Quarry Preserve, SB6 need to be stopped

The outcries were loud. People were in an uproar. Demonstrations were countless. Constituent concerns were ignored. It added fuel to the flames of tea party activists. It divided the country.

And yet, congressional Democrats discarded taxpayer disapproval and delivered to the American people Barack Obama's campaign promise to enact decades-long sought-after health care reform, the one that the Congressional Budget Office claims will turn a profit over the next decade, albeit derived from assumptive data as provided by the administration.

Right on down the line from the federal government to local municipalities, elected officials turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the people who voted them into office, including the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners.

How many of you have attended a public hearing to express opposition to a proposed ordinance and found that, by the end of a long, drawn out day, it was apparent the commissioners had voted with premeditated intent? It's been an all too familiar episode on land use hearings that put builders' interests above that of responsible long-term growth.

The latest of such public dismissals was the January transmittal to the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA), a proposed amendment to the county's comprehensive plan that would allow development of Quarry Preserve into a supposedly self-reliant megatropolis of up to 5,800 houses, 200 lodges, golf courses, a community park, retail stores and an industrial complex.

In spite of the concerns expressed by Commissioners David Russell and Rose Rocco and County Administrator David Hamilton, the measure was approved by slim Jim and the other decisive majority of three.

Fortunately, the DCA has a number of unanswered questions on the proposed project. Is there a need to add to the already approved 30,000 home sites awaiting development by 2025? What of ground water protection and providing sewage and potable water to the area? Transportation needs? Wildlife? The DCA is also questioning how Quarry Preserve could not be considered anything but urban sprawl.

Not only have federal and local governments ignored the clamoring of protesters, the Florida Legislature has also taken the same strategic game plan to pass into law what they deem the right thing to do regardless of the objections of those who would be directly affected - schoolteachers.

The Florida House would effectively take over teacher salaries. Proponents of the legislation had acknowledged Senate Bill 6 needed to be amended, including a means to protect teacher certification and maintain incentives for those seeking higher degrees. But an amendment would have required sending the bill back to the Senate, something that would be subject to further dialogue, compromises and a less than certain outcome. It was a tactic used by the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress to pass health care legislation. Ditto the Republican-led Florida Legislature.

As it stands, SB6 would nullify future multi-year teacher contracts and be replaced with state-mandated one-year contracts that could put the livelihood of more than 170,000 Florida teachers in jeopardy. The Legislature should keep in mind that among teachers, their families and friends, it portends to be a sizable block of voters.

If implemented, as of July 1, newly hired teachers could find themselves at the mercy of "uncooperative" students, the ones who would just as soon be spending their time doing anything but sit in a stuffy classroom learning.

Although a highly unlikely scenario among kindergartners, grade and high school students could band together to make a teacher's chosen profession a living swell of fear of losing their means of financial survival. In this community of high unemployment, many families rely solely on teacher income.

Admit it; kids do the darnedest things, don't they? There's no telling what they might do, just for the "fun" of it, ya know? It might even prove to be more exciting than harassing fellow students to the point they take their own lives.

If tenured positions can become null and void in grades K-12, what of other educational professionals? Will the Legislature also deal the same career-ending blows to university professors? You know the old saying: Whatever a B.A., M.A. or Ph.D. be, a titled degree does not an effective educator guarantee. What of tenured judgeships?

And what of school administrators? Shouldn't superintendents, principals and department heads also be held accountable for their failings? How about personnel departments that did the actual hiring of incompetent teachers? What's good for the goose ...

Gov. Charlie Crist has the final vote on whether SB 6 passes or fails. If he should play along with party politics, his support of the bill will not, by any measure, garner support from Republican power-breakers who had Marco Rubio trapped in their self-constructed elephant pit as a candidate for the U.S. Senate since before his final days as House Speaker.

Crist should turn his back to the self-serving political whims of Tallahassee. He should heed the voices of his constituents and veto SB 6. It's the populist thing to do.

Ron Rae, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill. He can be contacted at theronraeway@yahoo.com.