Dear Students, Parents, and Staff,
As we enter the second semester of the 2008-2009 school year, much of our attention will be focused on preparing a balanced budget that will meet the needs of our students during the next school year. It is my intention to provide regular updates on our website, through podcasts, and town hall meetings to keep you informed during these difficult times.
Article IX, Section 1, of the Constitution of the State of Florida clearly articulates the state's responsibility to our public education system. "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 provisions for the education of all children
residing within its borders." This is one of the strongest statements in any state constitution regarding the education of children, yet we have failed to live up to
this duty.
State Funding Formula
The funding formula for schools in Florida is actually a very good one considering the limited revenue options. School districts are funded primarily from a combination of state sales tax and local property taxes, depending on the ability of each individual county to generate a required local effort. This ensures that, regardless of the relative property wealth of an individual county, its children will receive essentially the same level of funding. This funding distribution is fair, but certainly not adequate.
Historically, the state has taken on the major share of school funding, which was supplemented with local tax dollars. In 1998-1999, 61% of the funding was provided by the state and 39% was provided locally. Over the past 10 years this ratio has dramatically shifted. This has resulted in, for the first time ever, local taxes (51%) providing more of the funding than state taxes (49%). And for the first time in 37 years, state funding for education has gone backwards.
Cost-Saving Strategies
These shifts in funding resulted in St. Johns County starting the school year with approximately $6 million less than the previous year while welcoming 1,053 new students. We accomplished a balanced budget by establishing priorities, making reductions and employing other cost-saving measures.
These priorities included:
* Maintaining all programs and services directly related to
students
* Protecting jobs and preventing layoffs
For the most part we were able to accomplish both objectives through cuts in other areas and efficiency measures. These included:
* Changing school start times to save transportation dollars
* Eliminating courtesy bus routes and activity buses
* Implementing an energy management program
* Slightly increasing the class size
* Modifying the middle school schedule
* Adjusting the support staff formula
This allowed us to start the school year with minimal impact on the classroom.
2008-2009 Budget Cuts
In November of this school year, we received two additional cuts (our 6th and 7th in 18 months) totaling approximately 4% or $8 million. We plan to handle these cuts by utilizing the fund balance we accumulated in anticipation of this action. Cuts during the school year are extremely disruptive, and we did not want to cause any
negative impact on children and staff.
Four times a year the state holds a "revenue estimating conference," where economists predict incoming revenue to the state. November's revenue estimation was even worse than expected, and we were told that the cuts for next school year (2009-2010) were likely to be in the 10% to 12% range....on top of the 4% we have already cut this year. This would total $18 to $22 million for St. Johns County,
bringing our cuts to over $30 million during the last 18 months. In order to prepare for this eventuality, I have implemented a hiring freeze for the remainder of the year and will be taking measures to dramatically reduce our purchasing. In addition, the district leadership team is "costing out" all programs and services in the school district in preparation for a recommendation to be made to the School Board in the spring. Obviously, cuts of this magnitude will certainly impact programs and services to children, including a reduction in force and possible salary cuts.
What Can We Do?
Our school district has made tremendous strides over the past several years, and it is disheartening to see programs systematically dismantled. It is equally disappointing to hear this all blamed on the economy. We have made choices in Florida that have led to our inability to respond to economic downturn. Our volatile tax structure based on growth and sales will always make us susceptible to swings in the economy. Couple this with the fact that over $20 billion in tax cuts have been implemented by the legislature over the last 10 years, and it is easy to see why we are in our current situation. I have shared on many occasions that Florida was 50th in the United States in dollars spent on K-12 education per $1,000 of personal income. This data is from 2006, a year we thought was very good financially for schools in relation to the past. We need your voice in Tallahassee. Budgets are moral documents, and we demonstrate our values by where we place our resources. It is quite obvious that children have not been a priority. I am asking every citizen to contact members of the legislature and the Governor to tell them to make children a priority in this state. It is time for leadership and accountability from our elected officials.
Legislative Requests
Specifically, I am narrowing an extremely complicated system down to
three broad requests that will see us through this difficult time:
* First, find additional sources of revenue for K-12 public education. Being 50th is unacceptable. This can be accomplished in one of two ways:
1. Find additional sources of revenue in the existing budget. While education was being cut $332 million, we found enough money to fund new prisons ($309 million), incentives to lure businesses to Florida ($95 million), Tax Watch "Turkeys" ($109 million), and Corporate Vouchers ($30 million).
2. Generate additional revenue. It doesn't take an economist to tell us what $20 billion in tax cuts will do to a growing state with rising costs. It takes courage to look at areas such as cigarette taxes, liquor taxes, or internet sales tax. While our property taxes are viewed by many in our state as being exceedingly high, Florida is
47th in the nation in tax burden.
Investing in education will improve the economy in Florida. The Wall Street Journal reported that simply cutting the drop-out rate in half would generate $45 billion in additional tax revenue.....per year! On the flip side, the drain on the system in the area of prisons, social programs and lost tax revenue is enormous.
* Secondly, we need some temporary relief from the requirements of the Class Size Amendment. It is simply impossible to cut millions of dollars from the budget, while being required to hire hundreds of teachers to meet the law. Although a change in the constitutional amendment requires a vote, the legislature could declare an emergency and perhaps hold the penalties in abeyance until we recover.
* Lastly, school districts need maximum flexibility with the dollars we do have. Unfunded and underfunded mandates are rampant in Florida. In St. Johns County partially funded mandates have increased from 8.67% of the budget in 1993 to 36.21% in 2008. Jobs for teachers and services to children must come before bonuses, merit pay, corporate vouchers and pet projects.
In short, this state must decide what the priorities are and then
fund them. Our children are counting on us!
