Category Archives: Martin County

MCTV Should Belong To Everyone!

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There are 168 hours in a week. 24 hours in a day. 302,400 minutes in the average month. I think it is more than enough available time for MCTV to televise every meeting for every government in the County. In fact, each meeting could be repeated several times. So why isn’t what should be called the tax-payer-funded Martin County Citizens Channel doing so?

 

Much has to do with inertia…county government believing that since they have never done so, why should they do so now could be a prevalent thought. Another possibility is a more parochial one…the channel belongs to the government. In my mind, those are lame excuses. The County should do it because it is in the public’s interest to know what their governments are doing in their names. That was the concept of having government channels when franchise agreements with providers were signed in accordance with Section 611 of the Communications Act.

 

It is amazing how many people tune in to watch meetings. It is more than I would ever have expected. Not everyone can go to BOCC meetings but almost everyone can watch the re-airing later. Many of us do.

 

What has really brought this to the forefront is the shutting down of public meetings in the time of COVID-19. Different boards have tried and done their best, but it has resulted in limited public input. The “public square” has been cordoned off. Zoom has been used in the breach, but it is nothing like a real face to face meeting.

 

And when a citizen can’t be there, televised meetings are the next best thing. Body language, which sometimes conveys more than words, helps identify where someone stands on an issue. C-Span has been going strong for the past 40 years showing unedited content of Congress and our national government. There is the Florida Channel which does much the same for Tallahassee. MCTV should serve the same function for Martin County.

 

MCTV production costs are paid for through the County’s General Fund. Whether you live in unincorporated Martin County, Stuart, Indiantown or the other municipalities, every taxpayer is contributing. The intention of the station was never to be the lone mouthpiece to showcase how staff views things. It was to inform the public on all government.

 

There would be added expense for sure. Most of it should be borne by the general fund and some by the governmental entities based on population. Currently, the only other governmental entity that broadcasts a meeting is the School Board. That meeting is not shown live but rather a couple of days later. I would imagine that is because closed captioning must be inserted.

 

The School Board is charged a premium. It is against the concept of sunshine and open government.

 

The station should operate much as C-Span does and not as a propaganda arm of Martin County government. Today, we have the capability of making sure that citizens have the knowledge of what is being done in their names, televised meetings are as much a part of government as other departments.

 

The County Commission should get behind this effort and spearhead it. The other governments and their boards should also be lobbying to see this occur. I hear from many board members that they are committed to transparency. Having televised government meetings for every board in Martin County would be a way to show their commitment to that principle.

Children, Height and Stuart

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Recently, Stuart has apparently offended several communities on its municipal borders.

 

In both instances, developers have proposals to build multi-family projects on vacant land. Both are located on major thoroughfares. What they are attempting to do is bring new housing to the City that actually looks like it belongs in an urban setting. It’s the kind of housing everyone claims we need until it is next to your home.

 

The first is on East Ocean Blvd nestled next to Kingswood which is in the City. Kingswood is an over age 55 community. Their residents are apparently deathly afraid of having families with children living next to them. At the last LPA meeting on February 20, Kingswood resident after resident voiced concerns regarding the proximity that they would have to the greatest evil they can imagine which, apparently, are kids.

 

Perhaps this is an outgrowth of an increasingly selfish society. Just imagine if these same individuals were objecting to new neighbors based on race, ethnicity, religion, or a myriad of other unacceptable reasons. How about if a developer wanted to build an over-55 community in the middle of a family neighborhood, and the kids objected to grandma and grandpa moving in.

 

The second project is fronting Federal Highway off Harrison Street in South Stuart. The developer wants to build 7 four-story buildings on 13.9 acres consisting of 280 apartments with amenities. There are single family homes in a development known as Springtree surrounding the proposed site to the rear. They are objecting because of traffic, density and the height of the buildings. At least they are not worried about the characteristics of the new occupants.

 

Humans are programmed to hate change. Change to our daily routine. Change to our diet. And definitely change to our surroundings. If it was a vacant piece of land when we moved here, then it should remain as such even though the current location of my house or condo was once a vacant piece of real estate.

