Florida's Governor Jeb Bush Sends Another Letter to the Editor, St. Petersburg Times

The St. Petersburg Times | June 16, 2002 | Governor Jeb Bush

[floriduh voter]

Letters to the Editor: DETAILS EXPLAIN TEACHER CENTER VETOE

Re: Gov. Bush, why can't you support the Florida Center for Teachers?, by Bill Maxwell, June 9, 2002

Dear Bill:

Thank you for your second annual open letter to me about the Florida Center for Teachers. Once again, I vetoed a $275,000 appropriation for this professional development option, and once again you have let me have it. I thought I'd respond in the same style.

You said you wouldn't waste my time "with a lot of detail." Boy, were you ever honest. Here are three major details you left out.

First, the budget I signed -- for the second year in a row -- provides more than $36-million in professional development for Florida's teachers. This is more than 100 times the amount you have wagged your finger at me for vetoing, and it doesn't even include the $11-million in state funds (plus an anticipated $45-million from Washington) for professional development as part of our "Just Read, Florida!" initiative. Doubtless these little details were edited out to make room for the accusation that I "ignore teacher enrichment."

Second, you left out any detail on what the Florida Center for Teachers actually does. Actual course offerings from last year included "Plagues in Medicine and Myth," while this year the Center is sponsoring "Hip Hop, Hoops, and Homies: Contemporary Urban Popular Culture." I'm not suggesting these courses do not have some value. It's just curious that you clearly don't feel the actual course offerings of the Florida Center for Teachers help in your defense of its appropriation. I'm not sure I can blame you. As Bogart said to Bergman in Casablanca, "I wouldn't bring up Paris if I were you. It's poor salesmanship."

Third, if you can remember all the way back to your childhood, then surely the eight years of the previous administration should be fresh in your mind. During that period, real (inflation-adjusted) per-student K-12 funding actually declined. Under our watch it has increased, including a $1.1-billion, 9 percent, 6 percent per-student increase next year. This is not "education on the cheap."

Bill, the Florida Center for Teachers deserves equal treatment, not special treatment, which is why I vetoed an appropriation specifically for it. Districts remain free to spend their professional development dollars on the center's programs (among many other options) if they find them worthwhile. I'm confident superintendents will weigh your endorsement appropriately as they make their decisions.

-- Jeb Bush, Governor, Tallahassee

[floriduh voter]

On June 9th, before sunrise here on the Gulf Coast,(why was I even awake?) I read my morning paper and noticed numerous op-ed pieces that I felt should be brought to the attention of Governor Bush. So, I emailed Jeb's campaign staff immediately alerting them that it was time for Jeb to set yet another liberal political editor straight.

Jeb had written previous letters to the editor at the Times and I included just how much I enjoyed reading Jeb's letters to the editor in my email and that I was was ready for another. I specifically mentioned June 9th as particularly noteworthy; both sides of the opinion section!

This past Sunday, June 16th, there it was, a letter by Jeb addressing an op-ed piece from June 9th. It may or may not have had anything at all to do with my email but we are the campaign's eyes and ears IMO.

If you support the Governor in your community, I feel it is part of our campaign activism to alert his campaign staffers if you read something in your local paper that JUST CANNOT BE ACCURATE so they can put out lib fires all over the state.

It's very easy to do. Just visit http://www.jeb.org and click on the contact us page. You have your choice of staffers to email, and apparently, THEY WANT TO HEAR FROM US. Thank you Governor Bush for adding so much to my Sunday paper, besides the ads. LOL

And friends, special thanks also go to juliernr21 who wrote her own Letter to the Editor to the St. Pete Times printed on Saturday, June 22nd's paper. Thanks to Jeb and Julie for their excellent commentary in a very liberal paper. They BOTH got the attention of the paper. Good work! FV

[AndyJackson]

I thought the Bushes were supposed to be illiterate airheads. Jeb sure cleaned that editor's "clock."

[floriduh voter]

For your index and your ping list. And, by the way, Jeb is personally signing all of his thank you letters. You can always tell when they're original signatures. He uses the same fast pens that athletes use for autographs.

[E=MC²]

bill maxwell is a black RACIST P.O.S. and I'm glad to see Jeb take him on and set him straight (if that is possible...maxwell has a solid cinder block for a head).

