Aaron Bean's shameless dig at educators

[Jaxson]

"We just have to know the unions are out for getting the most they can for their union members," [Aaron] Bean said. "My goal will be to make sure that kids are the priority."
[Source --- http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-06-04/story/northeast-florida-candidates-push-different-proposals-educational#ixzz1wrrTtL6F]

While Aaron Bean's platitude looks pretty, it is actually an unfair attack on the educators who work daily to improve the lives of our children.  Mr. Bean should take a deeper look into how the current leadership in Tallahassee is showing disrespect toward public education while playing favorites with private, charter and parochial schools.  There has never been a truly level playing field as the state demands more accountability from public schools while giving a free pass to the private, charter and parochial schools.
It should be no surprise that a conservative candidate for the state senate would use the same, tired attacks on teachers unions to toss red meat to his core constituency --- anti-labor voters who prefer to strip existing rights from workers than to show some respect for the workers who currently have no such rights.
What is more disingenuous of Mr. Bean is how he appears to be putting himself first instead of our students.  Is he not the same man who made a backroom deal to sit out the last senate election so he could have a tailor-made district for himself?  This begs the question of who Mr. Bean will be beholden to if he should be elected to represent Nassau and Duval Counties in Tallahassee.
It is time to wake up to reality here; to put students first does not mean that we have to demonize the educators who dedicate their time, talent and treasure to best serving our community.