Florida Education Commissioner Jim Horne Resigns

By JACKIE HALLIFAXAssociated Press WriterTALLAHASSEE, FL (AP) -- Jim Horne, Gov. Jeb Bush's choice to overhaul Florida's education system from kindergarten through college, resigned Tuesday after three years on the job, citing family concerns. In a brief note to Bush, the education commissioner wrote it had been "an honor to be involved with the most significant education reform movement of our time." But Horne, 45, added he wanted to devote time now to "being a great dad and good husband." For the past three years the father of four has been commuting between his home in the Jacksonville area to Tallahassee. Bush praised Horne as a "stalwart supporter of education reform and of adequate funding for our schools." The governor said Horne had done a "spectacular job." Horne made $230,742 annually and his resignation is effective Aug. 31. His successor will be named by the Florida Board of Education, a seven-member panel appointed by Bush. Phil Handy, a Winter Park businessman who chairs the board, also praised Horne, saying he had done extremely well in a job that put him under a lot of stress and pressure. "I enjoyed being his partner for the last three years under what has sometimes felt like battleground conditions," Handy said. But State Rep. Curtis Richardson, a Tallahassee Democrat and vocal critic of Bush's education policies, said Horne had done the right thing in leaving the job. He said Horne's tenure has been "one misstep and one blunder after another," particularly in programs that give state money to some students who attend private schools. An accountant by training, Horne was tapped to head up the department after serving in the Legislature from 1995 to 2001, including a stint as chairman of the Senate committee that writes the state budget. A top priority for Bush has been revamping the education system, including added accountability through testing for school children and more choices for parents in where their children can go to school. One of the most controversial elements of Bush's policies has been issuing vouchers to children attending failing public schools so they can attend private schools at state expense. Horne's department has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over the accountability of private schools that accept vouchers, after some of the schools were accused of fraud and other wrongdoing. But people close to Horne said it was not the scrutiny over the voucher program but the pressure of being apart from his family that led to his resignation. And under the measuring system that Bush has championed, Florida schools have made improvements on Horne's watch. In May, state officials announced that more than half of the students who took the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test are reading at or above grade level, for the first time since officials started measuring it. The results were even better in math, with 56 percent of students at grade level or better. Bush and Horne have also been able to tout a narrowing gap between achievement by black students and white ones. Still, Horne's public face was often defending Bush's education reforms. He had to deal with embarrassments over the state's corporate voucher program, in which corporations receive tax credits for providing private school scholarships to poor children. Among those were the revelation in 2003 that corporate vouchers were being used to pay tuition for students at an Islamic school in Tampa co-founded by a professor accused of terrorist ties. In June, seven people were arrested from a Polk County Christian school, amid allegations it accepted state voucher money for disabled children who didn't attend the school. The Legislature this year took a look at the voucher program, considering proposals to add accountability measures for the private schools that take the money. But nothing passed, and Senate President Jim King called the program a "disaster waiting to happen." The state teachers union, a frequent critic of Bush's education policies, was measured in its reaction to Horne's resignation. "We enjoyed our working relationship with him when he was in the Senate and appreciated the limited opportunities we had to work with him in his role at the DOE," said Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for Florida Education Association. Pudlow said he hoped Horne's successor would listen better to teachers and school staff. Charles Garcia, a member of the Florida School Board, said he thought Horne had been responsive to a wide array of people and groups, including the governor, the board, state lawmakers and the teachers union. "I think Jim's done a great job," Garcia, a Boca Raton businessman, said. "He was the right individual at the right time."