> I left Thursday’s (Jan 22) School Board legislative delegation meeting > with mixed feelings. Maybe it will help to sort out my thoughts by writing about it. As long as I’m writing, I’d like to share those thoughts with Brevard’s finest, just to give my impression of what I saw and where we’re heading. Keep in mind the commentary that follows is my own, not the official word of BFT.
Janet and John sat with me in the front row and took great notes, practically in transcript form. My notes were mostly in the form of conclusions, perhaps knee-jerk reactions. I now share those impressions.
The overall tone of the meeting was quite friendly and conciliatory. That seemed a bit surprising to me at first, but in hindsight that makes perfect sense. With all the behind the scenes talk about holding these guys accountable for the damage the legislature is doing, I still should not have expected hostility. There were plenty of back slaps and laughs between our board and the legislators. The board members and legislators were tripping over themselves with praise for our district’s accomplishments and the legislators ended with each one stressing that they were on our side and wanted to do the best thing for our schools. To give credit to our board members, it was about as good a grilling as could have been expected from one set of elected officials to another.
After introductions and niceties, Senator Mike Haridopolos spoke for the delegation first, seemingly trying to discredit our whole claim that we were in crisis. He’s done this before, inspiring many a Florida Today > blogger to repeat his mantra. He opened with the statement that eight years ago the Board’s budget was about $500 million. This year it was over a billion. “That’s an increase in eight years of one hundred percent.” Dr. DiPatri jumped on that immediately by pointing out that the first number did not include capital, while the second number did. In reality, he pointed out, eight years ago our operating budget was $400 million. Today it’s $600 million. Given increases in costs and student enrollment, that’s a responsible increase.
In the grand scheme of the meeting, it was a brief and friendly exchange. Yet it’s important we realize that the first tool used to discredit those calling for a revenue increase is to show inflated numbers. We are in this mess because Tallahassee’s consistent mandate is to trim the fat. When senators drop misleading numbers like that, in an effort to show a bloated budget, we need to recognize the move for what it is: further justification to slash revenue sources.
From there Dr. DiPatri seemingly rightfully thanked the delegation for not making January’s special session worse. We all knew about last fall’s $9.8 million holdback. That holdback has already been budgeted. When we heard about a $10 million cut this spring, many of us believed that would be an additional $10 million. In reality, the spring’s $10 million cut was confirmation of the fall’s holdback. We do not need to cut another $10 million. To soften the blow slightly, the legislature is allowing some flexibility of spending, including allowing us to transfer some money out of the textbook categorical to operating expenses. In tough times, that small favor goes a long way.
Judy Preston gave her report on the district’s actions towards moving some operating expenses to the capital budget. She spoke to the dangers of shifting mils from the capital collections to operating collections. Basically, shifting mils allows districts to collect some tax dollars for the operating budget that they otherwise would have collected for capital. However, if the legislature is already allowing some expenditures to be shifted between the accounts, then shifting mils really doesn’t make a difference. Shifting mils is a trick politicians use to try to look like they’re helping a situation without raising taxes. In reality, the net gain of dollars is zero, so nothing is really helped, except the budget lady gets dizzy watching the money around.
After Judy’s report, each school board member spoke on a pre-arranged topic. While speaking, some discussion flared up among the board members and legislators. On the whole I was impressed with our board, for the topics they brought up and for their delivery. But before the synopsis, I have to give extended props to Dr. Barbara Murray, who showed her skills of preparation and speaking. At one point, Representative Ralph Poppell cut to the chase and said he knew we were all calling for a revenue increase. He’s against a revenue increase and isn’t shy to say so. He > said he wanted the economy to recover the right way, through the creation and support of high paying jobs. When we get highly qualified, high paid workers back on their feet, he said the economy will improve and the > state’s revenue will increase. Dr. Murray immediately pointed out that in most Florida districts, the School Board is the largest employer. If he wants high paying, skilled jobs, he need look no further than to teachers. Build them up, and here comes the economy. Great point, Dr. Murray.
