by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
“Put it this way, it can’t get much worse.”
Mayoral candidate Tommy Hazouri summed up Jacksonville’s education system in those nine words. While three School Board seats open this fall, education rhetoric among local candidates likely won’t heat up until city elections next spring.
Local polls indicate that education is the top concern in Jacksonville. Appropriately, those interested in succeeding John Delaney have vowed to address education as priority No. 1.
“My passion has always been education,” said Hazouri. “Education is No. 1 and it always has been.”
The problem is, the public is given little more than those few nuggets of proclamation from the majority of the mayoral candidates. Mike Weinstein has not come forth with a comprehensive campaign agenda. Nor has Ginger Soud. Nor has John Peyton. It’s too early, they say. Hazouri and Peyton, although they have opened campaign donation accounts, maintain they are not official candidates until they make an official announcement in the future. Yet each one of them has hinted that education will play a major part in their campaigns.
As such, Matt Carlucci is the only major candidate to announce a plan. Everyone else appears to be waiting for the clamor of state elections to die down after November to spring their ideas on Jacksonville.
In the meantime, Carlucci’s ideas lay open to criticism. A day after he announced his candidacy for mayor, Carlucci’s fellow candidates were quick to denounce his educational ideas. Carlucci proposed the creation of a chief educational officer to coordinate educational efforts between the mayor’s office and outside groups.His opponents grumbled and snorted at the idea.
“Simply stated, this is typical of someone that is in local government,” wrote candidate Keith Myers in an e-mail to the media. “Appoint someone, spend money to demonstrate interest without actually thinking through to the solution to the problem . . . This is a very wasteful idea and a slap in the face of all educators within Duval County.“
Myers offered to put the City’s business incentive program on the chopping block to help save local schools.
“If they can throw out $231 million to 103 businesses in the last two years, they can certainly put more money towards schools. If we don’t use incentive money — and this is taxpayer money — we can use it in the classroom. Think of what a difference that would make.”
Hazouri called it another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy. Weinstein said Carlucci was creating a scapegoat. Peyton remained silent. Soud prefers to speak through her newly created City Council educational task force.
Curiously, the group charged with keeping Duval County’s schools in line has not recoiled at Carlucci’s proposal.
Superintendent John Fryer declined to comment, but told the Times-Union last week that it was a “good idea to have that focal point and to make sure we’re in partnership with the City.”
School Board member Susan Wilkinson immediately embraced the idea.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” she said. “I think it will be an outstanding idea if he appoints a person who is sincere and is able to mobilize people. If we’re ever going to improve the intellectual capital in this city, we need to come together as a community.”
School Board member Linda Sparks was also receptive.
“I was intrigued with the notion of having someone on the City staff who would be a focal point for the schools,” said Sparks. “If the City wishes to have a focal point that would garner support for education and channel support from businesses, I see that as an amazing benefit. Just imagine what a central coordinator could do to get the community excited about education. I see this person as a magnifying glass who could absorb energy from different groups in town and laser them in.”
Sparks, term limited from the School Board this year, was more skeptical of Soud’s task force. The board is not represented on the task force and was not consulted prior to its formation.
“The first law of navigation is if you want to know what direction you need to take, you need to know where you are,” said Sparks. “As long as they go about [their studies] in a manner where their results have validity and reliability.”