Florida Education Appropriations

At this moment I am watching the Florida legislature debate and supposedly clarify the 2009-2010 state education appropriations budget. Here are my impressions.

A few of these people are actually concerned about adequately funding schools in the state. Some of the legislators are wrapped up in promoting special high cost programs in their individual districts. It is my suspicion that they are trolling for local votes rather than displaying an actual concern for education.

Most of our legislators are playing politics. Interjected between bouts of Obama bashing and praising are deceptive comments about the level of student funding. Representative Flores states that the funding level per pupil will actually be increased during the next fiscal year. She also states that the revenue funding is the same as in 2006. So why is Florida having to receive a special dispensation to receive additional funds? Flores states that the overall funding is less than in 2006 so Florida does not qualify for the special funding according to their criteria.

If we are receiving more money per pupil then why is our school having to cut off some lights each day and to reduce heating and a/c use? Why are field trips and extracurricular activities sharply curtailed? Why are they moving to a radically different school schedule for next year so they can stack more students in the classrooms? Categorical funding is the answer. We have tons of money build schools but this money can't be used for the students or to buy needed supplies and to keep the schools running. The result is that the students will not be receiving an adequate level of education next year. Don't you just love state educational politics? I am so glad that I will not be facing this type of deceptive crap next year but I feel deeply sorry that my fellow teachers will be stuck in the impossible situation of having to instruct students in hot or cold classrooms with few supplies. It just makes me sick. The least our elected officials can do is to be honest (for a change) and say that the students of Florida will be shafted. It's probably because it would show just how uncaring or education many of our state politicians really are.

What's hitting the fan in Florida?

I have been watching the Florida legislature televised debates recently. They are winding up their attempt to slash the state budget and it looks at this point like education will suffer huge losses in financial support. The state prison system, on the other hand, will apparently have an increase in funding. That's a wise thing to do since the reduction in educational support will probably result in an increase in the prison population in future years. Whatever it is that's hitting the fan for Florida education I know that it stinks.

Where Our County Is Going With Education

We are not unique here in education. This year we are facing the worst monetary crisis we have ever had in Florida. A combination of finance reductions at the state level and overextending in starting new schools in our county means that 25% of our funding has evaporated.

I won't try to second guess the decisions of our state and local administrators. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it won't help solve the current crisis. Besides, my area of expertise is not administration or politics. I am a teacher and I am very worried that I am not going to have the supplies this year to adequately train the future scientists and doctors I will be given charge of. What can I do to replace fundamental labs and dissections that they must have in order to get a full education in Biology and Anatomy? Many of these kids will be going into medicine and research. They deserve the best experience in my classes I can offer them and I am deeply fearful that I will be forced to cut so many corners that they will not be adequately trained or inspired. Books are great as a staple but the heart and soul of the biological sciences is laboratory work. It is not cheap and there are no good substitutes. I do not want to be placed in the position of just sitting there asking them to memorize material. That is not science and it is not teaching. Some things can not be adjusted for and this is one of them. In a couple of weeks I go back to teaching and then I will see how bad it will really be. I wish I could be more upbeat and positive about this but to me it just feels like the death of good science teaching. I pray I am wrong.

The County School Budget

I'm just going to lay out some of the basics we got in our faculty meeting today because if I wrote what I really felt about this I would definitely be fired tomorrow.

Our superintendent is releasing a media blurb about plans to address our county 8 million dollar educational deficit (this value seems to increase every time I hear about it). Among the changes for next year:

1) An increase in class size.
2) A 25% cut in supply budgets. This means little if any dissection for kids in my Anatomy classes who will in most cases go into the medical field.
3) A hiring freeze.
4) No activity bus in the afternoon.
5) Fewer deans.
6) Fewer custodians.

So what effect do you think these changes will have upon education? Obviously my suggestion to encourage teachers with many years of teaching to retire was not accepted. Are these ideas better?

Update 4/18/08: I just got an email from a school board member who received information that due to decreased revenue from the lottery and lower tax revenues than expected the state legislature is apparently in the process of cutting the state education funding even more. This will mean that the local reductions I talked about above will probably be more severe than originally stated. It sounds like we will be lucky if we have large classes and almost no money for supplies. I hope I am wrong about this but things look pretty bleak. My plan for saving money by offering teachers in our county with 25 years or more experience with full retirement and retirement health coverage is sounding better all the time. I would rather see younger teachers with an adequate supply budget and reasonable class sizes than keeping the existing instructors and having huge class sizes and little money to buy supplies. Of course this makes good common sense so I have little hope of seeing it happen. Know what I mean. Vern?

Our Educational Budget Deficit

Recently our state gave a rebate to people who have homestead exemptions. This has placed our education here in dire financial circumstances. We have stretched our resources in opening new schools this year. Now we have a projected $5,000,000+ shortfall for the coming year.

Superintendent Joyner sent out an email asking all educators for suggestions to reduce the shortfall. I sent Dr. Joyner an email with my suggestion. Since most of the education monies go towards building upkeep, supplies, and salaries, there simply isn't much 'wiggle room' to help. I would like to stress that my suggestion does not address the effect it would have upon education. I stuck to the question Dr. Joyner asked and looked at any way in which to legally reduce the deficit. Our contract locks in the rather low salary structure. I did not go for the obvious and recommend that 25% of the district office staff be cut. So.... here is my emailed suggestion.

The top salaried teachers are very expensive to maintain. If the district would offer a full voluntary retirement of 30 years for any teacher who has 26 or more years of experience, hiring replacement teachers who have less than 5 years of experience, this could result in huge savings. In addition to the full retirement incentive, an added inducement could be supplemental health care throughout retirement. Even with this, the savings would be substantial during the next few years. Hopefully by that time we will be on a more substantial funding foundation and can deal with the extended health costs of our retirees. My feeling is that with the meager 60% retirement we have, retirees should be receiving health benefits anyway. It is the decent thing to do for people who have given their lives to educate our youth.

If they implemented this plan, I would have to carefully consider my options. I love teaching. Still, health benefits as I get older would not be a small consideration. I imagine that several hundred teachers would feel similarly. That type of retirement plan would be hard to reject.

Casper Update

It seems that thoughts of Casper supercedes school and all else for now. He is not eating so we have had to go to force feeding. We called the University of Florida to see why they had not contacted us to let us know if Casper would be a good candidate for their radiation procedure. They claimed that the oncologist had not sent the MRI to them and when we contacted the oncologist they claimed that they had sent the MRI and the university doctors had not read it! What a bunch of crap.

Since Casper is fading we are putting on the pressure. We called numerous times today trying to set up a radiation schedule with our oncologist. Of course both doctors had the afternoon off but we made ourselves obnoxious enough that one doctor actually contacted us and set up a CAT scan for tomorrow. She is still talking about beginning treatments next week. This is the same doctor who told me that Casper couldn't be in pain because the brain doesn't have pain receptors. Though technically this statement is true, Casper IS in pain from the increased pressure in his brain pressing upon his meninges. Perhaps she had never heard that people with conditions like meningitis do actually feel a lot of pain. I have had it with these doctors and their B.S.. They only care about the almighty dollar and good P.R.. They haven't seen obnoxious yet if they keep screwing around with Casper's life like they have been trying to do so far. For the amount that we are paying, the oncologists are frigging well going to do things quickly to benefit Casper rather than to suit their own schedules.