Friday, April 16, 2010
April 16, 2010 - Lake City, Florida
I am amazed at the anger level I have seen with non-elected power brokers over Crist's veto of SB 6. Who do these people think they are? Like him or not Charlie Crist is the Governor of Florida. It is his responsibility to veto that slips through the committee process (Oh yeah, they bypassed debate as usual). All authority to govern flows from the people through the election process. Do non-elected leaders really think THEY have the right to set policy?
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There are lots of issues in executives vetoing legislation and legislatures acting contrary to public opinion. We tend to get angry that elected officials do not follow our expressed popular wills but then again we elected them to follow issues in depth and make informed decisions. Executives have to make decisions of conscience and constitutional duty. They were given the power to veto to protect the constitution and/or to allow them the right to exercise their conscience regarding enforcement and implementation of laws and policies they find morally irreconcilable.
ReplyDeleteI admire officials for standing up in opposition to public opinion when the public opinion is in violation of constitutional principles or a violation of natural rights. While they are and should be answerable to the public there are times when the public is influenced by demagoguery and temporary passions and makes knee jerk reactions that violate individual rights or simply make a problem worse. However when elected officials are clearly charged by their constituents to take an action that is temperate and constitutional but they refuse to do so or take a course contrary to that charge because of powerful special interest political factions or long-term personal political considerations then they deserve the wrath of the voters at the ballot box.
I like the idea of people being accountable for their actions and their job performances and if teachers’ efforts and performance were indeed the only factor in students’ performance then perhaps SB 6 would be called for. However it seems unreasonable to me to tie teacher pay to student performance when teachers are just one factor in student performance in testing and other benchmarks. In many cases parental influence, peer influence, mass culture pressures, and general societal conditions combine to create poor student performances. If poor teaching plays a part in this problem (and in many cases I expect it does) then before we could hold teachers solely accountable we would have to be certain that we could quantify how big an influence poor teaching might have made. It is a serious management mistake to hold employees accountable beyond the degree to which they had control over a situation.
Excellent analysis of the issue. You have successfully defined the complexity of the policy making process. Thanks for your commentary...Best Wishes, Randy
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. Hatch. Glad to see someone like you standing up for common sense and fair play without bitter partisanship. At one time we could work together in this country, Democrats, Republicans and Independents. I hope you take your place in Tallahassee and help Floridians show why they are a bellweather state or positive change.
ReplyDeleteI am proud of Crist's decision to stand up and do the right thing. I'm sure he knew that he would make enemies in this veto of SB6 but he knew this was not the correct action to take.
ReplyDeleteI taught my children how to respect other people and they didn't like getting in trouble.
I was called to the school one time in all the years that they attended for a problem that accured. It wasn't a bad one thou and "we" handled it not the school. It DOES start at home and Teachers should not be expected to take up the slack and also get punished for it.
I love you're Blog Randy and you are doing a great job. Keep those big wheels a turnin!