You may have watched a County Commission meeting, or a City
Council meeting online or in person and come away thinking wow these people do
not have a clue.
If you want to see the ultimate in political and practical dysfunction
you have to check out your local school board.
Here is a list of the 74 districts in the state of Florida
each County has its own individual school board. List of Florida School Districts - Wikipedia
There are 74 districts in the state: one for each of the 67
counties, one each for the four research schools, one for the school for the
deaf and blind, one for the virtual school, and one for the youth development
center.
All Florida school board elections are non-partisan. In 43
school districts, school board members are elected by a district-wide vote of
electors (at-large election). In 21 school districts, school board members are
elected by a vote of the electors within their residence area (single member
district election). In 4 school districts, some school board members are
elected by a vote of the electors within their residence area, and others are
elected by a district-wide vote (combination of single member district and
at-large election).
So, who runs for the school board?
People who have fought with every principal in every school
their child ever attended and think they have all the answers.
Retired teachers who think all their experience in 3rd grade
education somehow qualifies them to be an instructive voice on the school
board.
People who look at their Florida property tax bill as it goes
up every year and get more and more incensed at the amount of money spent on public
education.
Social reformers who think public education is too conservative.
Social reformers who think public education is too liberal.
Social reformers who think public education Is too racist.
The list goes on and on and on, but the consistent theme is
most people who run for the school board, at least for the first time, are one-trick
ponies.
The recent debacle over whether to open schools in the face
of the Corona pandemic has shown the total incompetence of local school boards.
Notice the news clips and newspaper articles reporting on
your local school boards approach to masks, personal protective equipment,
school buses, online learning, and pay special attention to some of the really
stupid comments that these elected officials are making.
Notwithstanding the fact that Governor Ron DeSantis has
totally bungled handling the whole-school opening issue his idea of passing
this decision to local school boards shows a distinct lack understanding
regarding how the school boards function.
Very few if any school board members in Florida are prepared
to deal with decisions as significant as opening or closing schools in the face
of a pandemic. When the governor tossed this ball to the school boards, he may
have as well had simply thrown the ball out of the window.
As of the writing of this post, a number of districts have
now pushed back school opening a whopping two or three weeks. Health care
professionals are telling us we may not see a peak in new cases and positive
cases until near the end of the year.
Why would we even consider opening up schools, which are not
even mildly prepared to deal with children in an infectious disease environment
let alone the fact that teachers with a few exceptions have no training or
experience or desire to teach or baby sit in that environment?
Everybody is still to focus on getting people back to work
and the school babysitting service cranked up with little or no regard to the
massive public health crisis they are creating putting these kids in what by
all measures of common sense is a hostile environment from a medical
perspective.
What DeSantis should have learned by now if he never learns
anything else is you can't abdicate your authority and pass it to a group of
elected officials who have no conceptual grasp of the order, magnitude,
importance or impact of the decisions they're being asked to make.
Florida can't afford to have a patchwork quilt of some
counties with students in school some counties with some students in schools
some counties with no students in schools and everybody online how will parents
and teachers figure out what to do.
It's time to man up Governor Ron.
You need to take this ball back and make the decision that is
in the best interest of the human beings in this state. Shut the schools down
until next year and let's get this thing under control.
E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (E. Eugene Webb) Friend
request. Like or share on Facebook and follow me on TWITTER @DOC ON THE
BAY.
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