School Board Rulez

At last night's Kissimmee Commission meeting the City Attorney was asked to explain an amendment to a growth bill that is being pushed through our state government. From his description, the amendment would make School Districts autonomous governments that would no longer have to follow any land development, controlled growth, or concurrency policies established by county and city governments. Basically, as it was described last night, the School Board (the same people who still cannot account for the lost packages of tainted meat that they had in their freezers and may or may not have fed to children) would be the new supreme government controlling your life. With this amendment, they would no longer have to answer to other governments or citizens about where they were going to put a school or how they were going to do it.

As the story was told last night, School Board Member Tom Greer held a whine fest with Senator Mike Haridopolos where he balled his eyes out about how much the local governments were bullying the school board around. Forcing them to adhere to procedures for zoning, neighborhood compatibility, and public safety compliance issues are just too much to ask from a school board it seems. The City Attorney explained that School Board Member Greer lied about issues that had developed between the City of Kissimmee and the School Board on a couple of school projects such as the Sports Authority School. Mr. Greer's claim was that the City caused the school to be delayed by six months when it was actually the School Board that created the delay by not filing the appropriate paperwork that any other developer or citizen would have to file. So much for honesty in politics.

Senator Haridopolos realizing that this issue would make a perfect campaign issue has put forward an amendment for a growth bill that will remove all constraints from the school board and allow them to drop any type of school any place they want. Some of the e-mails we have received since this revelation also point to the fact that this may allow the school board to build workforce housing any place they want because if the rules of development do not apply to them, then there is really nothing standing in the way for them to develop anything they want. Regardless, the issue that comes before the people that Mr. Haridopolos does not understand is that governments are not supposed to be all powerful. The school boards across Central Florida barely do the jobs the people have tasked them to do, and now they are going to be given even more power? There is a reason that the different governments are forced to work together and that reason is called "Checks and Balances."

The WayneWho staff would like to thank the city staff and the city commission for catching this one and informing the community about this issue. We would hope that any of you who have had dealings with the School Board will drop Senator Haridopolis a line and let him know what a bad idea this amendment is. Use small words and short sentences if you want him to understand your message. We would also like to recommend that you email Mr. Greer to let him know you do not like the idea of him ditching the Constitution of the United States of America for his own liberal playbook, but we are concerned that he might really start to cry, and none of us want to see a sight like that.

E-mail: Senator Haridopolos
mike@senatormike.com