Jeff Bergosh Blog: Re-Using Old Campaign Signs to Advocate for Passage of Amendment 8 Part II

Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Re-Using Old Campaign Signs to Advocate for Passage of Amendment 8 Part II

I have recently learned that I can recycle my old campaign signs and re-paint and re-use them to advocate for the passage of Amendment 8 (Recycling signs is better than just throwing them away and might even please some environmentally sensitive people)

I have begun to make signs and deploy them around town, and if I can at least get people to wonder what Amendment 8 is-- that will be a good start. If these same folks go and research Amenment 8, I believe the measure will get strong support locally.

Amendment 8 is a very important issue and will save Florida Taxpayers Billions of Dollars if passed. Perhaps even more importantly, Amendment 8 will increase opportunities for students statewide because it will give local districts badly needed flexibility. Amendment 8 is supported by just about every education entity in the state, including The Florida Superintendents Association, The Florida School Boards Association, A vast majority of Local School Administrators, Principals, and fiscal moderates and conservatives.

One statewide education group is trying to stop Amendment 8 dead in it's tracks, though. Amenmdment 8 Is vigorously opposed by the teacher's unions, the NEA and the FEA. The union has already had their lawsuit trying to pull the Amendment off of the ballot tossed out of court. They must be quite upset about that. They are taking an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, where I believe the final decision to leave Amendment 8 on the ballot will be made.
I find it quite interesting that the State of Florida teacher's Union, the FEA, is strongly supporting and has endorsed Democrat Alex Sink for Governor. But even Alex Sink recognizes the need to "right-size" class size and she supports Amendment 8.
That must not sit well with the union--wonder how they get past that one.

I've also learned recently that a high profile advertising firm has taken the reigns of the "Yes on
8" campaign and will have a significant budget with which to work. I'm very happy to hear about that. With a well known marketing firm pushing for passage of 8, and with enough grass-roots word-of-mouth advocacy, getting 60% in November may not be impossible after all!