{"id":14205,"date":"2012-10-18T11:46:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T15:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=14205"},"modified":"2012-10-19T08:50:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T12:50:48","slug":"rick-scott-eyes-reelection-softens-stance-on-public-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/10\/18\/rick-scott-eyes-reelection-softens-stance-on-public-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst: Gov. Scott Changing Stance On Education To Boost Reelection Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14206\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 297px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/10\/18\/rick-scott-eyes-reelection-softens-stance-on-public-education\/rick-scott-republican-nominee-for-florida-governor-rep-jennifer-carroll-republican-nominee-for-lt-gov-mrs-ann-scott-wife-of-mr-rick-scott-former-governor-of-mass-mitt-romney-congressman\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14206\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14206\" title=\"Rick Scott, Republican nominee for Florida Governor,  Rep. Jennifer Carroll, Republican nominee for Lt. Gov., Mrs. Ann Scott, wife of Mr. Rick Scott, Former Governor of Mass., Mitt Romney, Congressman and Agriculture Commissioner nominee, Adam Puttnam, Nominee for Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and Dr. Gary Lester, Vice President of Public Relations for The Villages, participates in participate in a rally at The Villages on Friday, October 1, 2010, in The Villages, FL.  Photo by Shealah Craighead\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/10\/Scott-bid.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"213\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Shealah Craighead\/flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rick Scott campaigns for governor at The Villages on October 1, 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gov. Rick Scott has changed his stance on education in a few ways this year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He met the teachers\u2019 union president for dinner and promised ongoing meetings.<\/li>\n<li>He returned a billion dollars to education funding.<\/li>\n<li>He said education is his new priority, since it will ultimately lead to job growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Seth McKee, Associate Professor of Political Science at USF-St. Petersburg, says it\u2019s all about the election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not popular,\u201d McKee said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen him reach over the mid 40\u2019s in a poll. He tends to hang out in the high 30\u2019s in terms of public approval.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Almost immediately during his first year in office, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/fl-scott-tries-becoming-ed-governor-20121014,0,765820.story\">Scott found himself on the teachers\u2019 bad side<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He wiped out $1.3 billion in state education funding, then came out strongly in favor of alternatives to traditional public schooling, like for-profit charter schools.<\/p>\n<p>McKee says Scott had no choice but to make changes.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reasons why Scott may already be looking ahead to his reelection campaign<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Scott\u2019s education commercial \u2014 \u201cI think when you\u2019re <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/politics\/article\/274679\/378\/Politifact-Governor-Rick-Scotts-education-ad-half-true\">running ads about education<\/a> and that you\u2019re trying to improve it, clearly that looks like a campaign ad,\u201d McKee said. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s the best anecdotal evidence I\u2019ve seen, just from the perspective of a voter, that he\u2019s running for reelection.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Low approval ratings \u2013 \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do something fantastic if that\u2019s where you tend to sit as an approval rating to having any chance of winning reelection,\u201d McKee said. <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/09\/06\/florida-2012-education-funding-increase-fifth-largest-in-nation\/\">Scott returned $1-billion to the education coffers<\/a> and is promising $2-million for teacher training. He invited union leaders to the Governor\u2019s Mansion and held listening sessions at public schools.<\/li>\n<li>Economic recovery \u2013 Scott\u2019s focus has been on job creation, and he said Florida needs <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/09\/19\/education-is-moving-up-gov-rick-scotts-list-of-priorities\/\">a strong education system to lure companies <\/a>and grow high paying jobs. That in turn will help the economy, and McKee says any sign of economic improvement will benefit Scott\u2019s reelection\u00a0bid.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Megan Allen, Florida\u2019s 2010 Teacher of the Year, is cautious about what\u2019s behind the change in\u00a0Scott.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get inside anyone\u2019s mind and understand the motivation behind doing something,\u201d Allen said. \u201cAs an educator I\u2019m behind any kind of collaboration, any kind of getting stakeholders involved. I just hope that it is truly purposeful and not just in name\u00a0only.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During a recent dinner between the Governor and the president of Florida\u2019s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/09\/20\/qa-with-florida-teachers-union-president-andy-ford\/\">President Andy Ford seemed pleased<\/a>\u00a0with the Governor. He said, \u201cUnless you sit down and start talking, you have no chance of changing the\u00a0world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Rick Scott has changed his stance on education in a few ways this year: He met the teachers\u2019 union president for dinner and promised ongoing meetings. He returned a billion dollars to education funding. He said education is his new priority, since it will ultimately lead to job growth. Seth McKee, Associate Professor of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[699,278,197],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}