 

If you live within the City of Stuart, on its borders or within the Urban Services Boundary, those vacant lots next to you are going to be developed at some point in the near or far future. Those strip centers that are now nearly empty are going to be re-purposed or demolished to make way for something new and probably bigger.

 

You cannot claim to care about our waterways and then object when vacant land in cities, CRAs, and within the Urban Services Boundary are built upon. The alternative is sprawl. The alternative is more and more congestion on our roadways. The alternative is more concrete and less open space in the western part of the county.

 

Single family homes are expensive to build and then to own. Realistically, fewer and fewer of us can afford or want to live in these homes. During the Springtree presentation at the City, a picture was shown of a four-story condo, The Edgewater, on St Lucie Crescent in Stuart which also happens to be my neighborhood.

 

This condominium is surrounded by townhouses, single-family homes, rental apartment buildings, and an office building. My mother-in-law lived at that building for thirty years. My wife and I had an apartment there as our Stuart home for 10 years. For the past 15 years, we have lived in a single-family home that we built less than 500 feet from that building. There are no setbacks or trees to hide the site and certainly not a 350-foot preserve and 50-foot additional planted setback as is planned for the development near Springtree. It is a cohesive, friendly, diverse neighborhood where everyone, for the most part, gets along with each other.

 

There really is no sustainable path forward if we continue with the Florida sprawl. Young people can’t afford to spend $500,000 to buy a home. Most people can’t afford those prices. Slowly, we are pricing ourselves out of affordable, workforce, and middle-income housing in Martin County. This is the legacy of NIMBY. Most Martin residents’ visions are nothing should be built, but if something does have to be, make it a single-family sprawl development. Oh, and no children or neighbors, please.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR WHOM DO YOU PULL THE LEVER

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When we go to the polls, we make choices. The hardest ones are not about whether a Democrat or a Republican is the better choice. To me, the most perplexing votes are when I am asked to choose between a candidate that has government experience and one that does not.

 

How much does experience matter in elective office? I think it depends on what type of position we are voting to elect. Like any new job, once elected there is a learning curve if you have never worked or served in government before. Government does not operate as the private sector does.

 

Government shouldn’t work as a private business because public money is being expended. There needs to be more safeguards and more hoops to jump through. Bureaucracy is created to do just that.

 

I am more than willing to vote for an inexperienced person to represent me in local government or in the state legislature. Most people who initially run for these positions have the best interests of their communities as their reasons for running. There are seasoned staff employees to explain the intricacies of government to them once elected.

 

I am quite leery of voting for someone with no public track record for an executive office. There is a big difference between “shaking things up” and destroying the system, and knowing the difference is much harder for a neophyte.

 

You need to have the ability to do two things in an executive position.The first is to be able to take advice. The elected executive must be a confident enough leader to surround himself with the very best people he can find. The second is to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Any individual that has been successful has an ego. You need to know how to keep it in check.

 

The last type of elected official is the technical position such as Clerk of the Court, Tax Collector, Sheriff or Property Appraiser. In most places, these positions are not elected ones. Except for sheriff, these are departments within other governments. Those department heads are appointed. They are apolitical and technocratic.

 

Florida has a long tradition of electing these officials. We also had a long tradition of electing our school superintendents. Other places elect chief executives to run local government. We don’t do that here. Is one way better than the other?

 

For those technical offices, the person I vote for must have experience in the field. By running, they are applying for a job and I am one of the deciders on whom to hire. These positions are important. I don’t want my sheriff to be the guy that was an accountant before he was elected.

 

If we are going to insist that we choose a person to run a technical department of government by popular vote, we need to look at his/her resume. You need to have both relevant technical knowledge as well as executive experience. If you make the campaign a popularity contest instead of a job interview, you may not get the best person in that job.

 

Depending on the position, a voter can take different factors into consideration. For county commission, experience isn’t as important as judgement. A connection with the voter is important. A county commissioner or a state senator is a representative of the people that elected him.

 

A sheriff or other constitutional officers are technocrats that enforce existing statutes. They need to have executive experience and knowledge in the field we are entrusting them with overseeing. Electing someone without those attributes is bad public policy and ultimately bad for the taxpayer.

