While the Democratic PR Hit Machine constantly tries to paint Republican Gov. Rick Scott as a racist, his lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, proves them liars at every hand.
Besides being black herself, Lt. Gov. Carroll is, and always has been, totally involved in her community – and is even a life-long member of the NAACP.
But, recently, she really outdid herself and made the students of Florida’s historically black colleges and universities happy and proud. The presidents of Bethune Cookman University, Edward Waters College, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and Florida Memorial University all sing her praises. She guarded over vetoes to send millions of dollars to their schools – $8.77 million, in fact.
Additionally, she en-sured that Gov. Scott included in his budget over $10 million for grants and aid to: the Minority Teacher Scholarship Program, the Mary McLeod Bethune Scholarship, the Rosewood Family scholarships, the Jose Marti scholarship, the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, the Black Male Explorers, the African American Task Force, the Minority Community Crime Prevention Program, the Minority Scholarship for CPAs, and the Black Business Investment Board/Corporations.
FAMU’s Crestview Pharmacy College got $1.5 million, which led President Dr. James H. Ammons to state that he was “very appreciative for Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll for working” with him to keep the appropriations from being vetoed. “I can’t thank her enough for supporting FAMU’s progressive initiative… I contacted [her], she immediately responded and the rest is history,” he said.
Dr. Henry Lewis III, president of Florida Memorial University, and President Nathaniel Glover of Edward Waters College were personally reassured by Lt. Gov. Carroll that she would work to secure their funding to maintain access for many under-privileged college students. President Glover stated that the Access Retention and Graduation (ARF) grant “was critical helping us keep kids in school and have the appropriate mechanism in place to facilitate access.”
“ARG funding is a major factor in our success in addressing the needs of our students, where 99 percent of the population receives financial aid. For first generation students, ARG funding allows Edward Waters to address their needs in a holistic manner, not just in the area of academic, retentions and graduation; it will also allow students to be successful and fully participate in Florida’s and the world’s economy as taxpaying revenue citizens. Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll's help to ensure these funds were secured for EWC was instrumental. I cannot thank her enough for her involvement in the process.”
Gov. Scott and Lt. Gov. Carroll demonstrated their hatred of racism by supporting the very vehicles which helped catapult generations of black families into financial wealth and the great American Dream. Their contributions will be felt by generations to come.
Barbara Howard is Florida State chairwoman for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Trade & Travel goodwill ambassador to Kenya. She may be reached at bhoward11@bellsouth.net.
Photo: Rcik Scott
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