We mostly focus on fiscal management, but Lake County School District Board Member Cindy Barrow sent out an email about her trip to Tallahassee to get details on coming State Budget cuts that affect the school district. Cindy puts in a lot of hours on School District issues and has good credibility.
From my point of fiscal management view, the practice of state legislators to mandate certain programs, or require "higher local effort" funding and not fund them is unethical, so remember that when you meet a State legislator - ask them why they play the games mentioned below. Perhaps the way to fix it is VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS until they stop playing such games and implement regulations to prohibit mandated programs without funding them (i.e. like requiring added PE classes, but not paying for it).
But, maybe School officials need to kick the problem back to parents like Orange County Schools did - reducing and combining bus routes, and eliminating non-instructional programs. Why subsidize parents who want free transportation for their kids - charge them actual cost or don't provide it.
Read and weep...
vj
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Disclosure: Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member is writing this update and it does not reflect the opinion of the school board. I am responsible for the contents of this message.
Dear Citizens:
I attended two and half days of meetings with the Florida School Board's Association. The theme was "Bridge over Troubled Waters". Here is why:
Schools and education were NEVER held harmless from the effects of the passage of Amendment I. If you voted for Amendment I because you wanted your tax money back -- you and I were both told some real doozies. The legislature now admits that they didn't know the ramifications of amendment one and won't know for a few years (Ed Havill was RIGHT!)
The minimal check that you have or will receive from the government will then be taken back away from you because the state legislature is mandating a "higher percentage of local contribution" from the tax payers for public education. That means that WE, the school board have to raise the money from you, the Lake County Tax Payers, so that WE the school board get the matching funds from the state! This is how it works. Make the local school board members look bad, while the legislators sit back and say "hey we gave you money back so you could stimulate the economy".
"Trust Us" -- This was the mantra coming from Tallahassee when I called my Representatives to ask how the legislature was going to "hold education harmless". Don't worry about it little school board member -- we will figure it out.
HMMM... It gets worse. Our school construction money had a hatchet taken to it. I actually had a chamber member ask me what happened to the Magnet School. Well, since I can't even rebuild Gray Middle School in the time we promised, or build out BBB High School the way it planned, or build the number of student stations we expected at elementary J, AND THERE was NO matching funds coming from the state for the labs for the health sciences magnet project; well the money had to be taken out of the money set aside for the Magnet just to try and build the basic essentials.
Money for Workforce Education was cut. That makes allot of sense when the economy is going down the tubes and it has mostly been based on construction. Seems like we might want to educate our workforce in some sustainable skills for a different industry.
Our base student allocation was reduced by $200.00! NOW, YOU LIVE IN A STATE THAT IS AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE 50 IN PER PUPIL SPENDING ON EDUCATION!
Our money for SAC (School Advisory Committee) was cut in half from $10.00 per student to $5.00.
There was a 50 million dollar decrease in funding for voluntary pre-K.
While our GAS PRICES INCREASE, our money for TRANSPORTATION was decreased by the state.
I have told you several times about the wonderful things that our education foundation provides for our children (money the state doesn't give us). Well now, there is NO MATCHING DOLLARS from the state to fund the foundation management or programs!!!
If this isn't enough bad news for you -- let me tell you about the proposed amendments.
Amendment VII - provides for aid to religious institutions. This amendment would strike down the separation of church and state in the use of taxpayer dollars to finance programs provided by religious groups.
Amendment IX (9) - is a lengthy confusing amendment that would legalize private school vouchers with a smokescreen about a "65 percent solution". The sixty five percent is the amount of money that would be mandated to go into the classroom. Most districts spend 65 percent or above anyway! VOICE - Voter's Organization Involved in Children's Education told our Lake County Delegation in Feb. of 2006 that this idea was ridiculous and had no meaning. Now we see that it is being used to usher in vouchers.
You will also be asked this fall to use sales tax money for public education as opposed to property tax money. This might sound appealing except the sales tax will go up by one penny and your school boards will have a 6 billion dollar gap between collected property tax money and collected sales tax money. How will that be made up?? "Trust us again"? Remember the lotto!
There is a trend folks and it is the slow or now moderately fast paced effort to eliminate public education. It seems that the folks up north don't realize that any white collar industry looking to locate in Florida is looking for the best PUBLIC school education system first and foremost. Could this be why Florida is overlooked by high paying industry????
Here is the other agenda. If you notice, none of your State Rep.'s or Senators run on any education platform. They know that the parents of the school children don't bother to vote, so they listen to their constituents -- retired people who raised their children elsewhere and don't want to pay for public education here in Florida.
Here is what I believe. Most of our retired citizens in LAKE County DO CARE about public education and most want to see the next generation properly educated. Most folks know that if you don't put many of your dollars into an item in your household budget, you usually don't care much about that item.
I am submitting to you that the priorities of this great wonderful, and most beautiful state are upside down! When the County Commission can't fund Student Resource Officers as they have in the past and are asking the School Board Members to absorb the differences because their budget won't allow for the expenses, there is something wrong with the priorities of this great state.
Wake UP Folks! Economic diversity strategies will fail if this state of Florida fails to fund education. It's pretty simple. It's replicated in every other state! Great schools -- great industry -- great economy.
As they say, "Ya Think?"
Cindy