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Rollin' Tide

Beach Comber
Oct 6, 2008
18
4
Did anyone attend the "workshop" the board had about budgeting issues for the new academic year (2009-10)? If so, would you comment about what you may have heard while there? I couldn't make it but am interested if our county might be going in the same direction as Bay.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
I attended but my head hurts from 2 hours of numbers and talking about the potential cuts. I have 5 pages of notes. I will try and post more details later, and I sure it will be in the paper.

In a nutshell- we need to find $8 million. It is ugly. And before people start screaming about where the money is going or that it is not being spent wisely, they need to remember that revenues are waaaay down, and probably aren't going to come up anytime soon, and we are working with a lot less money than in the past. Our system already seems pretty bare bones to me- we don't have a lot of the bells and whistles we were accustomed to in a larger metro school system, so I am going nuts at the thought of cutting back even more.:bang:

The budget workshop will continue on Mar. 10th, at Walton High School (we were packed into the Board of Ed room tonight), and Mar. 24th will be the "decision day" for the budget since there is a deadline of March 31st (for a reason that I can't recall).

I attended this workshop because I am interested in the "education delivery model" switch for high school- going back to a traditional 7 period schedule from the 4 by 4 block schedule that currently is not working well. Other schools have been switching back in droves, and we need to as well. All principals but one seem to be in favor of going back to the traditional schedule and are very anxious to start working on the next year's schedules, since it will take some real work to rearrange. There was no huge opposition to switching back, so principals were instructed to go ahead and work on schedules, and the official vote will be Mar. 24th.


Ready for some revolting figures for our state? (from Carlene Anderson's presentation)~

Florida is

47th in expenditures per person in K-12 education
47th in expenditures per student in k-12 education
50th in personal income spent on public schools

Shameful.:sosad:

She asked that we let our legislators know :
that we support public school funding,

that we are appalled at Florida's funding of public education,

and we don't want to be 50th anymore, and let others know what the education funding picture looks like in Florida and Walton County.

I am cooked now- goodnight!
 
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Bob Wells

Beach Fanatic
Jul 25, 2008
3,380
2,857
Yes, and according to recent news, Florida has reduced spending on schools below 2006 levels which our wildly popular Governor is asking for a waiver from the Feds so Florida can recieve some of the Stimulus money for education and almost in the same breath wants to reduce property taxes by 3%. Go figure.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
Yes, and according to recent news, Florida has reduced spending on schools below 2006 levels which our wildly popular Governor is asking for a waiver from the Feds so Florida can recieve some of the Stimulus money for education and almost in the same breath wants to reduce property taxes by 3%. Go figure.

And we won't get any stimulus money in the first place because of how low we rank in the money spent on students (see my post above).

I heard something interesting the other day- this year the state is uber-funding state colleges and universities, even while the public K-12 is drowning. Don't kids have to go to K-12 before they go to college?:dunno: I would love to see the funding figures on this if anyone has them handy.
 

Bob Wells

Beach Fanatic
Jul 25, 2008
3,380
2,857
I had seen where Crist was asking for a waiver, was that just Public relations bluster? I had heard we would not qualify either.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
I had seen where Crist was asking for a waiver, was that just Public relations bluster? I had heard we would not qualify either.

Yes, we heard this too.

Whether it is a public relations bluster or not, I am sure it is embarrassing to have to ask for this waiver because your state is such a loser educationally!:sosad:

The superintendent mentioned that even if we were to get stimulus money, it is tied to IDEA (Individuals w/ Disabilities Education Act) and Title I - it is not money that can be used for just anything that is needed. Lots of strings.
 
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beachmouse

Beach Fanatic
Dec 5, 2004
3,504
741
Bluewater Bay, FL
I heard something interesting the other day- this year the state is uber-funding state colleges and universities, even while the public K-12 is drowning. Don't kids have to go to K-12 before they go to college?:dunno: I would love to see the funding figures on this if anyone has them handy.

The state got into a pretty big game of chicken with a couple of flagship universities, who had been chronically underfunded as badly as K-12 has in recent years. U of Florida had cut the target size for its freshman class by about 15% and was threatening another admissions cut. FSU was screaming about how it was losing top professors to places like South Carolina and Tennessee because of the lack of funding, and there have been faculty layoffs and program cuts at most universities.

Add in how higher ed enrollment typically goes up during bad economic times, even when K-12 enrollment goes flat as Florida's population growth stalls, and it's a mess.

The big concession the state made was that the current per head student levels are not sustainable, so schools are now allowed to raise tuition to something close to the national average. The problem with that is that the state then has to fund Bright Futures scholarships at a higher level, so it's not as much of an external funding increase as it should be.

It's probably not going to happen for political reasons, but it would be healthier for higher ed in the long run if the state made Bright Futures more need-based. Let everyone who gets the grades and test scores get the award, but have it just be a nice piece of paper for families making over, say $125K or something.

As for higher ed construction projects, they're largely a slush fund for well-connected political donors and construction companies.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
Thanks Beachmouse- I was hoping you would chime in since you seem to have good info on our education system.

I am just a parent and have no technical knowledge on how all of this works, so I appreciate the input of those who have experience in how our public education system is funded. It appears I have a lot to learn, and once again, my eyes have been yanked open.
 

TooFarTampa

SoWal Insider
Good point Beachmouse about how Bright Futures is artificially keeping tuition levels low. At the same time, taking it away from the upper-income folks would be a double whammy: not only would their child not get the financial help that has been promised for years, but tuition is bound to rise very rapidly once fewer people start getting scholarships from the state.

Perhaps a sliding scale is in order based on income, but have everyone who meets the academic standards get something, no matter what the income level. Otherwise I'm sure we would have some good students falling through the funding cracks -- and a heck of a lot of angry parents.
 

beachmouse

Beach Fanatic
Dec 5, 2004
3,504
741
Bluewater Bay, FL
Perhaps a sliding scale is in order based on income, but have everyone who meets the academic standards get something, no matter what the income level. Otherwise I'm sure we would have some good students falling through the funding cracks -- and a heck of a lot of angry parents.

Sliding scale is good. And it would be relatively straightforward to use the existing FASA structure to impliment something like that. Interesting compilation of family income and higher ed in Florida here: (edit- forgot to paste link and now can't find it)
Average family income of students enrolled at:

$20,000-$30,000- Florida A&M
$30,000-$40,000- Barry University
$50,000-$60,000- Saint Leo
$70,000-$80,000- Florida Atlantic, Florida Southern
$80,000-$100,000- Palm Beach Atlantic, Tampa, West Florida, South Florida
$100,000 or more- Ave Maria, Flagler, Florida International, Florida State, Rollins, Central Florida, Florida, North Florida, Miami
 
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