Florida has been hit hard by the recession. Consumers are squeezed between rising costs (such as health and property insurance premiums) and declining incomes or job loss. Thousands of Floridians struggle to hang onto their homes; some have already lost the battle. The safety net they worked so hard for has vanished.

Fixing the damage caused by the recession and preventing damage from future recessions will take hard work, imagination and experience. It will also take a change in our thinking about state economic policy and how to produce a healthy, diverse and resilient economy that can handle competition and rough weather.

As I see it:

• Florida's Republican leaders are addicted to growth at any price, resulting in higher cost to taxpayers for services than we received in increased economic activity.

• Florida's Republican leaders let insurance costs get out of control, forcing businesses to spend money they could have used to grow themselves and create jobs.

• Florida's Republican leaders try to attract businesses the lazy way (tax breaks) instead of the right way (good infrastructure and an educated work force).

• America has given the world many of the inventions that make modern life possible from the light bulb to the computer and yet we see high-paying manufacturing and high-technology jobs sent to other countries.Our own citizens and voters are at a disadvantage, when foreign governments invest in those industries by providing infrastructure and health care.

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." -- Malcolm Forbes
Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. --Roger Lewin

Our economic and civic life depends on educated informed citizens who live in the real world and know how to think for themselves. Cultivating an educated citizenry requires a robust and demanding public education system. Florida has great raw materials but its current leadership is making poor use of them.

As I see it:

• Florida's Republican leaders have instituted educational testing incorrectly. Instead of integrated testing that's built into a curriculum designed around state standards, Florida adds FCAT - a different and not very compatible measuring tool that adds extra work, and stress, for students, parents and teachers.
• Florida's Republican leaders haven’t adequately funded our public schools in grades pre-K through 12 or our colleges and universities.
• Florida's Republican leaders allow private schools to receive tax-funded vouchers without meeting the same standards as our public schools.
• Florida's Republican leaders don't pay our teachers nearly enough for the work they put in and care they give our students.

Florida is blessed with the most beautiful beaches in the world, clear, clean blue water and acres upon acres of natural beauty. It is our environment that draws people to visit and then decide to make Florida their home. For too many of our "leaders" in Tallahassee, those blessings are there to be sold as a commodity instead of preserved as public treasures.

As I see it:

• Floridians rely on water from groundwater wells, river reservoirs, wastewater reclamation and desalination. The first two are our major sources. Groundwater and rivers are fed from our aquifer, which is refreshed by rainfall on recharge areas. Over-development draws too much water out of the aquifer, compounding the problem, recharge areas are paved over limiting the area needed to put water back into the aquifer. Florida's Republican leaders seem to think causing very expensive damage to our environment is worth it as long as it fosters the development our economy has become dependant on.
• Poorly planned development overburdens our aquifer with massive amounts of pesticides and fertilizers resulting in fish kills and algae blooms. (Look at Silver Springs to see this for yourself.) That means extra costs for purifying water for drinkability or paying through the nose for water in little plastic bottles. Florida's Republican leaders don't seem to have a problem letting more and more development happen while they're letting private companies sell our water and ship it out of state.
• Urban sprawl places a tremendous reliance on automobiles. Sensible growth management regulations would create livable communities with short trips between residential, retail and commercial developments. Bike paths, side walks and mass transit would take cars off the road, reduce air pollution and help more Floridians get in better shape. Florida's Republican leaders don't seem to agree.