BlogWood: MT Archives

Democrats find spine, at least for a day

This is what can happen when an opposition party decides to finally stand for something. Jeb! Wont be able to thwart the will of the people in a special election, which means his cynical attempt to bribe teachers into selling out their students will have to wait.

A plan by Gov. Jeb Bush to call a special election this fall to scale back the class size amendment appears dead after a rare show of political strength by Senate Democrats.

All but one of the Senate's 14 Democratic members said Wednesday they will vote against a bill calling for a Sept. 6 election to ask voters if they want to keep the class size requirement frozen at the current level.

A three-fourths vote by both chambers is required to hold a special statewide election. In the 40-member Senate, that means at least four Democrats and all 26 Republicans would have to vote for the proposal for it to succeed.

Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, worried about low voter turnout in a special election. "It's a very, very important issue and there would be very little input from the public," Smith said. "We ought to be aiming for just the opposite.

Bush has said the next round of strict classroom size requirements, which kick in during the 2006-07 school year, will cost the state billions of dollars in new school construction and teacher salaries. So he proposed scaling them back in a constitutional amendment that also would increase teacher salaries.
He blasted the Democrats for not offering an alternative.
"Unfortunately, the Democrats have reached the point where they don't have an agenda so they're just against things, which is too bad," Bush said. "Better to have said, "Okay, we're going to lock down against this, but here's our proposal ... But they didn't do that."
But Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he opposed a special election, which could cost $18-million, and wasn't sure a majority of Republican senators supported it.
"In the overall scheme of gaming of elections, that's a pretty heady approach to try to get something into a special election environment so you can focus on a more narrow section of the turnout and drive outcomes," Lee said. "Frankly, except for emergency situations, it's somewhat undemocratic in my view."

And the Democratic alternative is to let democracy work: voters mandated smaller class sizes. There is no need to come up with an alternative plan to thwart that vote.