From the Orlando Sentinel
by Aaron Deslatte
TALLAHASSEE — The House’s first-blush proposal for public school budgets envisions some deep cuts in classroom spending even though lawmakers are targeting outside-the-classroom programs first.
But House PreK-12 Appropriations Chair Marti Coley, a Marianna teacher, offered these words of consolation to fellow budget-writers: at least it’s not as bad as Gov. Rick Scott’s budget.
Coley’s committee released a “potential” budget for public schools Tuesday that envisions a 7.7 percent reduction in per-pupil funding through the state’s education-finance formula. Scott had recommended a 10 percent reduction, equal to about $1.75 billion.
“On a positive note, our potential budget is a little bit better — not a lot – but a little bit better than what the governor proposed,” Coley said.
The real budget figures will come out next week after state economists make their final tweaks to the official revenue forecasts on Friday. Although Scott has held out hope that his budget would pass, it’s clear lawmakers are taking their own liberties with how they close a $3.7 billion budget shortfall for next fiscal year.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/03/house-classroom-cuts-not-quite-as-bad-as-scotts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fpolitics%2Fpoliticalpulse+%28Central+Florida+Political+Pulse%29
The real truth about education is that there are poor teachers, incompetent doctors, inadequate attorneys, unscrupulous contractors and engineers, and pompous unethical politicians. Yes, politicians who are willing to gamble Florida student's future in order to obtain a $700 million federal Race to the Top education grant. I’m certain that multiple levels of capability exist among all the professions. So, let the first profession among you without fault cast the first stone.
ReplyDeleteLately, I have been asking people to tell me how they empirically know that a large number of teachers are incompetent. Thus far, the response I get is, “I don’t know” followed by an uncertain shoulder shrug. Do you know how many schools there are in the Duval County Public School system? I’m sure that very few of you do. Do you know how many of the nearly 300 schools in Duval County are failing schools? Here is the truth: less than one percent is failing. Of course, everyone wants all the school systems across the United States to successfully educate our children. The truth is that doctors, attorneys, C.E.O.’s and yes, even politicians were educated by teachers. The majority of students graduate ready to meet the challenges of our increasingly global economy. It’s not teachers that are inadequate and overpaid. It’s our skewed system that believes all students can become brain surgeons and rocket scientists and that anything less is a failure. The world needs people in all walks of life.
Maybe we should start paying everyone in every profession according to their failures, not their successes or get down on our knees and start praying that all students become awesome test takers. Let’s not pay doctors who have patients die or attorneys who lose a case, but lets’ make sure that we stop paying politicians first based on some people’s opinion of their performance. If the state can dictate how we are to be treated as employees, then give teachers "state and federal benefits". I personally want Rick Scott's and Steve Wise's income, health insurance and job security.
I would like to encourage the politicians and citizens of Florida to go teach in an urban school. You will find it more challenging then you ever imagined. If we all are not concerned about politicians passing laws that so heavily impact our students and teachers we should be. I can remember when Republicans were concerned with upholding the rights of people living in a democracy. Sadly, our rights to vote on such serious matters as Senate Bill 736 have been ignored. Do we still live in a democracy? Next, I guess we will be passing laws regarding how all employers evaluate and pay their employees.