New directions

South Florida has long counted on sunshine and surf for its fortunes, attracting tourists and growing trade. But without visionary leaders to look for new opportunities ahead, we'll lose out.

That's why an educated workforce must be a priority.

Fortunately, South Florida's public schools are showing improvement, thanks in part to mentoring and tutoring programs and smart decisions by area superintendents to spend more in the classroom and less on bureaucracy.

This year, the Children's Movement of Florida, a bipartisan group spearheaded by former Herald publisher David Lawrence Jr., seeks to put kids at the forefront of Tallahassee's agenda, wisely calling for more investments in the quality of children's healthcare and pre-K without breaking the bank.

And the state Department of Education seems to be getting buy-in from teachers unions to revamp the way Florida rewards teachers so that it's based more on job performance than years on the job. Another positive, as reformers from Washington to Tallahassee focus on measuring results in the classroom.

Local legislators, for their part, have to stop talking about restoring South Florida's cost-differential for public schools and persuade rural and suburban lawmakers to get it done. We've lost millions of dollars because of this unfair funding formula.

Overall, Florida continues to lag -- ranked 30th nationally -- in the number of college graduates, and, as Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padrón often points out, Florida spends almost seven times more on prison inmates than on college students.

Brain Trust

Opportunities to focus on educational excellence abound. Thanks to its proximity to Latin America, Miami already has more than 1,400 regional headquarters for multinational companies, but the 21st century economy is a knowledge economy. Biotech remains the new frontier.

The University of Miami, which has embarked on biotech, and Florida International University, which has opened its medical school, are poised to train thousands of healthcare workers and researchers. The University of Miami's Life Science & Technology Park will be developing new medical products and conducting research for biotech companies. All of this bodes well for South Florida as a biotech gateway for the Americas.

Yet amid the promise of new jobs in healthcare fields there also are tough times ahead for Jackson Health System as it turns the corner on years of poor financial accounting and constant political meddling. Changing the governance structure for this tarnished community jewel may take a voter referendum if the Miami-Dade County Commission won't even study the issue.

Balancing the books

Florida is facing a $3 billion hole this year in the state's budget. Across-the-board cuts aren't wise. As the nonpartisan Florida TaxWatch pro-business group has pointed out, cuts in the state's budget can be targeted in ways that protect the most vulnerable and yet grow the economy. The Republican-led Legislature, eager to flex its political muscle, should heed TaxWatch's advice.

Pension costs at all levels of government must be reined in and a new investment system created that's fair to government workers and to taxpayers. That's one area that Gov.-elect Rick Scott has vowed to fix, and local elected leaders must tackle it too. To their credit, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado and city commissioners have made those tough calls to stop the bleeding from pension costs that are unsustainable.

And President Barack Obama, under pressure from a new GOP majority in the U.S. House, has proposed freezing federal employees' salaries for two years. That's a start, though much tougher decisions are ahead if Congress and the president are to end out-of-control federal deficits.

Gaining taxpayers' trust is paramount, whether in Washington or South Florida.

Read the full article here.