[Fracas]

Maybe we could ask Jeb to conduct lessons for elected officials on how to properly address illegitimate complaints. This was exceptionally well done, perhaps even pithy.

[witnesstothefall]

Good freeping dude.

[gaspar]

It is not generally known that the St Pete Times is owned by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. It was founded and financed by a bequest of the Time's Nelson Poynter following his death in the nineteen seventies and which was meant to keep the paper independent. Its goal was to save a paper while the Institute itself, ostensibly politically neutral as well as non-profit, provided training for journalists.

As is common in bequests of this nature, the inmates took over the farm and swung the Institute and the paper to the left. This left swing was accentuated when James Naughton, previously with the far left-wing Philadelphia Enquirer, took over in the mid-1990s.

Because the paper is beholding only to the Institute and not to stockholders, it does as it damn well pleases and covers for some really inept journalists.

[floriduh voter]

Most of their so-called journalists and editors always go for the cheap shots and are very careless by design. Jeb is covering all of his bases - a lesser man would not be able to keep up his 12 to 14 hours a day and run such a great campaign.

[floriduh voter]

Jeb Bush is a friend of mine. If we all convey this to swing voters, he'll win in a landslide. I personally feel that Jeb's been a friend of mine since he was inaugurated.

[floriduh voter]

Ping to see the Governor of Florida in campaign mode. Look out, libs!

[LarryLied]

Good work! Wish more of our guys would hit back.

[floriduh voter]

The genius that is Governor Jeb is revealed in small doses because he doesn't spend lots of time gloating or bragging about how darn smart he is. He is devoted to others in his actions and deeds; he's self confident, but not self centered - big difference.

[kayak]

What a zinger! I love it!

[dalebert]

Jeb made his point again.

[Congressman Billybob]

Humor, as Mark Twain observed, is the best possible weapon to use against a "public humbug." This reporter and his newspaper certainly qualified for that treatment. Jeb's use of the line from Casablanca was a classic.

I hope your efforts played a part in causing this to occur. But either way, this is a delightful piece of work. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Congressman Billybob

Click for: "Talking without Speaking -- Hearing without Listening."

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

It is good for Governor Bush to show that being a nice guy does not mean you have to just smile while people are piling crap all around you. But he answers sharply without being nasty, which is a neat trick.

[tenthirteen]

The St. Petersburg Times is known here as PRAVDA WEST. There are several racist/activists reporters on board and certainly no moderate/conservative writers. The Editorial Board went for Clinton twice, (they insist on multiplying their ineptitude) and play the race card at almost every chance they get.

Their only redeeming value in this part of Florida is using the paper for fishwrap. I normally do so BEFORE I ever read the contents.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Your St. Pete Times is a piece of work. I did some research on the fishy election stats from Pinellas County...stopping to e-mail the St. Pete editorial board on a number of occasions when they spun the election every which way but in the honest direction. Pinellas going for Gore is a joke...impossible, based on the rest of the county returns, and the fact that Pinellas was and is (in spite of the St. Pete mis-statements) a Republican county (and oh, so many more fishy details).

Thanks, I needed that. (^:

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

As Bogart said to Bergman in Casablanca, "I wouldn't bring up Paris if I were you. It's poor salesmanship."

Wow, this is a side of Jeb we rarely see. This is very promising. They will fight. We can be bringing up the rear instead of on the front lines. Well, you and summer are on the front lines...but the rest of us....our guys can take on their opponents without handholding (and without having to cheat, steal, or lie like some people we know).(^:

[Ku Commando]

"Poynter Institute"....what a work of art that joint is !?

I work across the bay at the NBC affiliate in Tampa as their Sat truck engineer, but when I'm not pumpin' electrons into space, I assist the Assignment Mgr. on the news desk.

POYNT  I want to make here is that the News Director, Forrest Carr (who had the GALL to post here last September shortly after the WTC attacks) recently took a weeks' vacation & spent it at The Poynter Institute taking a refresher course in socialism, or whatever leftist drivel it is they spout over there. In my business, it's just about the same wherever you go....they tickle each other's ears with aplomb.

BTW, Jeb is the best thing that ever happened to FLA. Very intelligent, articulate, & even-tempered! GO JEB !!!