Florida Education budget falls short

The Florida House and Senate finally agreed on an Education budget early Tuesday, June 16^th at 12:30 am. The budget is expected to pass this Friday, June 19^th following the required 72 hour cooling off period.

Despite promises of an historic funding increase, lawmakers fell short of making public education their “paramount duty” as required in Article IX, section 1 of the Florida Constitution.  Funding per student will increase by a mere 3% or $200 less than the record 2007 high point. Instead of investing in public schools, the legislature spent an additional $300 million on personal projects and another $400 million on tax exemptions.

It should also be noted that PECO funds were split evenly between for profit charters and public schools, with each receiving $50 million for capital outlay. For years charters have received most of the PECO dollars and districts got nothing, making it difficult to plan for growth. Sharing this year’s PECO is a ploy to justify reviving legislation in 2016 forcing districts to share voter-approved millage dollars with for-profit charter chains that can use the funds to purchase, develop and maintain properties the public may never own.

There are many details buried in the Final Conference Report. Among them is $44 million to provide $10,000 “Best and Brightest” scholarships to up to 4,400 “highly effective” teachers who scored at or above the 80^th percentile on either the SAT or ACT.  It’s expected that many of the teachers who receive these scholarships will be from Teach for America. The House wanted $45 million for the program, while the Senate wanted only $5 million. This controversial, expensive program is based on the weak assumption that teachers who did well on either the SAT or ACT will automatically be better teachers.   It’s disappointing that once again, legislators have based another funding scheme on a single test when there’s no evidence that high SAT or ACT scores are related to great teaching. It’s equally concerning that Florida teachers applying for the scholarship will be sharing their SAT and ACT test scores, providing a trove of new personal data that the state can use to further disaggregate and sort the profession.

At least $750 million dollars were set aside for just these projects and exemptions. That figure divided by 2.74 million public school students would have meant an additional $274 per student, proving that Florida has the money, but political leaders refuse to invest in public education.  What is behind their effort to keep Florida from climbing out of the nation’s lowest quintile in per pupil funding?

 

Breakdown: 2015 Florida Budget Information

Source: Key education related bills and documents to be decided Friday, 6.19.15:
SB 2500A – General Appropriations Act

SB 2502A – Implementing General Appropriations Act

SB 2512A – FRS Rate Bill Summary

Florida Education Finance Program – Final Conference Report

 

Budget Summary – Statewide

Public Schools / FEFP

• 30,057 (1.10%) increase in Unweighted FTE (Students)
• $95.6 million (6.3%) increase in the School Taxable Value (Tax Roll)
  • $781.3 million (4.13%) increase to the FEFP Statewide
  • $287.8 million(2.7%) in new state funds
• $493.5 million (5.98%) in local funds
  • $425.7 million (5.93%) in Required Local Effort
  • $67.7 million (6.29%) in .748 Discretionary Local Effort
• $512.1 million (4.27%) in base FEFP

 

Per Student Funding

• $207.05 (3%) average increase in funds per student
• Average funds per student is $7,097.49
  • $80 per student below the Governor’s proposed budget
  • $194.18 per student below 2007 FEFP Final Conference Report of $7,291.67 (highest per student funding in state history)

Capital Outlay

• $50 million in PECO maintenance funding for Public Schools
• $50 million in PECO maintenance funding for Charter Schools

Categoricals

• $27.8 million(.92%) increase in Class Size Reduction
• $20 million (50%) increase in Digital Classrooms Allocation
• $6.8 million (1.06%) increase Supplemental Academic Instruction (SAI)
• $8.4 million (.88%) increase in ESE Guarantee
• $4.6 million (1.10%) increase in Transportation
• $4.4 million (9.27%) increase in Sparsity Supplement
• $2.4 million (1.10%) increase in Instructional Materials
• $0 additional in Safe Schools
• $0 additional Reading Instruction Allocation

Public Schools / Non-FEFP

• Educator Professional Liability Insurance – $1.2 million
• Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts – $55 million
• Standard Student Attire Incentive Fund – $10 million
• Digital Classrooms Assessments – $500,000
• Teach for America – $1.5 million
• Administrator Professional Development – $7 million
• Principal Autonomy Pilot Program Initiative – $400,000

Budget Summary District example: Orange County Public Schools

• 5,324 (2.80%) increase in Unweighted FTE (Students)
• $76 million (5.84%) increase in K12 Total Funds
• $202.50 (2.96%) increase in funds per student
• $7,050.82 average funds per student
• $46.14 below the statewide average
• $240.40  below 2007 FEFP Final Conference Report (highest per student funding in state history)
• Categoricals with no increase in funding
  • Safe Schools  – $0
  • Reading Instruction Allocation  – $0

 

 

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