Andy Ziegler spoke about A plus money, pointing out that we were victims of our own success. Because the state budgeted this year’s reward money at last year’s level, we had to shell out our own operating dollars to > cover a chunk of school recognition money. Next year, there is talk that > the school recognition money could be rolled into FTE dollars. That’s a fancy way of saying they might end the silly A plus program and just take the vestiges of the money and put it into the education pot. The problem for Brevard is that we always get a slightly higher share than we would >“deserve” if the money would be just divided up equally. We have 2.7% of the state’s population; yet we get 3.75% of the A plus money. So if they just divide up the money and spread it evenly across the state, we would come out behind.
Amy Kneessey spoke about the National Board program, to which Ritch Workman made some slightly sarcastic remarks about National Board teachers and their fondness for clogging his e-mail box. He praised the teachers who get the certificate, but didn’t see the application fee as a true “need.” Representative Workman spoke a lot about “wants” and “needs,” citing a time when his business, which he owns with his brother, went through hard times. He had to list all their expenses and categorize them as “wants” or “needs.” To keep the business afloat, they had to stress the “needs” and cut the “wants.” At any rate, he said that the state has this program where they pay teachers to apply for a certificate that they just get so they can get a bonus. Somebody hammered him on that statement (just get the certificate to get the bonus) and he quickly back peddled. But he stood firm that the National Board program is a “want,”and it gets cut in times of “need.” Amy Kneessey further defended the program, claiming it was a true “pay for performance” indicator, which led to her plea to just kill the MAP program by cutting the funding.
Karen Henderson brought up the topic that probably dominated discussion more than any other – class size amendment. It is a nasty little topic that quite easily becomes divisive. She had plenty of help from fellow board members, and I grew concerned as discussion moved towards consensus about the need to “fix” CSA. Legislators Haridopolos and Poppell led the charge against the impending full implementation of class size amendment, saying it was the South Florida unions that pushed for it and that won’t budge today. Dr. DiPatri pointed out that we easily meet the mandate if you take a school average. Looking at class size as a school average is much less confining than meeting classroom-by-classroom caps. There was so much happy and hopeful talk about how -- if we could just get unions, superintendents, administrators, parents, etc. – to unify and rally around a voter mandate to repeal the class size amendment and replace it with a less restrictive one, we could solve our financial mess.
The reality, as I see it, is that if we relax class size goals, the money to meet those goals will relax as well. It took a lot of hard work to get meaningful class size provisions in place. To me, it seems that if this researched based, voter approved, initiative is short on funding, the solution should be to find the funding, not try to divide the education stakeholders. And yet the delegation seemed to imply that without the class size overturn, they could not find more money for us. Right after the meeting, the guy from Channel 6 came over to us and asked for our comments on the meeting. I did what any courageous man would do; I fled the scene. Janet answered his questions and spoke of our unwavering support for protecting class sizes. The issue here is funding, not blaming the voters for demanding a better education for their children.
Dr. Murray gave a brief report on charter schools and Dr. DiPatri gave the details of the February 23 Town Hall meeting, before the legislators took turns giving final remarks.
Representative John Tobia gave us a little education on the state’s inability to just print money when it needs more. He says he’s a teacher > too, and appreciates smaller class sizes, but the impending cuts are unavoidable. He says he takes the time to return all calls and e-mails when they are not form letters. So, if you want to write to him, don’t just copy-paste standard messages. (I believe he’s a college teacher, not > K-12)
Senator Mike Haridopolos’ closing remarks focused on his record of making education his top priority. He says in good times when revenue is up, education gets the most increases. And when times are tough, education gets the smallest cuts, in terms of percent. Then he listed out potential sources of revenue, but said they would not bring in as much money as expected, even if they did them. For example, the internet tax has been touted as a $2 billion revenue stream, while his estimates show it as being $30-40 million. He did not mention the penny sales tax that FEA is pushing.
Representative Steve Crisafulli did not say much, but he said something I believed was very hopeful: everything is on the table for revenue in the March session. He explained that January’s special session was not about raising revenue, but in March they could, and that they would look at everything.
