From the Orlando Sentinel, by Kathleen Oropeza
Gov. Rick Scott played a shell game in front of our kids this week. He insults Floridians when he makes theater out of signing a budget that he claims "restores" funding to public education, when, in fact, that $1 billion does no such thing.
Last year at this time, Scott's approval rating was 26 percent. Polls blamed Scott's poor education performance for that number.
This past week Scott went from school to school, "ceremonial budget" in hand, using our kids for photo opportunities and "signing" the budget over and over. Scott's handlers have him taking victory laps and over-explaining how he alone increased funding to public education.
Last fall, Scott repeatedly said he would not sign a budget that does not significantly increase state funding for education. The sentiment is nice.
What's not nice is the lack of action behind it. Too many Florida politicians fail to understand the simple truth found in the adage "Actions speak louder than words."
Scott's actions leave our schools with the net effect of standing still. Even with this money, districts across the state will be down about $100 per student. Because of political choices, $4 billion has been drained from our neighborhood schools over the past three years.
Here are losses in public schools from 2011 alone:
$200 million — Money not allocated to teach 30,000 new students.
$200 million — 3 percent lost property values.
$550 million — expired federal jobs money.
$950 million — total loss.
It's hard to take Scott and his sudden recognition of the value of education seriously when he presides over one of the most radical examples of public-education defunding in the nation.
There is a growing understanding among parents and voters that politicians have chosen to starve our schools to the breaking point. Charter-school developers, trigger mechanisms and high-stakes testing conglomerates all provide tantalizing reasons for politicians to feed our money to the for-profit education industry beast.
Public school educators, along with other public employees, were even forced to contribute 3 percent of their paychecks to the state pension system, effectively a pay cut.
Scott's claim that this $1 billion is new money to public education twists the truth. This money only offsets losses our schools will incur next year. More than 30,000 new students will enter our classrooms. Tax revenues have fallen. Federal stimulus money has expired. If politicians had not added this money, Florida schools would be more than $5 billion in the hole next year.
Parents and voters have a better vision for Florida public education. Political polls pale in importance to our work as parents. Our vision does not include the status quo of expensive, unproven reforms meant to hurt children, drain funds from districts and privatize our public schools.
We believe in a single well-funded system of public education that offers remarkable choices for every child. We believe in fair assessment and fair accountability. We believe that mutual respect and collaboration between teachers, parents and districts are the key to a dynamic era of public-school renewal.
This past week, for the first time, every child taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test had to sign a pledge that he would not cheat on the test. Think about that. Third-graders got the message loud and clear that the state of Florida thinks so little of their character that they need to be admonished not to cheat.
Cheating and twisting the truth are one and the same.
The heartbreaking irony is written in every posed budget-event photo. Our sweet, smiling children huddled close to the man who thinks they should sign a pledge not to cheat, yet can't seem to tell the truth himself.
Parents and voters must separate the lovely words uttered at a photo op from the actions of the man.
Kathleen Oropeza is co-founder of FundEducationNow.org, a nonpartisan Florida-based education advocacy group.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-04-20/opinion/os-ed-florida-education-budget-scott-042212-20120420_1_public-education-federal-jobs-money-rick-scott
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