Single copies free The student newspaper at USF St. Petersburg
Mar 28- Apr 3, 2016 | Volume 50 | Issue 26
Where is General Tso?
Terrorism shouldn’t dictate study abroad plans
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Undaunted by challenges, student seeks seat in state Legislature
By Devin Rodriguez Staff Reporter
He was just 3 months old, Victor Sims says, when the state removed him and four of his siblings from their unstable home and put them in foster care. For the next 11 years, he bounced from foster home to foster home – eight altogether – before he landed in the home of a loving couple in Winter Haven who eventually adopted him. They provided stability and encouragement through his teenage years, he says. Now 20, Sims is a senior psychology major at USF St. Petersburg with an ambitious goal: He wants to ser ve in the state House of Representatives. On March 3, he filed to run as a Democratic candidate in District 39, which covers parts of Polk and Osceola counties. It ’s a long shot . Rep. Nei l
C ombee, 56, t he Republ ic a n incumbent, is a Pol k Count y native who has already served four years in the House, the last two as deputy majority whip. According to his filings in the state Division of Elections, Combee has raised $53,905 for his campaign and spent $30,218. But Sims says he is used to challenges. He wants to “break barriers and build futures” in his campaign, he said. “I’m a strong believer in God, and I think God will lead me to where he wants me to go next.” As he moved from foster home to foster home, Sims says, the experience was often difficult. “The constant moving was a huge problem for me because I would get close to the family and then leave,” he said. “It was difficult to go to school and wonder if the caseworker was going to pick you up and tell you that you’re no longer a part of that household.”
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Courtesy of Nicole Carroll
Sims is running for a seat in Florida’s House of Representatives, says he wants to “break barriers and build futures.”
There’s good news, bad news for education majors, dean says By Jeffre7 zanker Staff Reporter
Courtesy of USF St. Petersburg
Education “has become a political football,” says Bill Heller, dean of the College of Education. Heller, 80, a former state legislator, has an insider’s perspective on the intersection of education and politics.
Students who earn degrees in education at USF St. Petersburg don’t have to worry much about f i nd i ng a te ach i ng job a f ter graduation. But teaching these days is no school picnic. That’s the assessment of Bill Heller, who as dean of the College of Education and a former state legislator has an insider’s perspective on the intersection of education and politics. “If you want employment, you can have it in education,” said Heller, who predicted that most of the college’s 300 undergrads will land jobs. “But it’s a tough world in education right now.” Virtually every lawmaker had “one bad teacher” growing up, Heller said, so many legislators
believe they know what’s best in setting standards for curriculum, students and teachers. As a result, teachers have lost professional development opportunities and job protection, he said. They are increasingly judged by their students’ standardized test scores, and the state’s “best and brightest” teacher scholarships are based in part on how teachers performed on their SAT or ACT tests. “I’m not a fan of the best and brightest” program, said Heller, who said education “has become a political football.” Heller, 80, traces his passion for education to his own upbringing in a series of rural, one-room schools in Illinois. Teachers “always made special efforts with my brother and me,” who were raised by their father – a poor farmer with a sixth-grade education – and grandparents, he said.
“Teaching is a part of me.” He married his wife, Jeanne, in 1954. Her sister is deaf, he said, and that helped prompt his career-long interest in special education. After a stint as a paratrooper with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Heller earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education at Southern Illinois University, a master’s in guidance and counseling from Northern Illinois and a doctorate in special education from Northern Colorado University. In the years that followed, his career included stints as a special education teacher, an administrator in the U.S. Department of Education, superintendent of a psychiatric hospital and a...
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