ORANGE PARK -- Jim Horne is as excited about his upcoming job as a kid with a new pony at Christmas.
The 42-year-old state senator from Orange Park will take the reins of the newly created Florida education department on July 1 with a mandate to try to rewrite the state's education statutes within the next six months.
"I look at it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Horne said in an interview in his second-floor office at Duval and Horne, the CPA firm he will be leaving when he assumes his new post next month in Tallahassee.
"It's not often that you get a chance to completely revamp something and when the opportunity comes along you have to take it. No other state has ever attempted anything like this."
In a way, Horne said, he has been preparing all of his life for this.
"When I was young, I wanted to be either a teacher or a landscape architect," he said. "I don't know what the connection between the two jobs are but the point is, I think teaching is the single greatest role in society.
"My whole public life has been geared around education and for the past seven years in the Senate I have worked on education issues."
Horne said he hopes the public will give him a chance to do the job Gov. Jeb Bush chose him to do before they start criticizing him.
"I get a little defensive when people say since I'm not an educator, that I shouldn't be in this job," he said. "But I don't have to know how widgets are made to run a company that makes widgets. I see myself as the CEO of a big company and I think I bring to the job a blend of organizational skills, knowledge of financing and a great interest in education."
Horne said he will continue to make Orange Park his home and commute to Tallahassee for at least the next six months.
"I'll be working 16-hour days and I think it would be frustrating to relocate my family to new surroundings and then not be able to spend the kind of time with them that I want. My family is the most important thing in the world to me," he said.
Horne's star has been rising ever since he staged a dramatic upset of Matt Carlucci in the 1993 Senate race and he hasn't stopped since. With a year to go before being turned out of office because of term limits, Horne has climbed to the pinnacle of party leadership. He was in the running to be on the ticket with Bush as lieutenant governor before Frank Brogan was picked, and he was chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
"To be honest with you, there has been a little change in people's attitude toward me since they learned I was leaving the Senate and couldn't do as much for them," he said with a grin. "But I can't imagine a greater opportunity than this."
Without getting into specifics, Horne said his mission is to integrate all of the state's educational systems so that they are responsive toward one constituency -- students.
"It is an overwhelming task and we can't expect to correct our educational woes overnight," he said. "It took decades to get this way."
Horne said in the early going he will concentrate on the upper levels of education while current state Education Commissioner Charlie Crist will continue to oversee kindergarten through high school. Part of Horne's vision is to offer higher education where the people are.
"Banks all used to be downtown, but when people moved to the suburbs, the bankers started building branch banks where the people lived," Horne said. "We need to take our educational system to where the students are and try to break down some of the barriers that we have built up around some of our institutions.
"But also, with one vision for all the education levels in the state, we can better utilize our resources. All these elementary schools don't need to be empty at nights and on weekends. We can do better."
One of the ways Horne hopes to maximize resources is to create an inservice teacher training program for Clay County in cooperation with the University of North Florida, financed as part of the Public Education Capital Outlay legislation. If the measure survives a Bush veto, it will mean $2.5 million will be used to build a multimedia center at Orange Park Elementary School that can be used by the school during the day and for teacher training at night.
Clay County's assistant superintendent for instruction, Walter Brock, likes the idea.
"I think the concept of a seamless education system is very sound," Brock said. "I think it would possibly open up more joint-use opportunities in Clay County."
The idea of a Clay County resident occupying the top education job in the state doesn't hurt, either, Brock said.
"Sen. Horne has been very receptive to Clay County and he often seeks out our opinion on issue," Brock said. "I think it helps to have a person we consider our friend and someone we feel comfortable sharing our opinions with."
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