Hey, lawmakers, leave the funds alone

The new president of the Pinellas School Advisory Council Association has a message for local legislators: Stop messing with education funding.

Sami Leigh Scott expressed concern about recent cuts in a tersely-worded e-mail to Rick Kriseman, Bill Heller, Daryl Rouson and others earlier this week.

Scott spoke out specifically against budget reductions that led the district to cut its parental advocacy program, an initiative that for many years served as a bridge between families and school administrators.

She also railed against a decrease in funding to School Advisory Councils that means schools will receive $5 per student – down from $10 – over the next academic year, as well as a decrease in school recognition funding from $100 to $85 per student.

So far, she's received no response.

If other taxpayers agree with her stand, Scott says, they should follow her lead and write to their legislators. For anyone who wants to follow through, here is a list of House members.

- Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Comments

I agree that the funds for public schools should not have been cut as they were. The state general revenue contribution for 2008-2009 will ultimately be over 16% less than was budgeted in the legislative budget for 2007-2008 after the "hold-back" is computed. I disagree on her positions regarding school recognition and the SAC funds as these legislatively mandated expenditures should have been eliminated with emphasis on preserving base funding for serving student needs.

Instead, some of the teachers who "earned" school recognition bonuses were layed off because of a lack of funding for their base salaries. No company in the world would have done it this way, but this was the decision made by the Legislature.

I hope that my local legislator shows up at my child's school to deliver that "big check" this year.

Remember in November those who did this to our state.

[terminator]

Earth to Sami, we're in a recession that could turn into a depression.
Guess Sami doesn't watch the news much!

[M]

Sami, wake up.

[Disgusted Teacher]

Ummm...hello? Did anyone actually read the state budget? There was PLENTY of money for highway beautification. But not education??? Sami is absolutley right - we should all write our state legislators. In fact, we should FLOOD them with letters, email, faxes, and phone calls. We should schedule a meeting with them. We should tell them we vote. We should ask them to do what they promised when we voted for them - represent us, the citizens!

Florida needs businesses for survival. People need places to work and earn money and the businesses pay taxes to support our state. But when we pull money from education to support other issues (do we really need new statues this year?) we are defeating the purpose. Poorly educated students do not make good employees in the future. And I don't care what anyone says about "teacher's are paid too much" and "throwing money at the schools will not resolve the problem." Less money is less money and the less you have the less you do. Less has a direct impact on students. When will we wake up?