Voucher Program Growing Rapidly
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1 TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013 | YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1874 | 75¢ Lake City Reporter LAKECITYREPORTER.COM Charter school may be cut Lack of progress Baptist Church and its proposed NE Kingston school has not corrected numer- Greater Truevine started the charter school. Lane, was set to ous deficiencies that constitute charter process three years ago. cited for proposal County School Superintendent open in August, noncompliance with the contract, They expected to open in August to cancel contract. Terry Huddleston has recom- but it has yet the letter said. 2012, but had to file an amend- mended that the School Board to meet numer- “To date, the school has failed ment to push the opening date By AMANDA WILLIAMSON terminate the charter contract ous require- to meet generally accepted stan- back by another year. [email protected] it currently has with the church ments needed dards of fiscal management, facil- “They have done very little, during the board meeting tonight Huddleston first, according ity readiness, personnel require- as of being prepared to open,” The Columbia County School at 7 p.m. in the School Board to a letter draft- ments and insurance require- in the year since, assistant District may cut ties with the Complex auditorium. ed by assistant superintendent ments, among other material Greater Truevine Missionary Vine Academy of the Arts, 217 Narragansett Smith. The charter issues,” the letter said. BOARD continued on 3A Voucher BLACK WATER CHURNS program growing rapidly Nearly 11,000 students added to non-public school rolls in past year. By BRANDON LARRABEE The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — The state’s vouch- er-like system that allows students to attend private schools experienced record enrollment growth in 2012-13, according to a state report, and a spokesman said the program expects to add even more students in the upcoming year. According to the annual report on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program by the state Department of Education, the number of students using the program grew by 10,827 in 2012-13, to 51,075, or almost 27 percent. Jon East, spokesman for Step Up for Students, the administrator of the pro- gram, said the growth is primarily due to a bill approved by the Legislature in 2012 that increased the budget for the program to $229 million. That was nearly $10.3 million more than the credit would have otherwise increased under an auto- matic funding formula. Under the program, corporations are allowed to take tax credits for money that they contribute to Step Up for Students, which then uses those funds to essentially provide private-school VOUCHERS continued on 3A Two stabbed JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter in altercation The tea-colored water of Falling Creek churns into foam after traveling over a falls Monday. Inches of rainfall over the past two weeks outside bar have raised the creek’s flow above normal. By DEREK GILLIAM [email protected] Two men were stabbed early Saturday Middleburg man dies in mud bog wreck in the parking lot of a local bar, according to a Columbia County Sheriff’s Office By AMANDA WILLIAMSON malfunctioned. offense report. [email protected] “That’s the first time Both Tony Williams, 48, of Clearwater, we’ve ever had that and Reginald Florence, 47, of Madison, WHITE SPRINGS — A happen,” said James were in the parking lot of Club Rodeo, Middleburg man died Wilson, co-owner of the 3696 S US Highway 441, talking with a Saturday at a local mud Woodpecker Mud Bog. woman when they were attacked by two bog when a nearby truck’s When deputies arrived men, the report said. accelerator locked, caus- at the bog, there were two Williams told police one man stabbed ing it to jump off its trailer trucks with trailers parked him in the chest and the other man hit and crush the man against about 6 feet apart. One him in the face with a broken bottle. his own truck. of the trucks, owned by According to the report, Williams was Thomas Allen Brown Padgett, 40, had a red Ford stabbed at least four times — three times Sr., 55, of Middleburg, mud truck angled off the to the lower right abdomen. was pronounced dead at front of its trailer and mak- Florence confronted the men attacking 11:02 a.m., according to a ing contact with Brown’s Williams and was stabbed in the chest Hamilton County Sheriff’s pickup, the report said. and cut across his back, the report said. Office report. Brown died After arriving at the Both injured men said the attackers of severe chest and head mud bog, Padgett unload- were white men who left together in a