Two years ago Governor Rick Scott imposed deep cuts to public school budgets. He signed off on bills eliminating tenure for new teachers, and requiring government employees to pay three-percent of their salaries to their retirements. The effort left school officials demoralized and didn’t do anything to help the Governor’s sagging approval ratings. Since then, Scott has worked to change his image on education, and he’s putting the state’s money where his mouth is.
After getting lots of backlash from parents, teachers and school officials from budget cuts in 2011, Scott reversed course in 2012—and directed lawmakers to put a billion dollars back into education. Last year he embarked on a listening tour to schools around the state, and even cut a commercial touting his support of public schools:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjIKVWhMlGU
Scott even sat down with the state’s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association, which opposed many of his policies. And in his 2013 budget proposal, he’s pitching an across the board $2,500 pay raise for full-time teachers, along with a $250 stipend to help them purchase classroom supplies.
“My experience in business is there are so many things you’d like to do, but you have to do the things with the biggest impact, and that’s what I tried to do with this budget," Scott told reporters during his budget unveiling Thursday.
“We’re starting from behind so this is a good step. It is in the right direction. I applaud the Governor for recognizing that we have to invest in schools and the people who work in them in order to create the workforce this state needs for the future," said Florida Education Association President Andy Ford.
The union has been critical of Scott's policies in the past. But issued a statement in support of the Governor's planned education budget increases.
Scott wants to boost K-12 spending by $412 per-student, bringing overall funding levels back to where they were in the 2006-07 school year. Teachers like Wakulla High School’s Farrah Donaldson, also say it’s a step in the right direction, but, “it needs to be more steps. Teachers already, it seems they get a bum rap. But I think it’s a step in the right direction toward earning our respect back.”
And Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, remain skeptical about the Governor’s intentions:
"Because he’s done things in the past to them, it’s not really putting them ahead. It’s bringing them to possibly, where they were when he came into office. And to have this sudden epiphany, to me, reeks of election year’s coming," Smith told reports prior to the governor's budget rollout.
He says he believes Scott is just trying to improve his re-election chances.
Legislative leaders are still trying to figure out where the money for all of the governor’s education plans is going to come from. Senate President Don Gaetz says whatever money lawmakers may think they have, could disappear in an instant if the federal government can’t get its’ budget house in order and stave off federal spending cuts slated to come down in the next few months:
“Florida’s face could be forced down into a pool of red ink, and the money that people have already mentally spend about 32 times, will disappear in an instant," Gaetz said.
Meanwhile, Gov.Scott is calling for an increase of $74 million for the state’s public community and state colleges. The system has seen lots of growth in recent years due to displaced workers going back to school in the hopes of getting new jobs.
But the news for public universities isn’t as good as some of them had hoped it would be. Last year, lawmakers took $300 million dollars from the schools’ reserves, and promised to give the money back this year. In fact, House Speaker Will Weatherford has promised to restore those funds:
" If it was a business out there, we’d want them to have reserves, and we took it and I didn’t think that was right. But we did it, and it’s over now," Weatherford said during a panel conversation on higher education hosted by the Orlando Sentinel.
" The legislature’s going to restore that money this year. You’ll see in our budget that $300 million dollars will be restored.”
The Governor’s budget calls for giving universities $3.85 billion dollars, an increase of $393 million. But that increase isn’t exactly what it seems. Included in the figure is $118 million the university system governing board requested in exchange for no tuition increases, plus another $167 million to be allocated according to university performance. The University of Florida would get an extra $15 million to help it get achieve a top 10 ranking. But UF President Bernie Machen is not impressed with the rest of Scott’s plan:
“If you remember, the proposal from the board of governors was $300 million to backfill, plus another $118 [million] for tuition. He’s taking the $118 [million] and discounting the $300 [million]. So there’s no backfill," Machen said.
The governor’s proposal is just a roadmap. But Scott says his priority is on education, and when asked about whether he’ll veto a budget that doesn’t do what he wants, he says he’s sure lawmakers will go along with it.
