KC's Vision for Florida

Florida's public education system is not working as it should. We've tried to reform education time and time again, yet we are still where we have always been. The time has come to restructure public education in Florida. When you restructure something, it doesn't look the same.

As your next Governor, I would introduce the Florida Education Restructuring Plan (FERP). While we must provide adequate and consistent funding to public education, we cannot stop there. One of our state's most valuable resources is our youth, they are our future. We must make an investment in their future by providing them with a quality education to prepare them to become the next generation of professionals to lead our great state, and help to make" FLORIDA SECOND TO NONE". Under the FERP, I would build upon existing programs and expand to a public-private partnership with daycares to provide early childhood development. These programs will provide instructions to begin the 12 years of academic instruction that will help them to become globally competitive in later years.

In addition, the FERP would expand after school programs. It is a fact that the highest occurrence of teenage related crime and pregnancy occurs during the hours of 3 to 6 p.m. As cut's in our public education have occurred, after school programs have suffered, thereby allowing more children to have no direction during these hours while their parents are at work. We need to bring back many of these programs as a investment to our next generation.

Many of our youth are not interested in going to college, but want to have a life where they can own a home and live a nice comfortable life. This can occur by placing greater guidance in our vocational and technical schools. Student are able to obtain college credit while in high school, and even obtain an associate degree the same time they graduate from high school. The FERP would extend this same option to high school student to dual enroll in  vocational/technical programs helping them to get a jump on their future.