 

Local Government & Affordable Housing

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The Stuart City Commission will have a workshop devoted to the topic of housing next week.

 

I hope the Commission does not meander down a predictable path. Will that old chestnut of what to do about affordable housing be brought up? If it is then the entire workshop will be for naught.

 

For some very basic reasons, the City has little it can do to provide more of that type of housing. The physical size of the City is limited. The amount of property available to erect new buildings is minuscule. Florida’s building code, which is a very good one, results in a more expensive product than 20 years ago. The City itself does not have the funds to subsidize rents. While the City’s impact fees can be lessened a bit, those of the County and School Board can add thousands of dollars to the cost of new development.

 

What the City can do is change its zoning and LDRs especially in the urban downtown area and, more broadly, within most of the CRA. One change could be to eliminate new individual townhouses and single-family homes in those areas. That may seem radical to some, but more and more municipalities and states are taking that approach. In the rest of Stuart, all new construction (including for single-family homes) would be required to have an ancillary apartment. There would be no requirement that it be rented. Over time, small units would be available even if only for resident’s children to occupy while starting out.

 

Another change could be to stop basing decisions on the outmoded concept of density. Stuart has setback and height restrictions which guide the overall building measurement within the parcel’s envelope. Counting the number of units that a project can have is senseless. If the code allows a property owner to build 15 units per acre, it currently does not dictate whether those units are studios, one bedroom, or three bedrooms. The density calculation, then, is meaningless. Common sense dictates there will be more people occupying a three-bedroom unit than a one bedroom.

 

Within the downtown area, and the CRA in general, we should stop requiring so many parking spaces per unit. This artificially limits the number of housing units than can be built. The market will determine what amenities are needed to sell or rent a unit. Parking is an amenity. If a buyer or tenant considers it important, then the developer will have that cost and use in his determination of price just as he does granite counter tops or a powder room.

 

There is a misconception in Stuart that there is no affordable housing. If that were true, then why do more than 60% of dwellings within the City pay no real estate tax and only a small fire fee? If an owner pays no tax, then the cost of his property is quite low.

 

Presently, much of the City’s housing stock is considered obsolete. It is old and has lived its useful life. You can buy units for $100,000. This is about as affordable as it gets. It is true those units need work. But mortgages and carrying charges can be $1000.00 a month.

 

Stuart needs to encourage housing period. Supply will quell demand. New units make older units cheaper.

 

There will still be people who will never find units they can afford. This is an American societal problem rather than a Martin County or Stuart problem. The national and state governments need to address this. Localities will never have the funds to build enough units to satisfy this demand.

 

And lastly, the Commission should not be influenced by people who do not live within Stuart’s boundaries. They may have the best intentions, but their input is secondary to that of the people paying taxes, and I do mean paying taxes to the City. There will always be those who will say I can’t find anything to buy or rent within the City. What they really mean to say is that they can’t find a single-family home or apartment with four bedrooms, a pool, new baths, and new kitchen appliances on an acre of property for $275,000 or $1000 per month rent.

 

AIR SHOW BAILOUT

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At a recent past meeting, I agreed that then-Chair Ciampi and the rest of the Commission showed restraint in not rushing to decide the fate of the Salerno Seafood Festival for 2021. It was a prudent decision. There was no such restraint at this meeting regarding the Air Show ask.

 

During public comment as part of an orchestrated campaign, a parade of Air Show board members and their supporters had no problem asking for $150,000 from County Government. This money was to book acts for the November 2020 show. For almost every speaker, the tag line was that the show must go on! My question is why does it have to go on and secondarily is it the government’s responsibility to make sure that it does?

 

Missi Campbell, director of the Palm City Chamber, stated it had a positive effect on children based on her previous career as an educator. Skylar Gorman, the executive director of the Air Show, exclaimed that the Air Show must go on because it was going to celebrate its 30th birthday…just like her. Gorman went on to say that it takes an entire year to plan. She referred to the show as a business, and of course the show must go on!

 

There is a voucher exchange program so that those who bought tickets to last year’s cancelled shows could redeem them for 2020. That is nice, but even if only 30% of the ticket holders do so, how is that income going to be made up in the future? Will there be another ask of the County?

