By the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
From the Sun Sentinels editorial board
Balancing Florida's bleeding budget gap will take a lot of work. Unfortunately, the proposal Gov. Rick Scott released on Monday would make the task even harder.
Yes, everyone likes tax cuts — well, almost everyone. And yes, reducing the government's take would free up capital for business investment.
But to propose a $507 million school property tax cut while calling for $4.6 billion in cuts that could gut education budgets and other services is irresponsible. Fortunately, the leaders of both the state House and Senate have made clear they think major tax cuts are not doable at the moment. Hopefully, they will bring some more sober reasoning to the budget-making process.
We understand Gov. Scott and the Legislature do face a difficult challenge, and they will have to make painful decisions. And we agree that some of Gov. Scott's ideas are reasonable and overdue.
One of those is his plan to require more than 600,000 public employees to contribute to their retirement plans. That would save over $2.8 billion over two years.
There's also potential merit in revising the corporate tax. Rather than phasing it out, as Gov. Scott calls for, it would better serve the state to restructure the corporate tax to apply only to sales instead of also levying it on corporate properties and payroll.
But too much of the governor's plan is simply unrealistic and potentially harmful.
For example, his calculation of $4 billion in savings from establishing a managed care system for Medicaid could well be too optimistic. The governor also seems bent on eliminating the department of Community Affairs, which regulates growth, seemingly without regard for lessons learned the hard way through decades of unchecked development.
One of his proposals is simply tone deaf. While the governor's budget takes aim at different state agencies, he proposes to double the budget for his own staff and add almost 100 employees.
All in all, the good in the governor's draft budget is far outweighed by the unaffordable and potentially damaging. Floridians must now press their elected representatives in the Legislature to block and redirect those proposals that would inflict too much harm.
Will their lobbying work? Floridians have one advantage.
Besides the governor's Tallahassee offices, his gatherings with the friendliest of crowds, and appearances in a few enclaves, like Eustis, Gov. Scott seems unlikely to sell or defend his plan to the public.
So, people power, anyone?
BOTTOM LINE: Positive nuggets aside, this budget proposal is unrealistic, draconian.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorials/fl-governor-scott-budget-editorial-af20110209,0,2158973.story
Showing posts with label budget deficits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget deficits. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Sad Status Quo of Education
With a nod to Education Notes On-line, from the blog, Seattle Education
by Sue peters
The current crowd of ed reformers like to dismiss any of us who disagree with their agenda as “defenders of the status quo.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I am not a defender of the status quo in public education – because the status quo is currently “No Child Left Behind” and its insidious spin-off, “Race to the Top.”
In fact, I decry the state of public education in this country right now, because a beleaguered, underfunded system has been disparaged and ravaged even further this last decade by damaging policies based on failed concepts pushed by those who want to privatize our public schools.
I do not support the status quo because the status quo is teacher bashing. I don’t support the demonizing of teachers and belittling or weakening of the profession.
The status quo is standardization and high-stakes testing which narrows curriculum and kills all creativity and joy for learning and teaching.
It is “merit pay” which lashes teacher evaluations to student test scores, and which repeated studies and common sense show doesn’t work.
It is data-manipulation to create the illusion of ed reform “success.” (See: “Standards Raised, More Students Fail Tests.”
It is the re-segregation of public schools, exacerbated by the growth of charter schools.
It is overpaid, revolving school superintendents or chancellors with no ties to the local community, often no background in education, and no plans to stick around. That is the Broad Foundation model and the cause of the recent outcry in New York when Mayor Bloomberg chose a publishing executive with no background in education to be the chancellor of New York’s schools.
The status quo is national public education policy largely determined by unelected billionaires with zero expertise in education. “Venture philanthropists” Eli Broad and Bill Gates spend millions shaping public education policy. Formers staffers from the Gates Foundation now seed the Obama Administration’s Department of Education.
“Two of Duncan’s top aides, Chief of Staff Margot Rogers and Assistant Deputy Secretary James H. Shelton III, came from the [Gates] foundation and were granted waivers by the Administration from its revolving-door policy limiting involvement with former employers.”– “Bill Gates’ School Crusade,” July 15, 2010, Bloomberg Businessweek.
Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, and former chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, are both former members of the Broad board of directors. The “Broad Prize for Urban Education” is a trophy and large cash sum awarded annually by the private Broad Foundation to school districts performing to its liking. In its 2009-10 Annual Report, Broad boasts that the trophy itself “resides at the U.S. Department of Education.”
You couldn’t ask for a better symbol of the infiltration of private corporate interests into federal government.
Have Mr. Broad or Mr. Gates been elected to public office, or to direct education policy? Do either have any expertise or experience in public education? No and no. Do either seek genuine parent input? No.
The status quo is Astroturf ed reform groups springing up like toadstools in the night, heavily funded by the same “venture philathropists” looking for a “return on their investment” and pushing the same corporate ed-reform agenda. Washington D.C. ex- school chancellor (Michelle Rhee’s new organization is apparently backed by the same wealthy interests. These organizations lobby for an ed reform agenda that we parents have no say in or may even oppose. But they have resources and media access at their disposal that ordinary parents don’t have. This is not a democratic dialogue about our children’s future when the main stakeholders — we the parents – are largely shut out of the debate.
I do not defend the current trend of sending recent college grads with just five weeks’ training and just a two-year commitment to teach in our nation’s most struggling schools which already suffer from high teacher turnover. But that is the model for Teach for America, Inc. a multimillion-dollar enterprise that is now funded by the Obama government to the tune of $50 million-plus and is arguably de-professionalizing the teaching profession.
Five weeks training does not make these uncredentialed grads “highly qualified,” despite the recent shenanigans by Congress.
I do not support the status quo that punishes teachers, principals and schools with mass layoffs, firings and closures because of student test scores, rather than addressing why some children are struggling and how else one might measure a child’s abilities and a teacher’s worth.
I do not support the status quo which is the mindset of the corporate ed reformers that schools should be run like businesses. Schools are not businesses. Their goal is not profit. The strongest schools are communities, more like families, and need to be cooperative, creative, engaging and nurturing environments.
I do not support the status quo of shameful attacks by the media on teachers and schools and the one-sided cheerleading for charter schools that fails to acknowledge the genuine proven limitations of these schools — their failure to serve children with special needs, the high attrition of kids (even a Geoffrey Canada Harlem Children Zone apparently booted an entire class of kids from a charter school because they weren’t deemed likely to do well on tests. (See: “The Myth of Charter Schools,” Brookings Institution, Nov. 11, 2010.)
I do not support the status quo which makes celebrities and “super(wo)men” out of spotlight-seeking figures like Michelle Rhee, Michael Bloomberg, and Arne Duncan, while all the real work is being done quietly by the thousands of anonymous teachers, principals, educators, parents and students, who suffer through reform after reform, trend after trend, searing budget cuts, and still manage to go on and offer a good education to many children in this nation without any national recognition.
I do not support a status quo that cuts so much from school budgets that the PTAs are left fundraising for such essentials as teachers and books, and school communities that do not have these extra resources suffer the most.
I do not support the status quo of education policies being driven by Wall Street interests and not by what’s in the best interests of our children.
I do not support mayoral control, abolishing of school boards, quashing of parent voices and end-runs around democracy.
I do not defend the federal government imposing its edicts on local school districts, suppressing local autonomy and skirting the edges of Constitutionality, which is what Race to the Top essentially does.
The research comes on the heels of a recent pledge by President Barack Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, to use $5 billion of the $100 billion in federal stimulus funds for education to press states on charter schools. “States that don’t have charter school laws, or put artificial caps on the growth of charter schools, will jeopardize their application” for federal grant money, Duncan said in a call with reporters last week. Currently, 10 states lack laws that allow charter schools, and 26 others cap their enrollment.” — from: “Charter Schools Might Not Be Better,” U.S. News & World Report, June 19, 2009.)
No, I reject this status quo.
