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 : Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Jeff Bergosh, Republican, for Escambia County Commissioner District 1








Sunday, October 26, 2014

One Group Wants Voters to Say "NO" to the 1/2 Cent Sales Tax Ballot Initiative

Does Escambia's African-American Community really want this beneficial referendum defeated?

Sometimes I get emails that make me scratch my head and say "Why?"



This email came, and the logic seems absent.  I'm confounded by the lack of logic, actually.

The most expensive school built in Escambia County, in the last two decades, was built downtown and serves 98% African American students.  It is a state of the art facility that replaced two aging facilities

The newly rebuilt Ernest Ward Middle school, funded by the 1/2 cent sales tax, serves a significant number of African American students.

So why is this group attempting to sabotage the vote to renew our 1/2 cent sales tax referendum?  I'm scratching my head because a lot of African American students in Escambia County benefit from this funding source.

If the referendum does not pass, this will eventually serve to negatively affect the African American students in our county, as well as all the other students.....

Sad that people don't get that reality.

2 comments:

Lorraine said...

I know the half-cent tax has been around for 17 years. It seems like any proposals for the new buildings wouldn't take place until the tax is passed and continued, no? How is the use of the money designated? To my understanding, entities in the district will give a proposal or a recommendation, from which the board will vote to approve it or not.

Are the buildings already proposed and/or set in stone to be built? Does the board vote on where those new buildings are?

It is true that there is overcrowding in some schools, and that's due to population of a given area. So I am wary of saying the building of new schools has to do with race. It may so happen to be that overcrowding occurs in predominately white areas. As you know, I am attuned to racial issues, but I also feel we need to be careful with when we accuse someone of discrimination, intentionally or not.

I think just having a genuine talk and asking critical questions will help resolve whether the use of funds is causing a gap in education.

Gulagathon said...

Lots of money has been going into Warrington middle school. They have the flight academy and renovations to their administration area. It's really up to the kids on whether they're going to take care of what they have and what they have been given. Some hard headed kids will vandalize and trash what they have and not appreciate what they've been given.

So the black children get money spent on them, and get nice things, but the bad ones trash it. Parents need to keep their kids in check. Of course other races of kids may not be responsible with things, but for some reason schools like warrington, nice things get trashed out.

Political Advertisement Paid For and Approved by Jeff Bergosh, Republican for Escambia Commission D1