Jason Fischer spoke to the charter review commission last Friday where he talked about his constituents, re: Chartrand and Curry had been clamoring for an elected superintendent. Mind you these same constituents just a few weeks before were clamoring for an appointed school board which means if you think about it, Fischer was against elections before he was for them.
Mind you he was straight up lying, something I feel very comfortable saying. You see he doesn’t meet with constituents as evident by him not showing up to a meeting his office organized in August. Since that fiasco it’s been radio silence.
The crazy thing is, as corrupt as he is and as anti-democratic as his suggestion is, it may actually make it to Tallahassee.
From Florida Politics,
FP reached out to Duval Delegation members for their takes and found that Fischer likely won’t have a problem getting a second for his motion.
Rep. Wyman Duggan, a Republican likewise aligned with Curry, supports the measure.
“If the voters don’t want it, they will tell us,” Duggan says.
Duggan also notes that the “Duval Consolidation agreement and the Charter give the Legislature a governing role independent of the City Council.”
The Council was slated to vote in opposition to a previous version of the Fischer bill in committee last week; however, Duggan’s take is that the Legislature can move independently of input from local lawmakers.
Veteran observers can’t remember a time when a Legislature pushed a local bill without a mandate from the City Council. Despite the lack of public outcry (other than advocacy from unnamed “constituents” Fischer cites), this could set a new precedent.
Sen. Aaron Bean also backs the move. “If it passes,” Bean said, “Jacksonville voters will have the final say.”
Sadly, it’s not like bean and Duggan are much better than Fischer. Side note, the picture below is the one Florida Politics put up accompany the article. Not Fischer’s best look but I guess neither is attempting to screw over the city he is supposed to represent on behalf of his donors.
Mark Woods in the Times Union, also explained what a bad idea an elected superintendent is and even though he is probably the nicest man you will ever meet, Fischer’s disingenuousness.
From the Times Union,
Fischer initially wanted to do away with an elected school board and give the mayor the power to appoint the board. Then, a month later, after Mayor Lenny Curry came out against an appointed board but in support of an elected superintendent, Fischer changed directions and filed a bill to have the mayor’s political committee — I mean, the public — elect a superintendent.
“It’s clear to me that voters want more say about what happens in their school system, so it’s just a natural evolution of the conversation,” Fischer said.
Until this year, only three states allowed elected superintendents: Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
Mississippi got out of the club, saying that starting Jan. 1 all local school superintendents shall be appointed by their local school boards. (In Mississippi, shall means shall.)
When Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed this into law, he tweeted: “This simple act of innovation is long overdue.”
So ... Fischer wants to take a school district that narrowly missed an A grade last year and go to a system that Mississippi has abandoned, leaving 78 districts nationwide with it — many of them small and/or rural.
If we did this, we would be the largest school district in America with an elected superintendent.
A few years ago this came up in Alachua County. At the time, more than 90 percent of the Florida districts with appointed superintendents received an A or B — while 14 of 41 districts with an elected superintendent received a D.
This isn’t to say that having an appointed superintendent eliminates politics and gets the perfect leader. Or that having an elected superintendent doesn’t work in some districts. But to suggest this is the route for Duval to go — that instead of a search that extends far outside our city limits we should have a partisan election of Duval residents — doesn’t make sense.
It instead makes one wonder, as much does these days, about the games being played.
Did I mention Fischer lies as easily as I breathe and he doesn’t care about anybody but himself even if that means advancing his donor agenda which is bad for everyone but them? Just making sure.
Friends, we deserve better than Fischer and sadly I can’t imagine anyone worse.
Mr. Fischer is about to be investigated for sponsoring/backing legislation in 2019 that directly benefited his new employer HNTB.
ReplyDeleteThe integrity-meter is pointing due south for Mr. Fischer.
The best thing will be when his family (wife and kids) find out that Jason was only serving himself (another blatant example of self-dealing).