With new budget, Florida schools lose 100 dollars per child

From the Orlando Sentinel, by Leslie Postal

We’ve mentioned this before, but given Gov. Rick Scott’s school budget talk — and his parade of schools — this week, we thought we should mention again, with some updated calculations.

Local schools officials say the budget approved by the Legislature — and signed Tuesday by Scott — gives them about $100 less per student than the budget adopted a year ago. Declining property values and increasing enrollments could make that per-pupil drop even higher in some districts.

For that reason, the local group Fund Education Now calls the governor’s spending plan a “net zero to Public Ed.”

The budget provides about $1 billion more to public education than was allocated from state funds last year. But it doesn’t make up fully for the deep cuts made in 2011 or the loss of federal stimulus funding. And an expected enrollment increase eats up some of the new money.

Scott, however, said in meeting yesterday with the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board that he had increased state funding for education — which is all that he can control.

“We increased the portion of your tax dollars that went into education,” he said, while also taking care of other key priorities. “It’s not like there are unlimited dollars out here.”

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2012/04/the-education-budget-gives-schools-about-100-less-per-kid-than-last-year-officials-say.html