FSU aims to choose new president by end of year

FSU's presidential search committee just released a timeline for choosing longtime President T.K. Wetherell's successor, with the aim of sending a list of finalists to the Board of Trustees by early December.

The search consultant, John Hicks of Academic Search Inc., said the schedule is "expedited" because several other universities nationwide are also looking for presidents, and because open records laws usually prompt top candidates to wait until the end of the search deadline to apply. Wetherell has said he wants to leave FSU for retirement by early 2010.
  
“The search must move forward in a timely manner while top candidates are available," Hicks said.

Info is posted on the university’s Presidential Search Web site. Here's the schedule:

Here goes the class size debate ... again

The class size amendment's smaller classes are supposed to take effect in 2010, but Florida Republican senators are trying to stop that from happening. Their attempts aren't new, but this time around they might have more political traction thanks to the state's projected 2010-11 budget deficit of more than $2 billion.

Hypothetical floor debate: "How can we spend this money on new classrooms when we're laying off teachers?"

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, yesterday filed a proposed resolution for a constitutional amendment that would repeal the class size changes pushed successfully by Dems (including current U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek) several years back.

Suit: State is failing schools, violating Constitution

Not enough money. Not enough progress. Florida is violating the state Constitution by not pouring enough money into schools and relentlessly focusing on high-stakes testing policies that aren't getting good results, says a lawsuit expected to be filed today in Leon County Circuit Court.

Prepared by a team of lawyers that includes a former Democratic House speaker and a Republican Party patriarch, the suit takes aim at virtually every aspect of the sweeping education overhaul engineered by former Gov. Jeb Bush and kept largely intact by his successor, Gov. Charlie Crist.

Low graduation rates, stagnant test scores, a persistent effort by lawmakers to shift education costs to school districts — all of it shows Florida is not living up to a constitutional mandate to provide high-quality schools, the suit says.

Some of the suit's roots go back to last spring's budget cuts, when everything from music programs to teaching assistants were considered for the chopping block, said Kathleen Oropeza, co-founder of an Orlando-based parents group listed as a plaintiff.

"The first question we asked amongst ourselves was, 'What can we do to fix this?' " Oropeza said Tuesday. "It always came back to legal action."

(Story here)

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Crist's federal stimulus update

Gov. Charlie Crist has sent letters to the Senate President and House Speaker, and to Florida's Congressional delegation, to update them on the state's use so far of federal stimulus dollars - in areas including transportation and education.

The letters follow an a.m. conference call today with Don Winstead, who has been put in charge of Florida's simulus spending.

Read the letters here: Download Crist Stimulus Letter to Florida Congressional Delegation and Download Crist Stimulus Letter to President Atwater and Speaker Cretul

Gelber urges AG McCollum to sue state over school $

Offering a glimpse into what he would do if elected Attorney General, Sen. Dan Gelber this afternoon called on current attorney general Bill McCollum to challenge the Legislature in court over its education funding.

"Florida's education budget is constitutionally infirm, and if you look at our school system, you see that," said Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a father of three in public schools. "Look at our graduation rates, the violence in our schools. I see teachers asking for help to buy paper....I don't know who the Attorney General is supposed to stand up for, if not for children."

Gelber later said that if elected in 2010 to the office now held by McCollum, suing the Legislature over its education funding would be one of his first actions.

McCollum spokeswoman Sandi Copes had this response: "The attorney general believes that education is certainly a top priority that must be adequately funded. Before any judicial action can be pursued, it is incumbent on the Legislature to take action on a proposed budget and provide funding for Florida's educational system.

Bob Graham weighs in on George LeMieux and Frank Brogan

We caught up with former Florida Sen. and Gov. Bob Graham today. Before taping a Political Connections interview that probably will air Sunday on Bay News 9, we asked him about Frank Brogan being picked picked as university chancellor and George LeMieux as U.S. Senator.

