The Florida House and Senate appropriations chairs have agreed on public education funding. Floor votes to adopt the final budget take place this Friday, March 11th. Unfortunately, instead of a promised “historic” funding level to public education, legislators have agreed to a disgraceful 1% increase.
Take action today. 1% to public education is unacceptable.
The current proposed per pupil funding amount of $7,178 is $74 more than the final 2007/08 calculation of $7,142.79. That’s less than $8 per year for the past nine years. None of this accounts for over 200,000 additional students since 2007.
A review of spending on a range of education related items since 2007 reveals a miserly, even stingy funding for ESE, which has gone from over $1 billion in 2007 to $900 million today. Transportation was $480 million in 2007 and is $430 million today. The list of such examples is proof of Florida’s disrespect toward public education.
Tell Gov. Scott and Budget Conference leaders to do their job. A 1% increase is a disgrace.
Article IX, section 1 of the Florida Constitution states
(a) The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools…
Making matters worse, the deeply biased $10K Best & Brightest Teacher Bonus based on teenage SAT/ACT scores is now a $48M budget item which never received a fair review in the Florida Senate.
Use your voice today. Our public school children deserve so much better.
Please help us continue to fund this quick way to speak up and take action