What I support and call for is: the long-term personal and professional investment in every child –which takes time and commitment, as has been demonstrated in Everett, Washington. It’s not flashy, doesn’t require expensive high-tech products, just good old-fashioned follow-up with kids, mentoring and genuine support. And an engaging curriculum.
I support small classes sizes that allow greater one-on-one interaction. I call for the parents’ voices to be the loudest in the discussion of how to run our schools. I support autonomy for schools, teachers and principals who know their communities best, and who can ensure their children are doing well, learning what they need to know and able to graduate.
I call for creative teaching, rich, varied curricula that include the arts and music and languages, science, physical education. I call for safe, decent well-maintained buildings and healthy school meals.
I call for an honest dialogue about the ravages of poverty on our nation’s children. We need to acknowledge the shameful fact that 21 percent of our children live in poverty, and that inequities in academic results are largely determined by income and home life of the child. This is not an excuse, it is a fact, and to expect teachers and schools alone to correct the deep and damaging inequalities of our society is irrational.
I call for an overhaul of school district administrations, to pare them down to the essentials, make them efficient and serving the interests of the school communities, not the whims of private foundations or vendors of standardized tests, text books or online learning products.
I call for the hiring of school superintendents and chancellors who have a local connection and commitment to the community they must serve which will in turn lead to greater accountability. I call to retain democratically elected school board members who must answer to their constituents and oversee the superintendent, and a paid position for school board so they can do their job thoroughly and well.
Public education is an integral ingredient in creating an informed public and a strong democracy. I believe we must keep our public schools free of private and political agendas and manipulations, strengthen our schools, not close them down, stop punishing and start nurturing.
If you agree that our nation needs a new vision for public education, I invite you to join a forum of parents from across the nation who are launching a new organization, Parents Across America, in New York on Feb. 7. Our keynote speaker will be education historian Diane Ravitch. The event is free and open to the public. It starts at 6 p.m. and will held at: PS/IS 89 – Liberty School, 201 Warren Street, New York, N.Y. 10282.
Help bring parents’ voices to the education debate and support progressive, positive, constructive education reforms that work.
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/why-i-am-not-a-defender-of-the-status-quo-in-education-because-the-status-quo-is-failed-ed-reforms/
by Sue peters
The current crowd of ed reformers like to dismiss any of us who disagree with their agenda as “defenders of the status quo.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I am not a defender of the status quo in public education – because the status quo is currently “No Child Left Behind” and its insidious spin-off, “Race to the Top.”
In fact, I decry the state of public education in this country right now, because a beleaguered, underfunded system has been disparaged and ravaged even further this last decade by damaging policies based on failed concepts pushed by those who want to privatize our public schools.
I do not support the status quo because the status quo is teacher bashing. I don’t support the demonizing of teachers and belittling or weakening of the profession.
The status quo is standardization and high-stakes testing which narrows curriculum and kills all creativity and joy for learning and teaching.
It is “merit pay” which lashes teacher evaluations to student test scores, and which repeated studies and common sense show doesn’t work.
It is data-manipulation to create the illusion of ed reform “success.” (See: “Standards Raised, More Students Fail Tests.”
It is the re-segregation of public schools, exacerbated by the growth of charter schools.
It is overpaid, revolving school superintendents or chancellors with no ties to the local community, often no background in education, and no plans to stick around. That is the Broad Foundation model and the cause of the recent outcry in New York when Mayor Bloomberg chose a publishing executive with no background in education to be the chancellor of New York’s schools.
The status quo is national public education policy largely determined by unelected billionaires with zero expertise in education. “Venture philanthropists” Eli Broad and Bill Gates spend millions shaping public education policy. Formers staffers from the Gates Foundation now seed the Obama Administration’s Department of Education.
“Two of Duncan’s top aides, Chief of Staff Margot Rogers and Assistant Deputy Secretary James H. Shelton III, came from the [Gates] foundation and were granted waivers by the Administration from its revolving-door policy limiting involvement with former employers.”– “Bill Gates’ School Crusade,” July 15, 2010, Bloomberg Businessweek.
Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, and former chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, are both former members of the Broad board of directors. The “Broad Prize for Urban Education” is a trophy and large cash sum awarded annually by the private Broad Foundation to school districts performing to its liking. In its 2009-10 Annual Report, Broad boasts that the trophy itself “resides at the U.S. Department of Education.”
You couldn’t ask for a better symbol of the infiltration of private corporate interests into federal government.
Have Mr. Broad or Mr. Gates been elected to public office, or to direct education policy? Do either have any expertise or experience in public education? No and no. Do either seek genuine parent input? No.
The status quo is Astroturf ed reform groups springing up like toadstools in the night, heavily funded by the same “venture philathropists” looking for a “return on their investment” and pushing the same corporate ed-reform agenda. Washington D.C. ex- school chancellor (Michelle Rhee’s new organization is apparently backed by the same wealthy interests. These organizations lobby for an ed reform agenda that we parents have no say in or may even oppose. But they have resources and media access at their disposal that ordinary parents don’t have. This is not a democratic dialogue about our children’s future when the main stakeholders — we the parents – are largely shut out of the debate.
I do not defend the current trend of sending recent college grads with just five weeks’ training and just a two-year commitment to teach in our nation’s most struggling schools which already suffer from high teacher turnover. But that is the model for Teach for America, Inc. a multimillion-dollar enterprise that is now funded by the Obama government to the tune of $50 million-plus and is arguably de-professionalizing the teaching profession.
Five weeks training does not make these uncredentialed grads “highly qualified,” despite the recent shenanigans by Congress.
I do not support the status quo that punishes teachers, principals and schools with mass layoffs, firings and closures because of student test scores, rather than addressing why some children are struggling and how else one might measure a child’s abilities and a teacher’s worth.
I do not support the status quo which is the mindset of the corporate ed reformers that schools should be run like businesses. Schools are not businesses. Their goal is not profit. The strongest schools are communities, more like families, and need to be cooperative, creative, engaging and nurturing environments.
I do not support the status quo of shameful attacks by the media on teachers and schools and the one-sided cheerleading for charter schools that fails to acknowledge the genuine proven limitations of these schools — their failure to serve children with special needs, the high attrition of kids (even a Geoffrey Canada Harlem Children Zone apparently booted an entire class of kids from a charter school because they weren’t deemed likely to do well on tests. (See: “The Myth of Charter Schools,” Brookings Institution, Nov. 11, 2010.)
I do not support the status quo which makes celebrities and “super(wo)men” out of spotlight-seeking figures like Michelle Rhee, Michael Bloomberg, and Arne Duncan, while all the real work is being done quietly by the thousands of anonymous teachers, principals, educators, parents and students, who suffer through reform after reform, trend after trend, searing budget cuts, and still manage to go on and offer a good education to many children in this nation without any national recognition.
I do not support a status quo that cuts so much from school budgets that the PTAs are left fundraising for such essentials as teachers and books, and school communities that do not have these extra resources suffer the most.
I do not support the status quo of education policies being driven by Wall Street interests and not by what’s in the best interests of our children.
I do not support mayoral control, abolishing of school boards, quashing of parent voices and end-runs around democracy.
I do not defend the federal government imposing its edicts on local school districts, suppressing local autonomy and skirting the edges of Constitutionality, which is what Race to the Top essentially does.
The research comes on the heels of a recent pledge by President Barack Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, to use $5 billion of the $100 billion in federal stimulus funds for education to press states on charter schools. “States that don’t have charter school laws, or put artificial caps on the growth of charter schools, will jeopardize their application” for federal grant money, Duncan said in a call with reporters last week. Currently, 10 states lack laws that allow charter schools, and 26 others cap their enrollment.” — from: “Charter Schools Might Not Be Better,” U.S. News & World Report, June 19, 2009.)
No, I reject this status quo.
What I support and call for is: the long-term personal and professional investment in every child –which takes time and commitment, as has been demonstrated in Everett, Washington. It’s not flashy, doesn’t require expensive high-tech products, just good old-fashioned follow-up with kids, mentoring and genuine support. And an engaging curriculum.
