Among the decisions Pasco County voters will have to make in this year’s election are who should serve as the superintendent of schools and who they want to send to Washington, D.C. as the representative for the 12th Congressional District.
In the race for superintendent, Republican Kurt Browning is trying to secure his third term against Democratic challenger and Bayonet Point Middle School Teacher Cynthia Thompson.
Thompson said the experience of enrolling her daughter in kindergarten was part of what made her want to run.
“Looking at where to put my daughter was the hardest part for me,” said Thompson, whose first teaching job after college began at Moon Lake Elementary in 2008. “I believe in the teachers, but the way our system’s being run, I don’t believe in. My first thought was private school, but as a public school teacher, I don’t think that should even be an option. I think that public schools should be good enough for every single student in the district. I feel like we’ve moved too far away from the educational piece, and we’re focusing more on the business side of education. And we need to go back and look and change things and focus on the education and make it better for these kids.”
Among her top priorities are taking a second look at Pasco’s mySchool Online and giving parents and students extra support where needed.
Before being elected as superintendent in 2012, Browning served as Florida Secretary of State to Governors Rick Scott and Charlie Crist. He spent 27 years as Pasco’s Supervisor of Elections before that.
Browning said the pandemic will continue to be one of the biggest challenges the district faces in the coming year.
“We are still dealing with COVID. It is still an active disease. We’ve put measures in place to test our staff and students on site. We have three test sites in the district,” Browning said.
He said one of the top priorities of a third term would be addressing the achievement gap, especially when it comes to literacy.
“We have really got to figure out what we need to do as a district to ensure, and put our resources where they belong, in supporting literacy,” Browning said. “If they’re not reading on grade level in third grade, we’ve got bigger issues. They’ve got bigger issues — the kids do – and that’s just unacceptable. We need to really take a hard look. We’re in the middle of a reading adoption right now for next school year, which means all of our literacy materials will be changing.”
Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis is also facing a challenge from an incumbent this election. U.S. Army and Air Force Veteran Kimberly Walker is the Democratic candidate for the 12th Congressional seat, which covers all of Pasco and parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties.
“I saw so many things that needed to be changed – not so much just in the state of Florida, but more on the federal,” said Walker.
Among her priorities are addressing the rising cost of prescription drugs and securing better pay for teachers. Walker said if elected, she’d use the federal tax code to create a permanent $13,000 teacher tax credit that would increase educators’ pay by $230 a week.
“I believe that teachers definitely deserve the pay,” Walker said. “If we are ever going to continue to be an advanced nation, we need to pay our teachers a higher pay.”
When it comes to the pandemic, Walker said she’d like to see the federal government work with states on specific local impacts.
Bilirakis also said Congress can take steps to help residents when it comes to COVID-19. He said he’d like to see unused Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan money distributed.
“There’s $130 billion sitting there, but the program has expired,” Bilirakis said. “So, we don’t even have to appropriate additional funds, even though I think we do need some more funds. Those funds are appropriated for that specific purpose, but we need to renew the program.”
First elected in 2006, Bilirakis said priorities for an eighth term in the House of Representatives would include supporting the Ridge Rd. extension project and the Anclote River dredging project. That aims to deepen the river to allow larger boats to dock in Tarpon Springs to unload cargo — something they’ve reportedly been deterred by because of silt buildup that creates very shallow waters at low tide.
“That’s so very important to our economy. It’s also a public safety issue, but we’re still working on it. We need additional funds,” Bilirakis said.
Election Day is Nov. 3. Early voting in Pasco County runs until Saturday, Oct. 31.
