Fiscal Rangers

School District Best Practices and the Concept of Finding and Using Them

Guess what - the US Conference of Mayors has a MASSIVE "Best Practices" database with articles on management and administrative best practices. This first article below is about the Kansas City School District and how they handle students who are behavior problems. The lesson here is that work practices can adopt best practices from other Districts, AND there are sources where these ideas for best practices are located. A second article posted below is on how Pembroke Pines, FL financed construction of needed schools. Searching on "School" in the best practices database found 326 articles. One way to evaluate the effectiveness of government management and elected officials is to determine if they actually know about these sources, the best practices, and have adopted some of them by developing policies or implementing the practices. An even better situation is if the local government agency management is known for developing best practices adopted by others, and winning published kudos on their ideas. So, where do Lake County government managers fit in this equation and best practices? We will look for more and over time compare them to existing practices of local government in Lake County. And, they should post any publications or... Read more →

Florida Tax Watch Issues New Report on FL Property Tax Problems

This website focuses on improving resource management of Lake County, Florida local government spending. Tax issues are a concern because if government resources are not professionally managed, then there is pressure to increase taxes to offset the resulting inefficiencies. ALSO, see the links at the bottom of this post. vj from the Orlando Business Journal http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2006/12/18/daily4.html Report: Crisis looming for state's property tax system Orlando Business Journal - 10:05 AM EST Monday Florida's property tax system faces a crisis due to rising levies and local government spending that exceeds the taxpayers' ability to pay, a new report released by Florida TaxWatch finds. Dominic M. Calabro, president and CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan government watchdog group, notes that his organization has seen a big increase in the volume of calls and e-mails from upset taxpayers, who believe the property tax system is "unfair and unaffordable." The report partially blames the state's Save Our Homes amendment to the state constitution. Since it took effect in 1995, it has limited annual increases in homesteaded property to 3 percent or the increase in inflation, whichever is less, Florida TaxWatch says. The report says that while holding down taxes for many homeowners, the amendment has... Read more →

Bill Gates Foundation funded report suggests k-12 Improvements

It seems Bill Gates's foundation for improving education is making more news. They sponsored a MAJOR new 202 page report "Tough Choices or Tough Times" on the effectiveness of the k-12 education system which was issued today. Today they suggested that State governments take over school districts because k-12 students are NOT being prepared for life or employment after graduation. He also says Texas school programs should be a model for other States. (and, Gates is in Washington State, which isn't doing the job...). Here are some news articles on the 202 page report - I will add more as I find them... you can see another trend for accountability in education, and Gates also supports merit pay for teaching. vj You can also find the executive summary of the 200 page book "Tough Choices or Tough Times" at: http://www.skillscommission.org/ The $19.95 book can be ordered from Amazon.com or from the publisher at: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787995983,descCd-description.html Here is a description of the book: Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce National Center on Education and the Economy ISBN: 978-0-7879-9598-0 Paperback 208 pages December 2006 ========================================================= Bill Gates' education proposal: Be like... Read more →

Lake County (FL) School District could learn Professionalism from other Government agencies

What would be the criteria used by a government entity like the Lake County, FL School District to develop more efficient and economical management of operations? Maybe professionalism? So how do we define professionalism? Here are recent examples from other Florida government entities. When I mention Lake County, remember that is a SEPARATE government entity from the Lake County School District. 1) The County Sherrif's department recently announced they were in the final stages of becoming accredited by a state wide organization, the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation Inc., that sets performance standards for law enforcement departments. They never had that certification before until the recently deceased Sherrif Daniels started the qualification process. 2) Today's Orlando Sentinel described in an AP article how the Florida Department of Children & Families failed to have adequate professionally certified staff for a $23-million federal grant for FEMA. The grant was to "help residents overcome mental-health problems caused by major disasters". The paper said that "three out of four Florida based supervisors" for the grant "do not meet federal educational and licensing guidelines." The study was done by the "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" and found that just ONE of 29 supervisors was a licensed... Read more →