Educators to state: Make money, your mouth meet

When Florida lawmakers say they care about the state’s children, the president of the state school superintendents association has a quick reply:

“You lie.”

That kind of bold talk is needed, said association president Joe Joyner, in a state that pays the least in the country for its students’ education.

He was speaking Thursday at a meeting of school superintendents, school board members and other education leaders from across Florida. The Tampa gathering was called, in part, to come up with ways to deal with budget woes — or at least prevent them from getting worse next school year.

For starters, the educators said, the state needs to relax its mandates. That’s timely, for Florida is scheduled to implement the strictest phase of its class-size reduction law next school year.

Also in the works: a requirement to provide for physical education time for middle school students and the creation of district-run virtual schools -- online classes for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“The district is at the edge of a cliff,” Broward schools Superintendent Jim Notter said. “Allow me to spend the meager dollars that I have on my needs.”

But it’s going to take more than educators and lobbyists to get the message across to Tallahassee: Parents and businesses are going to be recruited to the cause. Some have already signed up.

Colleen Wood, of St. Johns County in northeast Florida, created a group called 50th No More — refering to Florida’s rank on student spending compared to other states.

‘Angry moms’

“What’s going to change the state of education in Florida is angry moms. Who’s going to say every child doesn’t deserve a quality education?” Wood told a group of people hoping to channel her energy. “My husband calls us the Mommy Mafia.”

She and other education advocates acknowledge that the state’s shrinking budget means there is not likely to be any additional investment in public schools. But it still should be legislators’ top priority this spring.

“They need to recognize education as the paramount priority, whatever size the pie is,” Wood said.

School districts are expecting to lose even more money when legislators reconvene in the spring to write next year’s budget. One budget director said school districts should prepare for budgets that would provide about the same as they received for the 2005-06 school year. Additional cuts could come sooner.

Those cuts will be on top of what they’ve already lost over the last 18 months.

No good option

“To go beyond these cuts will be really tragic and dramatic for Miami-Dade,” Carvalho said.

But compared to districts elsewhere in the state, the decisions so far to save money in South Florida have not had a direct effect on students.

In Polk County, for example, teachers were ordered to teach an additional class a day — and take a pay cut for doing so.

In Orange and Santa Rosa counties, districts rearranged school hours, inconveniencing parents and causing a huge uproar, in order to avoid hiring additional bus drivers and buying buses.

Some districts have closed schools. Several districts are save on energy costs by eliminating work days when school is out, forcing employees to take the time off, even if it means unpaid leave.

“I’m willing to tighten my belt,” Joyner said. But, he said, in a state that pays the least per student of any in the country for education, he’s doing it because legislators are making a conscious choice. Read More from: bradenton.com

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