PANAMA CITY — A former School Board member would sponsor a bill to stop the Common Core education standards in Florida if elected to the state House District 6 seat in 2014.
Thelma Rohan, 68, is one of eight active candidates vying for the seat currently held by state Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, who is term-limited. The Panama City Republican served two terms (eight years) on the Bay District School Board, ending in 2006, but is no fan of the controversial national educational standards.
Rohan noted a bill (HB 25) has already been filed in the state House to halt their implementation and said she would sign on to it if she already were in the House.
“I will focus on legislation that returns power of decision making for all of our schools to the local leaders be they public, including charters, or private,” said the former nurse.
Education is just one of her “three E’s” platform, which includes the economy and the environment. She said all three ultimately converge on the primary issue facing Bay County: “a lack of good jobs.”
The self-described conservative said she would push legislation to cut taxes for individuals, families and small businesses.
“This will leave more of people’s hard-earned money in their pockets to invest back into the economy, their business and their family,” she said.
Rohan, who works as an office manager at her husband’s medical practice, also views the environment in largely economic terms, with a focus on commercial fishing and tourism.
“We are surrounded by some of the most beautiful bayous, bays and the Gulf of Mexico and I know first-hand that a clean, pristine and productive environment drives much of Bay County’s economy,” she said.
Soliciting input from seafood industry professionals, recreational fishermen, land developers, environmental groups and government regulatory agencies, Rohan wants to craft policy that would “not choke and starve” proper growth efforts but would ensure a “clean and productive” environment, she said.
Rohan is active in the Republican Party, as a Bay County state committeewoman and a precinct leader. She also served as the county Republican Party’s chairman and vice chairman and sat on several committees across the community. In 2008, she ran for county school superintendent, losing in the primary to now-Superintendent Bill Husfelt.
For the last 15 years, Rohan said she has “fully supported” former House Speaker Allan Bense and Patronis as they held the District 6 seat, but she wants to bring at least one fresh view to the job — one of a different gender.
“… I hope to bring a woman’s perspective to this House seat with my experience as an elected School Board member, community activist, nurse, business woman, mother and grandmother,” she said.
Biographical information
Name: Thelma Rohan
Political Party: Republican
Age: 68
Profession: Former nurse; current office manager at Panama City Orthopedics
Current city: Panama City
Born: LaFollette, Tenn. (lived in Bay County full time since 1978)
Education: Everglades School for Girls, in Miami (1963), Bachelor of Science in nursing from Barry College (now Barry University) (1968), Master of Science in social science from FSU Panama City(1998).
Married: to Michael X. Rohan Sr. for 43 years
Kids: Five grown children — Mike, Andrew, Kevin, Colleen and Patrick and five grandchildren
Pets: two cats and two dogs