This is a note sent from Liz Crane, president of the Clay County Education Association, the negotiating arm for the Clay County teachers:

 Liz Crane and Lea Rhoden made the trek to Tallahassee yesterday with three bins of pennies. Thank you to the schools that participated and donated pennies. 

The display of pennies were originally to be placed on the Capitol steps however there was a ’concern’ that the weight of the pennies would be too much and the display was moved to a Read the rest of this entry »

Rep. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, has a proposal in the Legislature for a constitutional amendment to raise the state sales tax by a penny, from 6 percent to 7 percent, to fund education.

The idea is to let state residents decide by vote whether they want to tax themselves an additional penny to pay for the shortcomings in education. It would better if the Legislature would tackle the issue head on and try to bring the state education funding out of last place in the U.S. but that is probably not going to happen any time soon.

I am OK with a vote on an increase in sales tax — especially if the increase can be specifically directed to education spending. We have seen what the folks in Tallahassee can do when they get their hands on money intended for other uses, aka the Lottery. If Floridians truly want the improvements in education funding that they say the do, then the amendment should pass with flying colors. Don’t look for it to be a slam dunk in Clay County, however, where a local option sales tax increase has gone down in flames in the past, albeit under difficult circumstances.

In a brief comment on the subject, Rep. Jennifer Carroll, R- Green Cove Springs, said that as long as school districts were top-heavy with administrators she didn’t see much relief coming. She couldn’t have been referring to Clay County because the local district has reduced its administrative positions significantly over the last few years. Is there room for more administrative cuts in Clay? Possibly, but not to the extent that cutting more vice principals would make a dent in its huge budget shortfall.

Carroll also said she was not in favor of raising taxes.

I don’t sense there is any interest in Tallahassee in doing anything about education funding this year. Or maybe any year for that matter. There just seems to be a disconnect between Tallahassee and some of the desperate needs in Clay County. 

By LAMAR THAMES

Here’s the deal. Clay County can forget about ever seeing a dime of property taxes being derived from the long-sought outer beltway project. It just isn’t going to happen. 

If the roadway is going to be built — and opinions vary whether that should happen — it will have to be with a guarantee that a still-to-be-decided contractor will not have to pay ad valorem taxes to either Duval, Clay or St. Johns counties, where the road will be built.

At least that is the opinion of Rep. Jennifer Carroll, R-Green Cove Springs, who along with Sen. Tony Hill, is pushing legislation to exempt the contractor of the project from paying property taxes, much to the chagrin of many in Clay County. Read the rest of this entry »

WE SHARE THE OUTRAGE

Lamar Thames'J

Just like you, my wife and I are outraged at the bonus payments made to present and former officials at American Insurance Group, more commonly referred to as AIG (or as it will become known: Ain’t It Great?)

The outrage is understandable. Taxpayers (without a vote on the matter) get to fork over some $170 billion (that’s BILLION, with a B, folks) to bailout a company whose conglomerate Ponzi scheme worked little better than little ol’ Bernie Madoff’s one-man backroom operation. 

Here’s the rub for me, the $170 billion — or to paraphrase Barry Goldwater, “A billion here a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money.” — is money the U.S government said it had to give to AIG to “bail them out” because they were so deep in hock and and so big we couldn’t afford to allow them to fail. Read the rest of this entry »

• Global stocks rally as banks announce profits
• World finance ministers gather to find ways to battle recession
• U.S. retail sales show stabilization
• Madoff jailed
• GE, Berkshire Hathaway downgraded
• Brazil and Switzerland cut rates

Market optimism returned in full force this week after Citibank, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase said they made money during the first two months of the year. Around the world, stock markets rallied on hopes that stability was returning to the financial sector. Citibank kicked off the markets’ rise when it said it was having its best quarter since 2007. The news sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 379 points Tuesday, thereby kicking off a week of gains. Read the rest of this entry »

By Stephen Sawchuk

Courtesy of Edweek.org.

The recently enacted economic-stimulus bill requires every state to take steps to improve teacher effectiveness, as well as to tackle one of the most pervasive problems in K-12 education: inequities in access to top teaching talent for poor and minority children.

In those two provisions, which governors must address to get their cuts of $53.6 billion in state fiscal-stabilization aid, some experts see glimpses into the future of federal teacher-quality policy.

“We have a lot of evidence that this administration is very interested in making effective teaching a priority,” said Sabrina W.M. Laine, the director of the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality at Learning Point Associates, a federally financed technical-assistance center in Naperville, Ill. “The stimulus bill is wide open for interpretation, but it provides the proverbial shot in the arm for equitable distribution and for discussions to move a reauthorization bill [on education] forward.”

To read more of this discussion, you have to signup at edweek.org.

Stephen Wright is one of my favorite comedians. His dead-pan delivery and unique take on every-day situations makes me laugh. I am not sure if he wrote these, but they sound like him. Thanks to Annette for forwarding them to me. Enjoy

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• I have kleptomania, but when it gets bad, I take something for it.
• Follow your dreams! Except for that one where you are naked in church.
• Sometimes too much to drink isn’t enough.
• Headline: Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!
• My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my short-term memory is not as sharps as it used to be.
• In just two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday.
• A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory. Read the rest of this entry »

Ronnie Winter of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus performs in Alabama in December.

I see where the red-hot band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is planning a benefit concert to help raise money for band uniforms for Middleburg High School, which many of the group’s members attended.

This is an exciting idea on several levels. It benefits the school, it gives exposure to a worthy cause and it could be the catalyst for other home-grown celebrities to come to the aid of the cash-strapped education system in Clay County.

Consider the possibilities.

1. Country music legend Tim McGraw’s family was living in Middleburg when he was born. Do you think he could sell out the Clay County fairgrounds arena Read the rest of this entry »