 

Amy Bottigel, the president of the Air Show Board, stated that there were fundraising events planned but nothing definite yet. She and a few others had just come back from the air show convention in Vegas and had spent 3 days commiserating with their fellow air show national members. She admits that if they can’t promise that there will be a show, their sponsors will go on to support other nonprofits.

 

Chuck Cleaver, the treasurer, stated the show has a $2.5 million-dollar economic impact on the County. The Air Show costs $1,050,000 to produce. It contributed $33,000 to charity from the proceeds in 2018. The links below are the presentations that I received from the County with those facts and figures.

 

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A1287a029-11ca-4854-ac8d-92d34529cc34

 

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A4e543b95-d961-40db-8eba-fe1bb03ba111

 

Nick Blount, a board member, stated that cancelling due to an accident and then torrential rain was a first. Blount is right that the tragic air accident and death of a pilot the day before the show was a first. The rains that cancelled the other two days were also a first.

 

Some may ask why there was no “rain insurance?” Cleaver explained that the cost would have been $30,000 to $60,000. He went on to say that because you typically need to pick an exact time to measure the rain, the insurance company wouldn’t have paid in this instance anyway. Other supporters spoke and it all came down to the show must go on!

 

Ciampi was excited to support the show. It is a community event and a community responsibility. Perhaps it is a community responsibility, but is it a governmental one? Smith was just as enthusiastic to spend taxpayer dollars to support this business. It adds to the community’s quality of life and has that $2.5 million economic impact. To put that amount into perspective, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Gross Domestic Product of Martin County was $6,946,903,000 in 2018.

 

The ask from the Air Show was $150,000. This public comment period was not a surprise. For at least the last few weeks, there were discussions held by the Air Show with all the Commissioners individually. There were not 3 Commissioner votes to take the amount from the ad valorem. Pressure was placed on staff to find the money elsewhere. That led to once again raiding the Commissioners’ new slush fund, the Airport Enterprise Fund. Remember that was also tapped a few weeks back to pay the customs’ fees for the Bahama rebuilding.

 

Is it legal? The answer is yes. But that wasn’t the intention when the fund was established. I would contend that the enterprise funds be used to enhance the airport and businesses located at the airport or that could be located there in the future. If the Commission wants funds to have a lasting impact, then spending money that pays for a few rental cars and gives a couple thousand to favored charities is not the way to proceed.

 

Commissioners Jenkins and Hetherington supported the expenditure but not as enthusiastically as Ciampi and Smith. Heard asked Cleaver if there were any firm commitments from sponsors. He responded that nothing was concrete yet. She explored the idea of the County giving matching dollars. But there were no dollars to match.

 

The words were echoed by the speakers that the Air Show was a business and that the show must go on! But why? Businesses and shows close all the time. Should the government keep the Air Show in business? $2.5 million is a pittance in Martin County’s economy and nothing when compared with the entire Treasure Coast’s GDP. And as far as charitable donations are concerned, if you spend a $1 million to give away $30,000, that can only be described charitably as ill-advised.

 

A motion was made by Ciampi seconded by Smith to give the Air Show $150,000. It passed 4-1 with Heard dissenting. I agree with Commissioner Heard in this case. The business should close, and the show need not go on.

 

 

THANKSGIVING

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Another Thanksgiving is upon us. This is my absolutely most favorite holiday.

In the last few years, it seems that the Christmas season is beginning around Halloween. Sirius Radio has had holiday music channels for weeks. The Hallmark Channel is in full maudlin Christmas fashion. Each of those repetitious movies has the plot of the books my 2-year-old granddaughter pretends to read. The rush is on, and it seems that I am out of the race.

Ever since I set up shop as an adult, I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner. As the cook, I start preparations a few days before. For years, I would brine the turkey (a step I no longer do), and, for the 24 hours before cooking, the bird air dries in the refrigerator. By allowing the skin to lose some of the moisture, it crisps better.

I always make the usual American-style trimmings…gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squashes, vegetables… but it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without at least lasagna or manicotti, meatballs, sausages, and other Italian-American dishes. For a while, I would make homemade mozzarella and a few times even burrata.

