FOLIO
The City Council’s AP Farce and Ultra-Hypocrite Rory Diamond
By Terry D. Bork
Recently, our City Council failed to pass an emergency resolution supporting state funding for education acceleration programs such as Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and Dual Enrollment.
Council Members Carlucci and Pelusa introduced this resolution after local high school students asked the Council to take a stand against a state funding cut that would eliminate $8 million in local funding for these programs, which saved the students money by allowing them to complete 1 or 2 years of college before they even entered college.
However, the resolution failed to get the required 13 votes. Council Members Carrico, Salem, Diamond, Gay, J. Carlucci, and Miller voted against the resolution.
To add insult to injury, the Council rejected the resolution before any student had the chance to speak. These elected officials did not even bother to listen to what these kids had to say before they voted.
But the worst of the bunch was ultra-hypocrite Council member Rory Diamond who said that the Council should not become a “super school board.” Specifically, he said “This is not our lane. This is not our job. We should not be doing this. Just vote no and we can move on.” Yes, let us ignore these pesky kids and move on.
However, those of us who remember the school board sales tax fight of 2019, remember a Diamond who was quite willing to be a super school board member. When the Curry administration argued that a state statute that said that the Council “shall” put a school board sales tax referendum for maintenance on the ballot, Diamond joined those who argued that “shall” meant “may.” Apparently, he never bothered to read a dictionary.
Then at the first council meeting to consider the sales taxes, super-school board member Diamond said that he opposed the referendum because it helped public schools and not charter schools, who did not have the maintenance needs that our 50-year-old public schools had.
At another Council meeting, super-school-board member Diamond joined other Council members in submitting numerous questions to the school board to answer before it would consider putting the referendum on the ballot. Specifically, Diamond asked 10 questions.
At a later Council meeting, Diamond called on a pro-charter school supporter to speak who said that charter schools should receive a part of the referendum money even though they did not have the maintenance needs of our 50-year-old schools.
This farce did not end until a circuit court ruled that “shall” meant “shall” and ordered the Council to put the referendum on the ballot.
Unfortunately, by then the Florida Legislature had changed the law and the money had to be distributed on a per-pupil basis, which has led our school board to closing public schools. As Nate Monroe reported in April 2024:
Consider: Since the district began collecting the voter-approved half-cent sales tax in January 2021, the district has, by virtue of state law, been forced to distribute $62 million in proceeds to the county’s various charter schools, or nearly 17 percent of the $363 million the tax has generated over the past three years, according to data the district provided. And unlike the district, which campaigned for the tax by dedicating its use to improving the physical conditions of its schools, charters are not required to spend their money on capital projects or school improvements. They’re not even required to report to the district how they’re spending the money. But district figures show, among the charters that do report, that far and away the largest use of the tax revenue by charters is rent payments — a clear boon for landlords and charter management companies. Less clear is how students benefit.
As for Diamond, Monroe reported that he was saying that the popular Atlantic Elementary School would not close, even though his actions in delaying the sales tax ballot measure meant that Florida Legislature had time to change the law to rob public schools of money for maintenance needs so that charter schools could pay rent to their rich landlords, managers, and owners. Monroe reported that Diamond then accused our school board of mismanaging the money it was receiving from the sales tax. How was it doing so? Well, Diamond did not say.
In short, Diamond is a hypocrite. He has no problem acting like a super school board member when it helps charter schools to make their owners rich, but when it comes to supporting regular public school students, he says “We should stay in our lane.” What a dishonorable man and what a disgraceful Council.
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