The class size amendment is wreaking havoc on school districts all over the state, as they scramble to get class sizes in compliance with the law which takes effect next month.
The Broward County School Board approved a property tax hike Thursday night to hire 465 new teachers, to the delight of parents who packed the room.
"I'm sorry for the taxpayers and I'm one of them, but it's a small price to pay, our future depends on it," said Tammy Wagner, who has three kids in public school.
The Board raised taxes by 25 cents for every 1000 dollars of assessed value, so the average homeowner would see an extra 25 to 50 bucks on their bill. The school district expects to raise about $30 million from the tax hike. Superintendent Jim Notter says there's no other option, given the fact that the Florida Legislature has slashed its investment in public schools repeatedly over the past few years. Broward had to cut $154 million from its budget this year alone.
"When you're ranked 45th, 46th, even 50th in the country in funding education, sometimes even the most impoverished have to dig deep to pick up the slack that our state did not," Notter said.
Notter says there was no other way to comply with the class size requirements. The state will fine school districts $3,800 for every student over the limit in a given class.
"I just don't think that some homeowners, especially those on a fixed income, can afford it," said Kevin Tynan, who is one of two School Board members who voted against the tax increase.
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Tynan says the district would've still been able to hire extra teachers without hitting up homeowners.
"We would've had to re-prioritize our budget in a different fashion, that's all, we would've had to go back and look harder at what monies we did have and where we were spending it," Tynan said, before acknowledging that it's unlikely that approach would've found an extra $30 million hiding somewhere.
The problem for Broward schools, though, is the tax assessment is just a temporary fix, only good for one year, and when you consider that a big chunk of Federal stimulus money runs out after next school year, the future of public education funding looks grim.
"Clearly, clearly, there's a lot of one-time money in this budget. Next year is gonna be difficult," Tynan says.
As if this year hasn't been hard enough. It's not what parents want to hear, but that's reality.
