgusting betrayal of trust.

The shock, however, was Butler's actual sentence: five years of probation. Even more startling was Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett's rationale. He noted that the victim, 16, and borderline retarded, was probably more mature and less vulnerable than Butler, 33. Padgett saw the student as more seducer than "victim." By contrast, he saw the defendant as immature, frightened and bipolar - a psychologically fragile woman who had been in way over her head by being in charge of high school students.

He took pity on her, which is his, however controversial, prerogative.

Butler has those five years of probation and can no longer teach.

Which begs two questions:

•Butler, as a registered sex offender, can't teach. But can she learn anything from this sordid ordeal and do something constructive with her life?

•Granted, special education teachers are at a premium nationwide. With good reason. The field requires teachers with discipline, empathy and the right skill set, including diagnostic, for reaching and motivating a school's most challenging learners. It's the worst of all pedagogical places for the fragile and the incompetent.

So, how much lower can the bar get in Hillsborough for hiring special education teachers? Might not psychological screenings, which are not part of the background-checking process, be especially applicable for this field?

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesez@aol.com or www.opinionstogoonline.com.

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