From the Orlando Sentinel
By Aaron Deslatte,
The Florida House is advancing an education budget with a warning shot to school districts and specifically to Seminole County schools: try to raise taxes, and we'll cut your salaries and ability to close schools.
The House education funding bill, HB 5101, was amended Wednesday on the floor to explicitly prohibit school districts that have tried and failed to raise a half-cent sales tax from closing schools, cutting teacher pay, or eliminating art, athletics, music, or magnet programs.
The amendment -- which would be in effect just one year – applies to just one school district: Seminole, where voters rejected a proposed half-cent tax in 2010. The school district is considering seeking a 1-mill property-tax increase this year.
The amendment, offered by Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, and supported by Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, was defended as an effort to force districts to be more accountable. However, it doesn't appear it will go far in the Senate.
Senate PreK-12 education budget chief David Simmons, R-Maitland, said he wouldn't be offering similar language. "I do not agree with punitive measures for Superintendent [Bill] Vogel's good-faith attempt to bring an issue to public debate," Simmons said.
The Brodeur amendment would require the district to complete district-wide re-zoning and cut the salary of administrators making $100,000 or more by at least 25 percent. The district said 29 administrators would be affected.
The district would also be prevented from closing off "other student options" such as magnet schools for addressing budget woes – Seminole has rejected three charter-school applications -- and any budget decisions would have to be made by the Legislative Budget Commission, a panel of lawmakers that meets in Tallahassee.
"Flexibility does not include spending ourselves into chronic tax increases," Brodeur said.
The House is expected to pass its full $69.2 billion spending plan on Thursday, and the Senate could follow suit next week. The House version would increase classroom spending by $141 per-student on average, while the Senate's budget envisions a $192 increase.
Last year, the Republican-led Legislature passed a budget that imposed a $585 per-pupil cut, although that dip doesn't take into account another $540 million for schools that wasn't accounted for in the per-pupil formula.
The Seminole School Board, which faced a $19.4-million deficit for next school year under Gov. Rick Scott's original budget proposal, was blasted just this week by county commissioners during a joint session to discuss the school system's financial woes.
Seminole is trying to close two elementary schools – after closing one last year -- amid projections that its enrollment in traditional schools might drop to 49,000 students over the next 10 years, a loss of nearly 15,000. The district already has more than 10,000 vacant seats.
Vogel has said those projections are based on a huge shift to charter schools and private school vouchers — programs that Seminole school officials do not favor.
Vogel said Wednesday he had briefed Brodeur and House budget staff on the district's budget predicament last month, and was "perplexed" the lawmaker was now criticizing them.
Since lawmakers began cutting budgets in 2007, Seminole has lost $83 million in operating dollars, plus $71 million in capital and construction dollars, and eliminated 700 jobs. Vogel said the amendment would just further tie the school board's hands.
"We're running out of options, and I believe we've more than reached the tipping point," he said.
Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, called it was hypocritical for lawmakers who voted for $1.35 billion in classroom funding cuts last year to now punish a school district that is doing what it said it would do if its attempt to raise more local taxes failed -- close schools.
"This amendment is simply nothing more than to try to pretend it isn't our fault those schools are being closed," he said.
The amendment passed Wednesday by a voice vote.
Reporter Dave Weber contributed to this report. adeslatte@tribune.com or 850-222-5564.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-house-debates-budget-20120208,0,5244128.story
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