I support small classes sizes that allow greater one-on-one interaction. I call for the parents’ voices to be the loudest in the discussion of how to run our schools. I support autonomy for schools, teachers and principals who know their communities best, and who can ensure their children are doing well, learning what they need to know and able to graduate.
I call for creative teaching, rich, varied curricula that include the arts and music and languages, science, physical education. I call for safe, decent well-maintained buildings and healthy school meals.
I call for an honest dialogue about the ravages of poverty on our nation’s children. We need to acknowledge the shameful fact that 21 percent of our children live in poverty, and that inequities in academic results are largely determined by income and home life of the child. This is not an excuse, it is a fact, and to expect teachers and schools alone to correct the deep and damaging inequalities of our society is irrational.
I call for an overhaul of school district administrations, to pare them down to the essentials, make them efficient and serving the interests of the school communities, not the whims of private foundations or vendors of standardized tests, text books or online learning products.
I call for the hiring of school superintendents and chancellors who have a local connection and commitment to the community they must serve which will in turn lead to greater accountability. I call to retain democratically elected school board members who must answer to their constituents and oversee the superintendent, and a paid position for school board so they can do their job thoroughly and well.
Public education is an integral ingredient in creating an informed public and a strong democracy. I believe we must keep our public schools free of private and political agendas and manipulations, strengthen our schools, not close them down, stop punishing and start nurturing.
If you agree that our nation needs a new vision for public education, I invite you to join a forum of parents from across the nation who are launching a new organization, Parents Across America, in New York on Feb. 7. Our keynote speaker will be education historian Diane Ravitch. The event is free and open to the public. It starts at 6 p.m. and will held at: PS/IS 89 – Liberty School, 201 Warren Street, New York, N.Y. 10282.
Help bring parents’ voices to the education debate and support progressive, positive, constructive education reforms that work.
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/why-i-am-not-a-defender-of-the-status-quo-in-education-because-the-status-quo-is-failed-ed-reforms/
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Looming school cuts
From the St. Augustine Record
by Kathleen Haughney
TALLAHASSEE -- Teacher layoffs. Few if any electives. School supplies that only last a school a few months.
Those are all scenarios that lawmakers are trying to avoid as they craft a budget for the state's public schools while Florida faces a $3.6 billion shortfall and the possibility that state programs already cut to the bone will be cut even further. All the "low hanging fruit" in previous budgets was wiped out over the past few years as the downturn in the economy caused the state --and the public school system -- immense budget pain.
"All that fruit is gone, at least in my judgment," state Education Commissioner Eric Smith told a panel of House lawmakers Tuesday.
For the 2010-11 budget, $18.2 billion covers teacher salaries, busing, instructional materials and a host of other expenses, including a school's ability to simply keep the lights on. It means that for each student, a school receives $6,843.
While lawmakers faced economic difficulties last year, they had federal stimulus funds to help plug the holes riddling state coffers. Now, those funds have largely dried up, particularly for education. The education budget last year relied on $1.2 billion in non recurring federal funds, staff said Tuesday during a meeting of the House Appropriations subcommittee on PreK-12 Education.
"We have a great challenge ahead of us and one we have to take very seriously," said chairwoman Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna.
The State Board of Education approved a budget request for 2011-2012 of more than $19 billion, but Smith and his staff have also prepared a budget scenario for lawmakers that involves a 15 percent cut.
"It's a starting point, certainly not an ending point," Coley said referring to the 15-percent cut exercise.
Legislative leaders have indicated that cuts in education - one of the biggest budget drivers -- are inevitable. Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, has said he will not sign on to a budget that includes tax increases, meaning something will have to be cut if the state wants to create a balanced budget, a constitutional requirement. His education budget chief, Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte, has also noted that it will be a tough road ahead.
Darwin Boothe, a lobbyist for Seminole County School District, said the school district, and a few others, may not have to make any layoffs even if the Legislature makes minor cuts because of reserves the local school board put away in case of emergency.
