| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Occupation | teacher |
| Location | Central Florida, United States |
| Introduction | A nationally certified High School English teacher, Mike spent 20 years in journalism as a columnist with the Orlando Sentinel in Lake County, Fl., Executive Editor of the News Network for the New York Times Regional Newspapers, and Executive Editor of the Leesburg (Fl.) Commercial. He believes families and concerned business people can, and should, unite directly with educators in a nonpartisan effort to improve public schools. Experience in the classroom taught him that Florida’s current school reform agenda doesn’t work because it was designed to serve commercial and political interests, not students. |
| Interests | Public education policy |
| Favorite Movies | Goodbye Mr. Chips (original), Coach Carter, Renaissance Man, Rudy, Matewan, Norma Rae |
| Favorite Music | Neil Young, Dwight Yoakum, Joni Mitchell, Steve Earle, Kathleen Edwards, Emmylou Harris, Mark Knopfler, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton |
| Favorite Books | Readicide, by Kelly Gallagher, The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart, Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, Culture Wars by Ira Shor, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy by E.D. Hirsch Jr., A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo |
