FLBOE Requests Budget That Doesn’t Keep Up With Inflation… Again.

With Hurricane Helene on the move, Wednesday’s State Board of Education (FLBOE) meeting was converted to a telephone conference lasting just 15 minutes. The main item for approval was the Department of Education’s Legislative Budget Request (LBR).

One mother of two elementary school students from St. Johns County provided the only public comment prior to the LBR presentation. She noted that public education advocates in St. Johns were working every day to get their local school funding referenda passed in November and the main question they are asked is “why do we need more money since we are a growing, wealthy county?” She said the honest answer is that they state has been lowering their Required Local Effort millage for over 10 years, so school districts are unable to capitalize on increasing property values and growth. She also noted that billions of dollars are being siphoned away to unaccountable private schools through vouchers. She said:

It is astounding to me that we pride ourselves on being the “Education State.” However, our teachers are ranked 50th for average pay. Some of our kids don’t have teachers, books, air conditioning, bus drivers, etc. We have seen that there’s surplus in dollars at the state level, so why do we, as parents and community members, have to advocate for the passing of the millage and half-fund?”

https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/9-25-24-state-board-of-education-meeting/

Good question!

The FLBOE, in comparison, had NO questions regarding the proposed LBR. There was absolutely no discussion by state board members of the request for $27.21 billion for the Department of Education (about $165 million, or 0.61%, more than the appropriations for the 2024-2025 fiscal year) which will, no doubt, be celebrated as “historic.”

FLDOE Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Operations, Suzanne Pridgeon presented the proposed request, which anticipates the funding of 51,423 additional students during the 2025-2026 school year (a 1.62% increase in student population). There was no breakdown of whether these were predicted to be public school, charter school or voucher-funded private school students (all of whom are funded through the state education funding formula, the FEFP) and no one bothered to ask.

The proposed FEFP asks for:

• $50 increase in the Base Student Allocation (BSA, 0.94% increase)
• $100 million increase in the salary increase allocation (8% increase which is included in the BSA)
• $10 million increase for Safe Schools allocation (3.4% increase)
• $10 million increase for student transportation (1.8% increase)
• $10 million increase for mental health, which is a total of 190 million (5.6% increase)

For the overall FEFP, they are requesting an increase of $172 per student (1.94% increase), which is $9,155 per FTE (“full time equivalent”).

The current annual inflation rate is 2.5%.

[For the record, when spending increases fail to keep up with inflation it is the equivalent of DEFUNDING our schools… something that has been regularly happening for almost 2 decades in Florida.]

Just before the board approved the proposed LBR unanimously, Chair Ben Gibson thanked Ms. Pridgeon for her hard work and said:

“The education budget is one of the largest budget items where we have discretion, the Legislature has discretion, and with the record funding that we have in this budget request, I think it really shows where the state of Florida’s priorities are.” 

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/09/25/board-of-education-asks-legislature-for-27-billion-for-next-school-year/

Exactly, “it really shows where the state of Florida’s priorities are.”

“Record funding”… hah! Despite having a budget surplus that Governor DeSantis says is SO big “I don’t know what to do with all this money,” Florida’s Department of Education is once again requesting a budget that fails to keep up with inflation.

Again, budgets reflect priorities and, when it comes to funding public schools, Florida’s priority is less about a commitment to adequately funding a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools and more about how it can give the appearance of doing so. This year’s budgest request ask for more of the same. Florida’s schools have yet to be made whole from massive budget cuts due to the Great Recession. K-12 funding continues to lag behind inflation. Increased spending is being funneled to private options, with 10% of our state’s K-12 funding now going to unaccountable private schools and homeschoolers and not one board member curious as to whether that trend is expected to continue (indeed, they probably hope it will).

In 2007, Florida was funding its schools at about the national average. Now, average teacher pay is 50th in the nation (just above West Virginia’s) and per-pupil spending is 49th in the nation. With an annual GDP of nearly $1.3 trillion, low state debt and and $17 Billion budget surplus, Florida has the economic capacity to adequately fund its school system but, it appears, that is not a priority. This is not a record we should be proud of.

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For everyone in the path of Helene, stay safe. Wishing you the best of luck.