Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis floated the idea of converting the federal courthouse on Broward Boulevard to a city-backed charter school.
This raises a basic question: Why is Fort Lauderdale trying to get into the education business at all?
City of Fort Lauderdale
John Rodstrom III is a lawyer and political blogger who raised many questions about the fuzzy financing of the ill-fated One Stop FTL project.
At a time when the city is exploring or has initiated the privatization of core functions like our water utility, public parks and parking garages, it’s difficult to understand why it would try to expand into areas well outside its traditional role.
Focus on infrastructure, resiliency, public works and basic municipal services already struggling to keep pace with growth. Those are squarely the city’s responsibilities. They should come first.
Charter schools already exist in a competitive educational ecosystem that includes Broward County Public Schools, private and parochial schools. There’s no shortage of entities to run schools. The city does not need to become one of them.
This proposal is especially puzzling given that Broward County faces enrollment declines and serious budget pressures. Why would Fort Lauderdale directly compete with our school district? The answer to imperfections in public education is not a parallel city-run alternative. Stay in your lane.
John E. Rodstrom III, Fort Lauderdale
A spineless School Board
As a Broward County taxpayer, I take exception to the School Board’s handling of the venues for school graduations. Once again, the board showed its spinelessness by caving in to the objecting parents. The tail once again wags the dog.
It’s obvious: The difference between a high school gymnasium ($3,000) and Nova Southeastern University ($25,000) and Hard Rock Live ($50,000), as reported by the Sun Sentinel Jan. 25, is substantial when taxpayer dollars are at stake.
The board could have eliminated Hard Rock and NSU entirely. Their excuse is that those venues could handle larger groups of graduates. Well, for $3,000, those larger groups could have been split into smaller groups and it still would have been cheaper. Do the math.
How did the board select which schools would graduate in which venues? One can only wonder.
In the same Jan. 25 story, Superintendent Howard Hepburn is quoted as saying that the district is managing an ongoing $90 million budget shortfall. The board historically has blamed the system’s problems on everyone but themselves.
They have no concept of management skills — only their own personal images.
Peter K. Eckert, Plantation
Sounding the alarms
I’m not sure which of these two ideas in the Legislature is more alarming.
One bill in the Florida Senate would allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their school-age children because it “conflicts with their conscience” (Senate Bill 1756).
Another proposal (SB 706) would rename Palm Beach International Airport for our current president.
On the one hand, you have delusional parents distrusting decades of medical research while putting others in harm’s way.
On the other, you have an airport that half the country will forever mock.
Just wondering: Will only passengers arriving from or departing to red states be allowed to use it?
Norman Berkowitz, Boynton Beach
End of story
Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Rachel Good in cold blood in Minneapolis, is a killer. Period. End of story.
Hopefully there’s no statute of limitations that will prevent a future DOJ to hold him to account. But he will ultimately be held to account, as we all have our day at the pearly gates.
Timothy J. Norman, Fort Lauderdale
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