However, Boothe noted that many districts dipped into those reserves this past year to help individual schools meet a constitutional requirement capping classrooms at a certain number of students. Reserves may not be available to blunt losses in state funds for the upcoming school year.
In 2002, voters approved a constitutional amendment that capped classroom sizes at 18 students in a classroom in lower grades, 22 in the middle grades and 25 students in core subject high school classrooms. The state has struggled to pay for the constitutional mandate, making it, in turn, difficult for schools to meet the requirement.
Boothe said he and other Florida school officials believe that the funding can be held at the status quo if the state continues to withhold funding from some of its long-term goals that can go without immediate funding. For example, though lawmakers in the past have wanted to put money toward purchasing environmental lands, they have not been able to fully fund that recently because lawmakers chose to prioritize other budget items.
If the school budget has to be cut, Boothe said schools will react accordingly, but lawmakers need to be aware of the practical impact of what the cuts may do.
"When you cut, you may not have the system you want at the end of the day," he said.
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-25/lawmakers-home-school-cuts
by Kathleen Haughney
TALLAHASSEE -- Teacher layoffs. Few if any electives. School supplies that only last a school a few months.
Those are all scenarios that lawmakers are trying to avoid as they craft a budget for the state's public schools while Florida faces a $3.6 billion shortfall and the possibility that state programs already cut to the bone will be cut even further. All the "low hanging fruit" in previous budgets was wiped out over the past few years as the downturn in the economy caused the state --and the public school system -- immense budget pain.
"All that fruit is gone, at least in my judgment," state Education Commissioner Eric Smith told a panel of House lawmakers Tuesday.
For the 2010-11 budget, $18.2 billion covers teacher salaries, busing, instructional materials and a host of other expenses, including a school's ability to simply keep the lights on. It means that for each student, a school receives $6,843.
While lawmakers faced economic difficulties last year, they had federal stimulus funds to help plug the holes riddling state coffers. Now, those funds have largely dried up, particularly for education. The education budget last year relied on $1.2 billion in non recurring federal funds, staff said Tuesday during a meeting of the House Appropriations subcommittee on PreK-12 Education.
"We have a great challenge ahead of us and one we have to take very seriously," said chairwoman Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna.
The State Board of Education approved a budget request for 2011-2012 of more than $19 billion, but Smith and his staff have also prepared a budget scenario for lawmakers that involves a 15 percent cut.
"It's a starting point, certainly not an ending point," Coley said referring to the 15-percent cut exercise.
Legislative leaders have indicated that cuts in education - one of the biggest budget drivers -- are inevitable. Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, has said he will not sign on to a budget that includes tax increases, meaning something will have to be cut if the state wants to create a balanced budget, a constitutional requirement. His education budget chief, Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte, has also noted that it will be a tough road ahead.
Darwin Boothe, a lobbyist for Seminole County School District, said the school district, and a few others, may not have to make any layoffs even if the Legislature makes minor cuts because of reserves the local school board put away in case of emergency.
However, Boothe noted that many districts dipped into those reserves this past year to help individual schools meet a constitutional requirement capping classrooms at a certain number of students. Reserves may not be available to blunt losses in state funds for the upcoming school year.
In 2002, voters approved a constitutional amendment that capped classroom sizes at 18 students in a classroom in lower grades, 22 in the middle grades and 25 students in core subject high school classrooms. The state has struggled to pay for the constitutional mandate, making it, in turn, difficult for schools to meet the requirement.
Boothe said he and other Florida school officials believe that the funding can be held at the status quo if the state continues to withhold funding from some of its long-term goals that can go without immediate funding. For example, though lawmakers in the past have wanted to put money toward purchasing environmental lands, they have not been able to fully fund that recently because lawmakers chose to prioritize other budget items.
If the school budget has to be cut, Boothe said schools will react accordingly, but lawmakers need to be aware of the practical impact of what the cuts may do.
"When you cut, you may not have the system you want at the end of the day," he said.
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-25/lawmakers-home-school-cuts
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