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Pinellas voters need to elect a top quality School Board

Re: School Board gets an F.

Your March 2 editorial was very revealing of the real conditions at the Pinellas County School Board and how the board is affecting the quality of education in our schools. I believe Pinellas County voters must realize there is a direct link between the quality of the elected School Board members and the quality of education in the classroom.

Pinellas voters do not closely scrutinize the qualifications of the School Board members. Historically, membership on a school board has been viewed as a sweet little political position, a pink-collar career of relative unimportance paying an annual salary of $37,000. Pinellas voters need to understand that the county ranks as one of the largest school districts in the nation. The Pinellas County School District is one of the top employers in the county with a budget of $1.2-billion and 110,000 students K-12.

The Pinellas County school system has grown to the complexity of the daily operations that requires expertise. Our community cannot continue to elect unqualified people to the School Board and expect to have high performing schools. Pinellas voters need to begin to elect School Board members who are highly qualified and have the demonstrated leadership skills, vision, fiscal responsibility and experience to match the complexity of the position. To attract qualified School Board members, our community will need to pay for their experience and expertise in order to ensure high performing schools.

Pinellas County voters have demonstrated their support of highly qualified teachers in the classroom. Now is the time for Pinellas County voters to begin searching for highly qualified School Board members to ensure high quality education for all Pinellas County schools.

Voters need more information

Your editorial School Board gets an "F" was very enlightening. It points out what may be a major flaw in our School Board's functioning and, unfortunately, with our media.

As an avid reader of the Times, I do not recall many, if any, articles detailing the School Board issues you point out in your editorial. That puts me, and all other interested voters, at a distinct disadvantage. What you seem to want us to do is ultimately make decisions when we next vote based on your editorial opinion, rather than on our own cumulative knowledge.

The fact is that we deserve to have far more regular objective coverage of the School Board, as well as the County Commission and other government bodies, in the news sections of newspapers and on radio and TV news, so that we can follow these events as they unfold for ourselves and begin developing our own independent opinions. Then we would have a frame of reference for your editorial comments.

Please consider increasing your news coverage so voters can make more informed decisions.

Consider the entertainment value

Re: School Board gets an "F."

Your editorial was dead-on accurate. However, you failed to give credit where credit is due. I agree with your assessment of the board's professional competence, but for pure TV entertainment value, I rate them five stars. Their meetings are Pinellas County's version of the Jerry Springer Show. If you would temporarily suspend your concern for schoolchildren, and watch the meetings solely with an eye for their entertainment value, I'm sure you would acquire a new appreciation for their laugh-out-loud antics.

From one extreme to another?

Re: Court: Only adults can face execution, March 2.

So, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that you must be 18 at the time of your crime to be eligible to be executed. While I feel it should be done on a case-by-case basis and I'm no fan of execution, why do we go from one extreme to another? Two of the three people highlighted in the article, who are no longer on death row, will in a few years be eligible for parole. First we were going to kill them, now we may one day release them? If they were so heinous, shouldn't we keep them locked up forever?

Questions of responsibility

Re: Court: Only adults can face execution.

I know you folks at the Times are happy, but tell me: If a 13- or 14-year-old girl has the maturity to end her pregnancy, and not even inform her parents, why does a 13- or 14-year-old gang member who murders not have to take responsibility for his actions?

Maybe there's some "Harvard type reasoning" going on here regarding the difference in sexes and their respective capabilities.

Act on Social Security now

Re: Social Security/personal accounts.

I'm a retiree, a four-year Navy veteran, a college graduate with an MS degree who is living on a pension, Social Security and investments. It is hard for me to comprehend why many of the general public and the Democrats don't seem to understand that Social Security will be in trouble in 2015, serious trouble in 2018 and bankrupt by 2042 with the status quo.

There needs to be action in Congress to remedy this potential disaster, and now is the time. Also I'm a strong supporter of the option for personal accounts. If I had had a chance for a personal account when I was younger, I would have jumped at the opportunity with both feet.

Beware of a Bush deal

Re: Bush may deal on Social Security, March 3.

How nice of him! If it is anything like the "deal" on the Medicare drug benefit, it's from the bottom of the deck.

That one assures the drug companies of huge profits at the expense of retirees by prohibiting Uncle Sam from negotiating prices.

What we need is a "New Dealer," like F.D.R.

Insensitive Hollywood

Re: Oscar ceremony opening comments by Chris Rock.

Unbelievable! What should have started out as entertaining comments instead began with tasteless remarks concerning President Bush, Iraq, the economy, our troops, Michael Moore, 9/11, etc. Wouldn't you think that the folks in Hollywood have learned their lesson after the last election? Makes you think twice about going to the movies!

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:54:02]