Graham said Brogan's political skills are strong but his agenda uncertain at time when Florida's future requires a focus on "the intelligence-driven economy. ... We've got to make a much greater investment in education. Frank is an unknown quantity as to whether he appreciates that and whether he will do the kinds of things that will require him to be very aggressive with the Legislature with its funding levels. Do you know that since 1990 on inflation-adjusted dollars the funding per-student in our state university system has declined $4,500? That's had a horrific effect."

The LeMieux pick surprised him: "LeMieux is a person of values and competence, no question about that. I just think that given that he's only going to be there 16 months, you want somebody who can actually play a role. There's no state that going to be more impacted by this health care debate than Florida. ... It would have been better to have someone (with Washington experience). For instance Clay Shaw had served on the Ways and Means committee and he knows this issue very well. He would have been an example of somebody who could have hit the ground prepared and ready to be a player."

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$10 mil in fed stim bucks will allow UF to hire 100 faculty

The University of Florida has seen its faculty ranks shrink by about seven dozen professors during the past year, thanks to tens of millions in budget cuts, but president Bernie Machen is about to announce that he will use $10 million in federal stimulus dollars to fill that hole.

UF will hire 100 new professors during the year ahead, Machen is telling the faculty Senate during a meeting in Gainesville. The stimulus money will serve as a “bridge” until higher undergraduate tuition rates that went into effect this week for Florida residents generate enough revenue to cover the new professors’ salaries.

Other Florida colleges, including Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida International University, are using stimulus money to hire new faculty, but none on so large a scale as UF.

Frank Brogan's chancellor package similar to his FAU earnings

The Board of Governors, meeting in Tallahassee this morning, is expected to approve an annual salary and benefits package for new chancellor Frank Brogan that is close to what he was making as president of Florida Atlantic University.

Under the proposal, Brogan's total package would be worth $458,198 - $41,845 more than what former Chancellor Mark Rosenberg received. Only $225,000 would come from state taxpayer dollars; the rest will be covered by the private, donation-supported BOG foundation.

Brogan's base salary would be $357,000 (Rosenberg's was $341,686), the same amount his FAU contract would have given him next year. He would receive a $42,500 housing allowance and $15,000 for a vehicle, plus $37,727 in life insurance and $5,971 in disability insurance.

Brogan will start as chancellor on Sept. 14. He meets with Gov. Charlie Crist today at 2 p.m. in the Capitol - a place he knows well from his days at lieutenant governor under Jeb Bush.

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FAMU law, $40-mil state investment, scores a victory

Seven years after lawmakers reopened Florida A&M University’s law school with $40-million in taxpayer dollars, the school has received full accreditation -- overcoming a tumultuous track record of leadership turnover, faculty rancor and academic concerns.

The American Bar Association this afternoon granted full accreditation — a national stamp of approval that is vital to the school’s reputation and long-term survival. The decision by the ABA’s Council on Legal Education Opportunity is a major victory for the historically black College of Law, which reopened in 2002, more than three decades after legislators shut it down amid court-ordered desegregation.

"It's probably the best news we've had in 2009," said FAMU graduate Sen. Al Lawson, who spent 12 years working to get the law school reopened. "It's been a long haul, and I think it's a real credit to the administration."

Lawmakers reestablished the law school with high expectations about training a more diverse pool of attorneys for the increasingly diverse Sunshine State. FAMU officials and law school alumni said Friday’s ABA decision is proof the law school has moved beyond the earlier struggles that garnered so many negative headlines.

Crist says he's open to oil drilling off Florida coast

Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday that he "probably would weigh in" on legislation pending before Congress that would allow for oil drilling within 45 miles of Florida's coasts. story here.

"There's an opportunity to find a middle ground if done appropriately that is safe, that is clean if done right,'' he said. "I'm open to reviewing what those opportunities might be.''

But Crist, the U.S. senate candidate,  refrained from being specific about how he would define the allowable distance from shore. "I've always said it needs to be far enough, clean enough and safe enough to protect Florida's beautiful beaches,'' he said. "I also am cognizant of the fact that it sure would be nice to be energy independent. That's a growing concern of an awful lot of people including myself."