A note to anyone contemplating taking a state job in Tallahassee: You will probably have to work in Tallahassee.
For the second time this week, a Florida official has resigned to be "closer to home" or some such thing: Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson submitted his resignation yesterday, saying that his wife couldn't find a position in Florida comparable to her current job as a professor at the University of Richmond and that he wanted to be with his family in Virginia.
His resignation letter says he was proud to serve during "an unprecedented period in the history of school reform in the state of Florida," though it's a period most recently dominated by criticisms of the state's FCAT standardized testing system, which this year got more rigorous and resulted in half of ninth- and tenth-graders failing the reading portion, with lists of failing schools growing and discontent over miscalculated scores for hundreds of schools.
Robinson was hired last year; he's leaving at the end of the month.
Also resigning: Division of Elections Director Gisela Salas, who was also hired last year and is leaving this week, before the state's primary elections and right in the middle of the state's attempts to purge rolls of ineligible voters in a still-brewing battle between state and federal agencies. She's leaving to get a job closer to her home in Ocala.
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