injuries, it said. ed his truck, but wanted to white car, the report said. One of the men Brown hadn’t even ease forward on the trailer who attacked Williams and Florence had unloaded his Chevrolet for reasons not noted in a beard. mud truck at the the report. As he eased The wounded men were driven or COURTESY Woodpecker Mud Bog, forward, the accelerator drove to Shands at Lake Shore Medical Trucks involved in a fatal accident sit in the Woodpecker Mud Bog at White 18519 SE 91st Terrace, stuck causing the truck Center after the attack, according to the Springs. Thomas A. Brown, 55, of Middleburg, was killed when the red truck White Springs, when fel- to jump over the rear of malfunctioned, jumped off its trailer and crushed him against the black truck, low Middleburg-resident STABBING continued on 3A according to a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office report. Merrill Padgett’s truck DEATH continued on 3A Vol. 138, No. 375 People . 2A CALL US: TODAY IN COMING (386) 752-1293 93 69 Opinion . 4A PEOPLE WEDNESDAY SUBSCRIBE TO Partly Cloudy Obituaries . 5A THE REPORTER: Advice & Comics . 3B Clearing Local news Voice: 755-5445 Fax: 752-9400 WEATHER, 2A Puzzles . 4B ground. roundup. 2AWEATHER 2A LAKE CITY REPORTER DAILY BRIEFING TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013 Page Editor: Jim Barr, 754-0424 Celebrity Birthdays Saturday: Monday: Monday: n Actor James Hampton (“F Sister Sledge is 59. 1-7-35-39-43-47 Afternoon: 9-7-1 Afternoon: 2-4-0-0 Sunday: Troop”) is 77. n Actor Jimmy Smits is 58. x3 Evening: N/A Evening: N/A 8-17-20-25-31 n Actor Brian Dennehy is 75. n Actor Tom Hanks is 57. n Actor Richard Roundtree n Singer Marc Almond of is 71. Soft Cell is 56. PEOPLE IN THE NEWS n Actor Chris Cooper is 62. n Actress Kelly McGillis is n TV personality-turned- 56. musician John Tesh is 61. n Singer Jim Kerr of Simple n Country singer David Ball Minds is 54. is 60. n Singer Courtney Love is Stars perform for Okla. tornado victims n Singer Debbie Sledge of 49. NORMAN, Okla. Daily Scripture ome of country music’s big- gest stars, including Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and I will bow down toward your many others with ties to holy temple and will praise your Oklahoma, played a sold- Sout show Saturday at the University name for your unfailing love of Oklahoma to raise money for the and your faithfulness, for you victims of the recent tornadoes that strafed the state. have so exalted your solemn Organizers of the concert, which decree that it surpasses your was held in the school’s Gaylord fame. Family-Oklahoma Memorial — Psalm 138:2 Stadium, estimated that nearly 65,000 people braved the searing heat to watch the show and show “ their support for the victims, the Lake City Reporter Tulsa World reported. HOW TO REACH US BUSINESS The money raised from ticket Main number . .(386) 752-1293 Fax number . .752-9400 Controller Sue Brannon. .754-0419 sales benefits the United Way of JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter Circulation . .755-5445 ([email protected]) Central Oklahoma, which estab- Online . www.lakecityreporter.com lished a fund to aid victims of the CIRCULATION Clearing ground The Lake City Reporter, an affiliate of May storms that killed dozens of Community Newspapers Inc., is pub- Home delivery of the Lake City Reporter should be completed” by 6:30 a.m. people. Travis Timmons, co-owner of Timmons Concrete, clears away trees on an acre of lished Tuesday through Friday and land in order to make room for building lots on Thursday. Sunday at 180 E. Duval St., Lake City, Tuesday through Friday, and by 7:30 A separate benefit concert last Fla. 32055. Periodical postage paid at a.m. on Sunday. month hosted by Oklahoma native Lake City, Fla. Member Audit Bureau of Please call 386-755-5445 to report any country music star Blake Shelton during a ceremony where the native serving a three-month prison sen- Circulation and The Associated Press. problems with your delivery service. raised more than $6 million in dona- son rocker got bigger cheers than tence in Connecticut on Monday All material herein is property of the Lake In Columbia County, customers should tions and pledges. City Reporter. Reproduction in whole or call before 10:30 a.m. to report a ser- the popular governor. for failing to pay about $1 million in in part is forbidden without the permis- vice error for same day re-delivery. After Saturday’s concert was organized sion of the publisher. U.S. Postal Service “My being here is not political,” taxes over the past decade. 10:30 a.m., next day re-delivery or ser- No. 310-880. by Keith, who was still playing to a Bon Jovi said during a news confer- Hill reported to th federal prison vice related credits will be issued.