Over the years, the way I would prepare this dish or that would change. For instance, I learned to make stuffing from my grandmother when I was 14…not in her home kitchen but in a restaurant kitchen where we would serve over 300. We would save the leftover bread for weeks in big paper sacks, no longer allowed by health code regulations. She would soak the bread in chicken stock to soften. She would cook onions, celery, carrots, raisins, and seasoning in butter and sherry in large roasting pans on top of the stove. Mix it all together and bake in the pan. When I graduated to other professional kitchens, I made that same stuffing for years.

Once married to my first wife, who is Puerto Rican, she insisted on adding sausage to the recipe. It became my new standard. My current wife insisted that the sausage had to go and that the bread be replaced by stuffing cubes. Besides the American and Italian food contingents, my Puerto Rican wife would make pernil, arroz con gandules, and other cocina criolla dishes.

For several years between marriages, I hosted Thanksgiving as a bachelor for friends and family. The standard fare remained but other dishes came and went. One year, I had pierogis for Polish friends. Another year, I made a roast goose as a changeup, in addition to the turkey.

When we still had a place up north, our apartment would be where the kids, their spouses, and others would come. A friend of one of our daughters came a few times, accompanied by the most beautiful and interesting women. I definitely missed him when he moved to California.

The last few years, we were away from home on the holiday. Last year, we were with a couple that are long-time friends living in Texas. I cooked some and the host cooked some. It was an Italian, Tex-Mex typical Thanksgiving that was all American.

And maybe that is what we are losing when we relegate Thanksgiving to a pit stop on the way to Christmas. It should be a time when we celebrate what it means to be an American. Over the years I have adopted customs and foods of others in order for all to feel welcomed at the table. Because what we celebrate is the very essence of being an American. That is the true message. It is not about shopping or football. But it is about what we should hold dear. We sit together regardless of where we or our ancestors emigrated from and thank God for living in this country.

 

Caught In The Past

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Millions of people visit Colonial Williamsburg each year. I first went there when I was nine or ten and fell in love with the place.

I can trace my love of early American history to that visit. I took my own children there several times. The last time I was there was a decade ago, and I still enjoyed the experience. I noticed they were playing the same film on their informational television station that I had watched as a kid almost 60 years ago.

Nearby Jamestown, settled in 1607, was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It remained the capital of Virginia until the statehouse burned in 1698. The College of William & Mary and other residents of what was then known as the Middle Plantation asked that the capital be moved there.

The Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg and became the colonial head of government, remaining Virginia’s capital throughout the period. Governor Thomas Jefferson moved the capital to Richmond in 1780 to avoid English attacks and to be more centrally located to the western counties. Williamsburg became nothing more than a college town, and for the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a sleepy backwater and fell into ruin.

The City of Stuart was settled in the late 19th century and incorporated in 1914, which predates the creation of Martin County by more than a decade. For many years, Stuart was the population and business hub of the area. The railroad connected it to the rest of Florida, and the farming and fishing industries were integral to its growth.

Like Williamsburg after 1780, Stuart in the 1960s and 1970s began to decline into irrelevance because of suburbanization and the growth of alternative shopping options in Martin County. There was no longer a reason for the City to exist. The railroad ceased picking up passengers and the station was torn down. Downtown mom and pop stores were no longer needed with the growth of chains and big box stores.

Stuart fell into a miasmic state. It withered in its past. We weren’t southern enough to be like Faulkner’s fictional Jefferson nor were we cowboy enough to emulate McMurtry’s Anarene, Texas. We were a proud has-been farm town like so many others.

In the 1920s, Williamsburg had W.A.R. Goodwin to spearhead restoration, using the Rockefeller fortune to do so. For the decades since, Colonial Williamsburg recreated a town based on Tidewater life in the 18th century just before the Revolution. People from all over the world flock to experience and learn from the docents in period costume.

Stuart didn’t have Goodwin or Rockefeller, but it did have Peter and Joan Jefferson and a core group of others that began the rebirth of downtown and the historic preservation of many late 19th and early 20th century properties. Unlike Williamsburg, Stuart could not become a museum but needed to embrace commerce for economic survival.

