Article: Audrey Asciutto Is Our Best Hope.

     On Monday, I had the opportunity to hear Ms. Audrey Asciutto speak at the Highlands County Education Association office.  Ms. Asciutto is a local realtor running for Florida State Representative of District 55.  She is a very personable lady and quite knowledgeable about the needs of our school system.

     As a retired Highlands County teacher, it was great for me to hear a local candidate speak positively about our children and actually want to improve our schools.  Ms. Asciutto currently has three children in our school system and she is determined to get them the finest education possible.

     Ms. Asciutto wants to bring more money into the state by legalizing marijuana, regulating it and taxing it just like alcohol.  The proceeds would then go strictly to fund education.  She points out that a majority of Floridians are already in favor of decriminalizing marijuana and that this has worked well in other states.

     She realizes that the state legislature just passed the largest budget in our history and consequently has more than enough money to fund our schools.  The problem is in how legislators, and in particular our current representative, have allocated the money.  Millions of dollars are going to private and charter schools.  Highlands County has no charter schools.  Our school system is in horrible financial shape because of this under funding and teachers have not gotten a real raise in their salaries in the last ten years.

     If we want to save our schools, we need to change our representative.  We need to elect a representative who will bring us the necessary funds to properly operate our schools.  We really need to elect Audrey Asciutto.