Maintenance costs are real and have reached a crisis point in our public schools and state wide we are billions behind in doing what we should. Does the state board of education care about that or how a few hundred charter schools have received the lions share of maintenance funds over the last few years while the states thousands of public schools have received barely any?
Absolutely not.
From the Tampa Times: Florida Board of Education members expressed "grave" concerns Wednesday over the state of charter school capital funding.
Absolutely not.
From the Tampa Times: Florida Board of Education members expressed "grave" concerns Wednesday over the state of charter school capital funding.
Board members called the issue critical and said they would consider it while setting priorities.
The issue of charter school capital funding has been hotly controversial in recent years, as lawmakers have put the bulk of PECO and related money into charters at the expense of traditional schools. Some lawmakers have pushed to create a regular source of funding for the charters, but have faced significant pushback and not yet come up with a plan that can win approval.
So yes public school districts do have the ability to tax though it has been so eroded many are depending on special referendums while others are simply going without.
Here are a few other things to consider. Many charter schools are for profit and friends business is good, why should the tax payer be forced to subsidize them even more and second, opening up a charter schools is a voluntary endeavor nobody is required to do it and as we have seen they have siphoned hundreds of millions out of public schools that are desperate for resources.
For board members, not a true educator in the bunch, to be so concerned about charter schools while shrugging their shoulders at the needs of public schools really show where their loyalties lie.
The entire bunch makes me sick.
From the beaginning of "charter schools" here n Duval County I havae suspected that the main emphasis has been money/profit. Several of the first ones failed due to mismanagement as i recall and there was some question as to the salaries paid to the "top administrators". Seems that the situation hasn't changed except that the charters are now run by big businesses that spread across the State and Nation, Witness the latest one that was in Orlando and here; there were articles n the Times Union about it. In general as in other areas you can "follow the money" to see what is going on.
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