Dream job lost
Florida Commissioner of Education Tom Gallagher and gte Communications Corp. recently announced a statewide, high-tech school fund-raiser that allows participants to contribute money to their local schools by racking up long-distance charges.
The Irving, Texas-based long-distance provider will contribute 5 percent of participating customers’ long-distance charges every month to local education foundations in 27 selected districts. The company piloted the program last year in Tampa and donated $7,000 to the Hillsborough Education Foundation that serves Florida’s 155,000-student Hillsborough County school district.
The GTE Extra Credit for Schools program is “unique because it allows each local education foundation to determine the best use of money,” said Mr. Gallagher in announcing the plan.
Because customers must sign up with gte to take part in the program, the company is also conducting a direct-mail and telemarketing campaign to notify long-distance customers about the partnership.
So much for bake sales
The Cincinnati Enquirer got it half right: Wanda Cornelius loved her job on the Taylor County, Ky., school board. But it wasn’t true, as the newspaper reported, that Ms. Cornelius wouldn’t have run for lieutenant governor of Kentucky on the Republican ticket if she had known she’d have to give up the seat she had held for nine years.
In fact, Ms. Cornelius accepted gubernatorial candidate Peppy Martin’s invitation in the full knowledge that, win or lose, she would have to leave the school board. That’s because state law doesn’t allow someone to be a candidate for two offices at the same time, though she could serve out her term. And that she meant to do. “I take my commitments seriously,” she said after last week’s election.
Ms. Cornelius, 50, a former teacher and, in the words of Taylor’s superintendent, “a dream school board member,” said she loved the statewide campaign, even though it ended badly for the gop ticket. Democratic Gov. Paul E. Patton and his running mate won easily; Mr. Patton received 61 percent of the vote.
“I’ll go on to do something else to help people,” Ms. Cornelius said. “Maybe sing gospel music in churches.”
— Jessica L. Sandham & Bess Keller
