Florida education commissioner booed at Tampa school board conference | Letters to the Editor
letter to the editor from LH in response to a published piece about Florida education commissioner being booed at the state school board conference.
Tampa Bay Times, Letter Link, Published Dec. 10, 2025
Lacking leadership
Florida’s education ecosystem includes 350,000 teachers, leaders and staff serving 2.7 million students. Some do not believe that excellence is possible at that scale. I do. Emphatically and urgently. Our military has 1.3 million active-duty members; Disney has 230,000 employees. Both prove that excellence is possible at scale and across the globe. As John Paul Jones said, “Men mean more than guns in the rating of a ship.” People — and the leadership of people — make excellence possible.
As a leader in Florida’s education ecosystem, I was present and listened closely to the commissioner’s remarks on Thursday.
My question to you is this: If you were entrusted with leading education for the entire state and had the chance to speak to more than 300 leaders responsible for over four-fifths of Florida’s children, what would you say? Would you offer something like Vince Lombardi — words that inspire and strengthen? Would you echo General George Patton on the imperative of excellence and leaders’ duty to achieve it? Would you, like Theodore Roosevelt, honor the “sweat and dust and blood” these professionals shed, spending themselves in a worthy cause? And would you affirm that you and your office stand ready to support any idea, any effort, that ensures Florida’s children and future will thrive?
I look forward to that day in Florida — the day our leaders believe in and lead people for excellence. Unfortunately, Thursday was not that day.
Laura Hine, St. Petersburg
*The writer is a member of the Pinellas County School Board.
