Florida Governor Rick Scott sure knows how to take advantage of social networking. He held his first twitter conference a few months ago and tonight he held his very first Facebook townhall where he fielded questions about state pensions, SunRail, education, and healthcare.
While we can’t specifically place a number on how many Floridians attended the conference, Scott received over 1,000 “likes” to his answers to the questions he was relayed.
Take for example his answer to a question regarding how schools use the funding they receive from the state.
“Deanne Kimmitt asks how can schools better use the funding they receive.” Rick’s answer: “The key is to set specific goals, measure those goals and when we are not meeting those goals. We also need to look at how much money is being spent in the classroom versus administration and capital costs.”
I understand that Governor Scott had to give short answers due to the platform in which the conference was held and I’m sure time played a factor as well.
But Scott gave one of the best non-answers I’ve seen in awhile.
We are attempting to balance the state’s budget on top of students book bags and Scott says that we need to set specific goals.
Rick I have to hand it to you man, you are shining like a fog light when it comes to anything regarding education.
First you hire union enemy Michelle Rhee and then you propose a $4 billion cut in education in an effort to close the gap in the state’s budget.
Bravo sir, brav-freaking-o. You, my man, have got some island sized coconuts and here’s why.
Florida is just another state in the union struggling in education and in their finances. Let’s just call a spade a spade, Republicans like to cut money from education anytime they see a chance and you are no different than your fellow GOP brethren.
The City of Orlando was recently rated as the 9th dumbest city in America as only 26% of the city’s residents have a bachelor’s degree. Scott says that he wants to move Florida forward and open the state up for business but how will he do that if our students can’t make it out of elementary school?
Cutting funding from education and making it number 10 on the state’s list of priorities is about as smart as saying you can bring 700,000 jobs to a state by choking off a major transportation possibility like a high speed rail project.
With Scott’s vision for education in Florida I think we can look forward to the City of Orlando speeding to the top of the dumbest list, as our students future under Scott looks about as bright as Dwight Howard staying in Orlando.
When Rick’s nightmarish tenure in Florida is finally over the only thing we’ll be left with are broken schools and broken dreams. Its just too bad we didn’t realize this back in November.
-JH
Well said. Jason, as fellow writer, I sure wish I had written that.