And An Era Comes To An End

It is the end of an era here in Florida. Bob Graham will not seek re-election in 2004. I would say that it's truly a shame that Florida's senior senator is retiring, but that would be lying. It's really about time.

So what is Bob Graham's legacy? Well, let's listen to what Rep. Peter Deutsch (D) of Lauderhill has to say about that:

"I think we owe a debt of gratitude to Graham as far as his career, which hasn't ended. And I look forward to the next 14 months in terms of him being a senator and whatever he does in the future. ... There's a living legacy of Bob Graham right now in our school system, in terms of the environment, in terms of the Everglades. I think today is really his day to really focus on what he's done for the people of Florida." (emphasis mine)

Oh boy. The Florida public school system in its current form is not what you would to have as a legacy. We seem to have spent the last fifteen to twenty years trying to fix the system. It fails the students and it fails the people of the state. About the only people who benefit from the current school system are the teacher's unions and the politicians who keep vowing to fix it.

We're graduating students that can't read. We're graduating students that can't do the basic arithmetic needed to run a cash register. We consistently appear at the bottom of nearly every measure of our educational system. And this is Bob Graham's "living legacy."

Heck, even if they want to forget about the screwup that is our school system, the other two legacies - our environment and the Everglades - aren't exactly doing much better.

A while back, I asked around among people who had been in this state for a while asking: What did Bob Graham do while Governor? Nobody could remember anything. He has no legacy in the state, at least none worth bragging about. Bob Graham leaving public service really won't change anything, as his greatest achievement seems to be his collection of diaries.

Not exactly a great loss in the grand scheme of things.