A new school year is approaching, and with it are concerns about the future of Florida’s public schools.
Most school districts around the Big Bend start the academic year this coming Monday, including Leon. Like districts statewide, Leon is having to contend with less funding, higher expenses, and a worker shortage.
Superintendent Rocky Hanna has butted heads with the DeSantis Administration over a variety of issues: masks during the pandemic, disagreements over LGBTQ plus policies, and school choice.
Now, Hanna says he is starting this school year with optimism even as he sees a bleak horizon for traditional public schools.
"On August 11th, we won't borrow worry as one of my assistant superintendents says. 30,000 kids are going to come rushing in and we're going to provide them a high quality and enriching education," Hanna says, "and provide them everything they need to have a successful school year."
Hanna chatted with us over Zoom last Friday for today's Speaking Of.
Here are some of the topics we cover:
School funding — "When you're revenue neutral and then your expenses go up a little over 6 million, you start off in a deficit...If we end up revenue neutral again and not funded at the proper levels by the legislature - and we know we're going to have a rise of expenses again next year - I don't know what we'll do."
Vouchers — "Now that we're funding the voucher program, there's just not enough money. I mean, the voucher program statewide is $3.8 billion. For us in Leon County, $37 million is going to support private schools in Leon County. There's just not enough money to fund two parallel programs."
School accountability — "You have the traditional public schools that are held to this very high standard, very high level of accountability. There an entire chapter of Florida statutes that govern traditional public schools. But then we send $3.8 billion statewide to private schools that have zero accountability and zero requirements. The teachers don't have to be certified. They don't have to serve students with special needs."
Teacher shortage — "I remember years ago when I was the principal at Leon High School, every spring and early summer we'd have a hiring fair at the civic center. Hundreds and hundreds of young applicants would come and apply for those jobs...Now you open those doors and there's no one there. It breaks my heart."
Click LISTEN above to hear the full segment.
