Governor Scott says one thing does another. Is he the governor of all of us or just the Tea Party?

From Scathing Purple Musings

by Bob Sykes

Lakeland republican senator Paula Dockery dropped her gubernatorial bid when she realized she couldn’t compete with Rick Scott’s money. Nonetheless, she served on his transition team after Scott’s victory over Alex Sink. In today’s Orlando Sentinel story by Aaron Deslatte, Dockery has some sharp criticism for Scott:

“I think he has governed very differently than what he campaigned on,” said Sen. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican who served on Scott’s transition team but has criticized his decisions to kill the high-speed train and cut education and environmental spending.

Dockery says Scott, who had lived in Florida for only seven years when he ran for governor, refused to take advice from experienced politicos and has been slow to reach out beyond his tea-party base.

“He’s going to keep seeing the [poll] numbers where they are until he starts reading the people a little better,” Dockery said. “You have a responsibility as governor to listen to everyone. Unless he makes that shift, he’s going to stay where he is.”

Well Scott is listening. And to be fair, he’s proposal to increase education spending by $1 billion is a step in the right direction. But Scott proved he still is contemptuous of the state’s teachers and the public school institution in his much publicized meeting with teachers in Osceola county:

Scott, holding a roundtable discussion with the teachers, said he is a strong supporter of education. “If we’re going to do well as a state, if our families are going to do well, it’s going to be tied to education.”

But he said the public views the public-education system as one unwilling to police itself. “The perception is that it’s not an accountable system,” he said, and too many people feel “we’re not getting value for the dollars we’re putting in the government.”

Scott said he understands that teachers work hard and knows, given budget cuts and a new merit-pay law, that “there’s a lot of stress.”

But during the nearly two-hour long discussion with Neptune teachers, the governor made it clearly he believes firmly that public education needs to change. He said he held the event because “I’m trying to get ideas from teachers.”

Nobody’s buying that last line. It’s called lip service. Education policy in Florida is dictated by an ideologically driven and ethically challenged legislature. For Scott’s $1 billion increase to actually provide help to districts, a significant slash will be needed to the unfunded mandates the last handful of republican-dominated legislatures have heaped upon them.

Republicans don’t want this conversation to come up as it will unmask their rhetorical talking points. Thus far they’ve been able to sell loosening their stranglehold as “allowing more flexibility.” You can be assured that the mention of “unfunded mandates” by reporters will make more than one republican squirm.

http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/rick-scotts-governed-very-differently-than-what-he-campaigned-on/?mid=56