Through the last two decades of the 20th century, Stuart saved its downtown. Retail stores catering to tourists were opened. Most new downtown restaurants were not accessible to the average Stuart resident because of price. Since economics needed to play a role in what was feasible, Stuart became a make-believe charming and historic downtown.

We saved the real estate for posterity but not with any real vitality. We made a small historic village next to City Hall but then, except for the Stuart Feed Store (Museum), they became rented offices. It cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rescue questionable historical structures for what purpose? They are antiquated offices for politicians.

Martin County and Stuart recoil at any development. No old property should ever be torn down (historic or otherwise) in some people’s minds. The old Stuart High School building is a case in point. There is nothing architecturally unique inside or out. It is just a physically, economically, and functionally obsolete building. Yet it tugs at the heart because so many generations attended high school there. If the Arts Council gets its way, the “sick” property will remain off the tax rolls as its new home. It will not make way for new housing. No new families will be living there.

Are we using the term historic to mean that nothing should be changed? Every building, empty lot or current use must stay the same? In many minds, Martin County should be like an insect caught in a block of amber, frozen in time. We are Brigadoon without the sleep and striving to be Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot.

There is a price to pay for inertia. We are seeing it as Cleveland Clinic concentrates on expanding in St. Lucie County. Apparently, there are not enough babies being born to have even one private practice doing it in Martin. The hospital will, at great expense, continue obstetrics for the time being.  Due to the expanding populations to our north and south, we will have less clout in Washington and Tallahassee after the next census as we become even more of an afterthought for electoral districts.

I have heard the word paradise used to describe our area. And that is an apt description if you are a senior like me, or someone that has an inheritance. For young people or families trying to make a living, it isn’t such a paradise. History teaches us that remaining in a cocoon is not beneficial for having a future.

Stuart and Martin County are not Colonial Williamsburg. Our history is similar to thousands of other former farm towns. Most of our architecture is anything but “historic.” An old family photo may be sentimental, but it probably isn’t historic. We should know and treasure our history. That is different from living in the past with a predilection to a no-change future.

 

OCTOBER 27TH FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS

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From this weeks edition:

The Pelican Café packed the chamber with supporters. It appeared that the vast majority of speakers in favor were not Stuart residents. Each spoke as though the City should give the Daly family carte blanche. If a low rent and a long lease were not given, the speakers implied that western civilization would come to an end.

 

The rumors of high rises, big box stores or chain restaurants were rampant. None of which have a scintilla of truth. When it was their turn to speak, Matheson and Meier set the record straight. None of the above was true. As the people’s representatives, they were looking out for the taxpayers. While they all acquiesced to the rent, they were firm in not allowing a 20-year lease if the Dalys were inclined to sell the leasehold.

 

A private landlord would, first, not give a term of 20 years and would want to recapture the premises if the leasehold was sold. Any profit should go to the people. It is unreasonable to have a 20-year term unless you need the long lease in order to sell.

 

Here is the language the City wants to put into the lease for the 20-year extension:

To read the entire newsletter go to:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A462cefb2-cddc-476a-be70-02b5081ddb7a

Or get it delivered to your mailbox by sending your email address to thomasfcampenni@gmail.com

 

The Truth About Treasure Coast Classical Academy

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Last week, I visited the campus of Treasure Coast Classical Academy (TCCA) at its temporary site on 34th Street in Palm City.

I was an early supporter of the school, dating back to when it was in its planning stages. There is no doubt in my mind that a school with this curriculum is needed in Martin County. It may not be for every student, but for those parents that believe in this model of education, TCCA is the place to send their children.

A misconception that many have is that it is not a public school. That is not true at all. The way a student gains admission is by filling out an application form online and then the students are selected by a lottery. There are points for siblings of existing students and for those whose parents are working at the school.

I toured several different classrooms, and it appeared the student population was representative of Martin County. There were white kids, black kids, and Hispanic kids. In almost every room, there were special needs children. It wasn’t any different that what you would expect in most school classrooms in the county.

