We start 2012 with a three-part series of editorials on the Editorial Board’s annual goals for South Florida’s recovery after the mother of all global recessions. With the presidential election ahead, this year will be fraught with partisanship from Washington to Tallahassee. We prefer to take the middle road for our nation and our region to move ahead, to look for a way out through compromise. It is that all-American trait that has been missing from our leaders’ discourse.

Voting rights

The greatest assault to our republic may be the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. It opened the way for political “speech” through unlimited money spent by corporations and unions on campaigns. Expect us to track the money.

Florida voters’ rights also have been infringed by a new state law that makes it more difficult for young people, those who move often and new voters to cast their ballots. There was no fraud to prompt this law, only partisan machinations. Resolution through a U.S. Justice Department review and the courts is warranted. We will push the Legislature to follow through on Florida voters’ overwhelming demand for compact districts, too.

One hopeful move comes later this month when Miami-Dade voters will decide if they want term limits for commissioners and other needed changes to governance.

Money watch

U.S. Security and Exchange Commission investigations into Miami’s bond deals involving the new Marlins stadium and parking garages remain troubling signals of potential ethical breaches. We will be following the money on other large public projects, too, from the tunnel being built under Biscayne Bay to the new Museum Park. We will press for community-redevelopment funds to be spent wisely on poor urban communities like Overtown that need economic development the most.

Trust in public safety

Last year’s Urban Beach Weekend mayhem remains a preventable embarrassment. A culture change in police operations is needed, not just on Miami Beach but in Miami, too, where a Justice Department investigation is under way after police shootings in African-American neighborhoods.

Race to achieve

Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed K-12 education budget, which invests almost $1 billion in public schools, is welcome, but it still leaves the system years behind in needed funding to repair old schools. Funding for the state’s universities and colleges, particularly Miami Dade College, remains a shell game that’s shortchanging students. At the federal level, we will continue to push for Congress to invest in Pell Grants for smart students who can’t afford college — an investment in growing the middle class.

We will also be monitoring more-rigorous FCAT rules and pushing legislators to bring transparency to the finances of charter schools. We’ll also be looking at how the Broward school district’s new leadership cleans up an ailing, ethically challenged system.

Coming Monday: Diversifying the region’s economy has to be Job One