`Pathetic' label fits school woes

By Dan Gelber

"Pathetic." Gov. Bush recently called the Democratic Party "pathetic" over the reported failure of the party to submit payroll taxes for two quarters in 2003. The dictionary definition of "pathetic" is "arousing or capable of arousing sympathetic sadness and compassion." As a Democrat, I am, of course, appreciative of the governor's sympathetic concern, but let me suggest a few and more proper applications of the word "pathetic."

Pathetic is having the worst high school graduation rate in the nation. Worse than any other state and worse than any other time in Florida history. Now that arouses sympathetic sadness and compassion.

Pathetic is paying Florida's teachers $6,000 below the national average, but somehow finding $300 million to give well-connected corporations and multimillionaires uncalled-for tax breaks.

Pathetic is asking underpaid kindergarten teachers to teach 40 children in a class. Florida's classrooms are among the most overcrowded in the nation.

Pathetic is an education budget that ranks last in the nation in per capita spending.

Pathetic is boasting about cutting state taxes for special interests while quietly shifting more than $800 million in our education budget onto the backs of Florida homeowners through state-mandated property taxes.

Pathetic is the fact that Florida's high school seniors taking the SAT scored worse than seniors from 46 other states. At no time in history have our seniors been less competitive in the hunt for college placement.

Pathetic is raising tuition for Florida higher education each year, more than double the rate of inflation, so that those seniors who do graduate will find it harder to develop advanced skills with which to enter the workforce.

Pathetic is zealously pursuing voucher programs that are not merely unconstitutional, but that bleed resources from a school system that can't afford to lose a dime.

Pathetic is, despite overwhelming public support for a constitutional amendment mandating "high-quality" universal pre-kindergarten education, implementing a confusing, three-hour-a-day program that lacks even the semblance of "high" quality.

Of course, I'm just getting started. The list of what is and should be labeled pathetic unfortunately doesn't end with this administration's public education record. It's pathetic that 17 percent of Floridians have no health insurance, and almost the same numbers have no access to a primary care physician. It's pathetic that nearly every week we hear about a child entrusted to state custody getting lost, killed or molested. And our state's unconstitutional and unseemly intrusion into Terry Schiavo's end-of-life decision gives new meaning to "pathetic."

If I may, a few words of advice: If you want to engage in a real debate on policies and their effects on Floridians, then let's have at it. But name-calling does nothing to advance solutions to the very serious challenges facing our state.

Dan Gelber is a Democratic legislator from Miami Beach.

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