A long-term victory for the rights of the people
Dear Editor:
In response to Donna Hart’s Letter to the Editor from July 7 (“A short-term victory for women’s health rights”), I take offense to her accusation that the Supreme Court, the highest court in our land, “assaulted” anyone or anything as an “activist court” regarding the Roe vs. Wade decision.
To use the words “assault” and “activist” appears to be an attempt by her and her organization to incite your readers into retaliating against the Court or its justices either physically, mentally or socially. Ms. Hart’s word choices were irresponsible and they set a dangerous tone. I am calling upon Ms. Hart to retract these statements and proactively apologize to anyone who may be harmed in the future as a result.
The Supreme Court’s decision on Roe vs. Wade upholds the Constitution by way of the 10th Amendment: “Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”.
Ms. Hart and her organization consistently show disdain for our government of, by and for the people. Roe decision returns the right to decide what is best for the State of Florida to its citizens. As for myself and the organization I represent, we dedicate ourselves to upholding Constitution, abiding by the established laws of the United States and the State of Florida, and adhering to any Federal or State court rulings decided in our favor or not.
JoAnn Colonna
Vice Chair, Osceola County Republican Executive Committee
Gross injustice to ACCA students
Dear Editor:
American Classical Charter Academy (ACCA) opened in August of 2019 in Osceola County. The mission of ACCA is to create a culture of virtue and knowledge. We want our students to become bright young adults, future leaders of their community. The focus at ACCA is to develop critical thinking skills through a classical curriculum model. This is contrary to the current public school progressive education system of teaching to the test. ACCA quickly became a school loved by its students, their parents, teachers, and sta.
During our first year of state testing (2020-21), while under management by Charter One, ACCA scored 1 percentage point above an “F”. The state testing system measures achievement, learning gains, graduation rates, and acceleration success. A_er ACCA’s board _red Charter One and took over school management, ACCA experienced a dramatic improvement, moving to 1 percentage point away from an “A”. ACCA’s increase in academic achievement was the third highest in the State of Florida. ACCA scored more points in every category of the Florida State Assessment (FSA) than the Osceola County School District making it one of the top schools in the county.
Even with the stellar academic performance, the Osceola County School Board decided to terminate the charter contract of ACCA and refused funding to the school — literally one week prior from the start of school. closing was based on erroneous information that can essentially be used to close the majority of other charter schools in the district, if not the state. school district is experiencing the same issues that they used as reasons to close ACCA. During the Aug. 2 School Board meeting, a board member said, “If we were to hold all district schools to the same standards used to close ACCA all of our schools would be closed as well.”
ACCA wants to thank all of the teachers, administrators and scholars for a fantastic 2021-2022 school year, and parents for trusting us with their children. We are going to appeal the decision and believe that we shall prevail.
Mark Gotz
ACCA Managing Director