Representative Ritch Workman closed with his “wants and needs” speech again and encouraged more e-mails, but suggested making them personal. He says he’s returned phone calls to people who e-mail him and they’re not sure what they wrote. In other words, don’t just copy-paste your message. But then, earlier, he said that before he came to the meeting he copied “leadership’s” speaking points on class size amendment. He probably wasn’t supposed to say that out loud, and Representative Poppell may have to school him in being a more coy politician. “Leadership’s speaking points” refers to the approved message of the Republican leadership of the Legislature. While we’re supposed to believe that every representative carefully weighs each issue, the reality is that no Republican strays very far from “leadership’s” stand. Somewhere in the new guy training, they forgot to tell him to make sure the invisible hand of Leadership stays invisible.
And then there was Representative Poppell, by far the most experienced politician of the bunch, who best speaks the “cut taxes to stimulate the economy” line. His comments kept coming back to class size amendment and his “told you so” attitude that the legislator can’t fix what the voters break. My overall impression was that the entire delegation, with probable exception of Haridopolos, looks to him for speaking points and guidance. He offered some token solutions like putting all new building projects on hiatus (they are) and dropped his standard fortune cookie line: “You all need to remember that private schools can’t continually go back to the public tax dollar trough.”
Let me leave you with some final observations and thoughts. If you thought the rest was commentary, wait until you read this:
Tony Sasso was in the crowd. It was great to see him and he shared a very friendly handshake with Steve Crisafulli after the event. For all his fans, he’s still involved and active.
Former BFT presidents Anne Spencer and Fran Baer were in > attendance. Both look great and have been writing our representatives.
Representative John Tobia, like some of the others, is a home grown product. He claims to have graduated Satellite High ten years ago. I don’t doubt that, but if he were in my bar, he’d get carded.
Ever see someone in person who you’ve seen on TV and remark how different they look in person? Scott Harris looks EXACTLY the same in person as he does on TV. No “wow, look how short you are,” or “you look much older in person.” Nope. That’s him – uncanny.
Robert Jordan mediates a nice meeting. At times I wondered if he wasn’t a little too emotional or going on too long. But by saying a lot, he got in what he needed to, including a passionate line towards the end. Referring to the cuts: “When will you decide enough is enough?”
They talked about paperwork reduction and FCAT being moved further back in the year. Those aren’t budget things, but I’m glad they got that in.
I wondered what would happen if Representative Poppell read in his fortune cookie: “Private schools can just raise tuition.”
My most important thought of the night that the only way these guys will get a proper grilling is at the Town Hall meeting, when the public gets dibs on them. I don’t blame our board members for conducting a positive, upbeat meeting. They got a dialogue going. We need to continue that talk on February 23.
Reported in Solidarity, Dan Bennett
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Mark Hollis
January 27, 2009 (850) 488-9622
House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands
today issued the following statement regarding Governor Charlie Crist’s budget vetoes:
"This is a small victory for those of us in the House Democratic Caucus who warned of the long-term negative consequences of Republican legislators’ short-sighted budget fixes.
"Governor Charlie Crist’s decision to restore a fraction of the more than $1-billion in Republican spending cuts to schools, health care and other state priorities offers a glimmer of hope that he’s willing to override some of the harsh tactics of Republican budget writers.
"In exercising his veto pen today, the governor has agreed with Representative Joe Gibbons who voiced concerns during House floor debate about Republican plans to slash the Visit Florida tourism-promotion program.
"I applaud him for following the lead of Representatives Perry Thurston, Daryl Rouson and other House Democrats who opposed Republican proposals to cut funding for substance abuse prevention, education and treatment programs.
"Similarly, the governor appears to recognize the concerns of Representative Ron Saunders and others who saw the short-sighted strategies of Republicans in regards to the Florida Forever land conservation program.
"And he is following some of the advice of Representatives Kelly Skidmore, Mary Brandenburg, and Martin Kiar in paring back some of the onerous Republican cuts to education and health care.
"But while the governor has modestly reduced the potential budget pain to our teachers and other Floridians, we are reminded that the massive budget cuts by the Republicans that remain will add only more injury to many Floridians suffering under failed economic policies.
"I encourage the governor to continue working with the House Democratic Caucus in setting new priorities for the state and beginning Florida on a road to economic recovery."
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