Things are tough all over

 The budget is the news these days. So here's the latest.

If you thought per-student funding was going to shrink $86 (House version) or $116 (Senate proposal), think again. The latest recommendation from the legislature is to cut the funding by $142 per student, the AP reports (via Bradenton Herald).

Such talk has the Florida School Boards Association pondering whether to sue the state for failing to live up to its constitutional obligations for supporting education, the Naples Daily News reports.

The Florida Education Association has come up with one (not so new) idea, calling upon lawmakers to do what Gov. Crist suggested early in the game - shore up funding with the "rainy day" accounts, rather than slash school budgets, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

In the meantime, districts continue to prepare for the worst.

• Pasco officials, who already have (unsuccessfully) asked teachers to delay their step increases, plan to release a list of possible cuts today. That's one day after board members urged a discussion on priorities.
• Seminole announced it would let go some of its most senior teachers, ones it had recruited to stay after they had already retired, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
• Lee - which already has started laying off people - is cutting back hours of cafeteria workers, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.
• And Volusia, which already has announced the closure of seven schools, is looking at eliminating 271 teaching jobs and a pre-honors middle school program, among other options, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

Lawmakers have said they expect to have a printed budget ready for consideration over the weekend. Education folks have said they plan to lobby their interests to the bitter end. Stay tuned.

Comments

[John]

I was also under the impression that the VOTERS voted in the class size amendment, which said they were willing to pay for it. Whatever happened to the impact fees that were voted in in the last year?

This was a bait and switch negotiation. The Leadership brought "fake" budgets to the floor to create expectations that everything would be ok in the end, but when it was too late to do anything about it, they executed the switch. How many times do you go into a negotiation and end up with a final position worse than has ever been discussed prior?

jason,

You asked, "Where is the lotto money going?" The answer is to Bright Futures scholarships (higher education not the public schools) and to School Recognition funds to pay bonuses to teachers in "A" schools. Very, very, very, very little of the funding goes to provide for "enhancements to the schools" as was promised.

[Teacher and 3rd generation Native Floridian]

John:

Let me tell you why- because the majority of voters in this state are retirees whose families live in another state. They do not care about FLA. Politicians care about keeping their jobs (that is reasonable) so they do what the voters want. It is that easy. Or is it?

[jason]

wheres the lotto money going?

[John]

I thought the Constitution of the state of Florida provided for the adequate funding of education in Florida. Why, why, why does the Legislature get away with funding education in the bottom 50% of states and demand a World Class education at the same time. Athletes get paid a lot of money to have a .250 batting average, yet teachers who are responsible for the next generation of citizens are paid 30K to 60K.