Opinion

We'll see

TBO.com
Published: November 10, 2012

During the 2012 presidential campaign, there was a lot of talk about the stark choice of political philosophy between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Depending on who won, the country would lurch hard to the left or right, we were told. In the end, the U.S. House remained in the control of Republicans, and Democrats still hold sway in the Senate. This almost guarantees that not much will happen in Washington, D.C., at least until the 2016 congressional elections.

Closer to home, Kurt Browning is about to become Pasco school superintendent, having knocked off the incumbent, Heather Fiorentino, in the Republican primary in August by a landslide and having won easily on Tuesday against write-in candidate Kathy Lambert. Among some in the school district, there is a palpable feeling that Browning, the former Pasco supervisor of elections and Florida secretary of state, will usher in an entirely new era in Pasco public schools. Over three decades in public life, Browning has proven an able administrator and astute politician. So those high hopes are not irrational.

Nevertheless, Browning will face the same thorny problems with which Fiorentino contended. They include reduced funding and higher spending demands, and pressure from the state to improve student test scores and the school grades that result in large part from those test results. So people should temper their hopes, at least initially, for Browning's tenure as superintendent. None of the tools at his disposal is a magic wand.