What was not usual was that the kids in the third grade, for example, recited a poem by Maya Angelou and, in another room, the Preamble to the Constitution. They were studying literature and history by learning about the Roman Republic, not from a textbook but by reading original works. Math was tied into reading, even in the earliest grades, by solving word problems.

There is music and art taught every week to every child. P.E. is mandatory for every child in every grade — and they participate. The school is not overly concerned with teaching to state tests though each child will have to take the very same tests as any student in the state.

Like many schools, there is a “uniform” but here it seems the kids are wearing it. Ms. Swearingen, the principal, walks the campus gently asking students to tuck in their polo shirts or thanking them for walking quietly. She has a keen eye as she scans a classroom to see if every student is engaged with the lesson.

In the classroom, there is a desk for every student and the students work together as a class. Since kids are not handpicked, there are classes for those that need extra help just as in any public school. And, that is what the general public needs to understand. Contrary to the propaganda that you may have heard, this is a public school only without the many layers of bureaucracy dictating to the teachers.

Teachers are respected. They have a higher degree of control in preparing their lesson plans than those in the schools controlled by the District. Is this teaching method the best for every kid? No, it isn’t, and that is the point I am trying to convey. Parents and their children should have many different educational formats and options from which to choose.

Perhaps instead of calling these institutions “charters,” they should be known as magnet schools with a specialized curriculum.  Every teacher has the same qualifications as any other Martin County educator. Any Martin County kid can enroll. There is no tuition. Children that attend are not chosen by tests, grades, or geographical area. It is a public school where all are accepted.

As a society, we need to break up the educational monopoly. One size meant to fit every child has not worked. The United States has a broken system that has resulted in some of the worst rankings in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Despite Florida’s mania for testing, we continue to have sub-par outcomes.

Education is meant to open the mind to all possibilities. Elementary education doesn’t teach a trade, occupation, or profession. It is to provide the student with the tools to be able to learn those things later. “The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable.” Plato understood that formulaic dictum would not deliver the desired results.

Treasure Coast Classical Academy is one place that Plato will be studied. Not from a textbook but from reading Plato’s works. Whether the students of that school go on to be attorneys, writers, or welders, they will have learned not what to think but how to think for themselves.

Some in the educational establishment would argue that this is not a “true” public school. To me that argument is one that is more about control of educational dollars than public education. As a parent, grandparent, and citizen, I want to make sure that all children have the tools to be productive.

While I disagree with Mao Zedong about most things, he was correct when he said, “Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences and a flourishing culture in our land.”

 

Why Do We Ignore How Elected Officials Vote

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How many of us have disagreed with the votes of our elected leaders?

I would suspect that each and every one of us has. How often we do and what we do about it is what concerns me. For we often disagree with an elected official’s votes on issues but then decide to cast our vote for that same person at the next election. This is especially true in local elections.

We may do so out of loyalty to a political party. Or because we personally know the person as our next-door neighbor or the person in our pew at church. The personal touch is more important than the votes they render from the dais or chamber even if we disagree.

Why is it that we often vote for people that may seem to espouse our points of view but then, when elected, will do the opposite to what they promised? Politics and governing are two different things. While the elected official knows the difference, those of us who are civilians don’t always realize that fact. Politically, when you run for office, you speak in generalities. As Mario Cuomo used to say, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.”

In Washington and Tallahassee, for the most part, the elected representative has no choice but to vote along party lines if they want campaign funds or to have their bills heard or their projects funded. When it comes to County or City officials, it is just that the average person doesn’t know how their council or commission members actually voted. Yes, it is televised, recorded and available, but how many of us listen, watch, or read the minutes to know what happened at the meeting. Most of us would be surprised by their votes and how different that vote was from their campaign rhetoric.

It is awfully frustrating to know and understand how and why a commissioner voted the way that he/she did. We have so very much to do in our own daily lives. Many Martin County residents no longer read the local newspaper; and every action does not receive media coverage, much less comprehensive coverage. Radio and television coverage are rarely seen in Martin County. We retreat into our shells, look at social media and hope for the best. Besides, we think, “I can vote for the guy that I see in church or at the Elks.”