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State Cuts Soon May Hit Classes

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The Associated Press

Published: November 15, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - The state's public schools have laid off lunchroom workers and bus drivers, slashed administration, put maintenance on hold and soon will exhaust their reserve funds.

Any more budget cuts would reach into the classroom, said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.

School districts will be at the bottom of their reserves after the latest round of cuts announced last week, Blanton said Friday.

"There is no more saved money to make any further cuts," said Blanton, fresh from a meeting with school finance officials. He said it's the worst financial situation he's seen in his 33 years with the association.

School districts began the year with almost 2 percent fewer dollars per student. The Department of Education, in a Nov. 10 memo to school superintendents, served notice they'll also be getting a 2 percent midyear cut - $355 million statewide - due to a spending holdback ordered by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Additional reductions are possible before the budget year ends June 30 and more are almost certain in 2009-10 because state tax revenue is continuing to fall amid the national economic slump.

Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, agreed the situation is dire.

"We're just getting to the point of what more are we going to cut?" Pudlow said. "The easy cuts already have been made."

The schools rely on the state for about half of their budgets, and Crist has ordered all state agencies to hold back 4 percent of their spending. State economists will meet next Friday to make a new general revenue estimate and it's expected to be down again.

The first things to go if cuts reach the classroom will be noncore subjects such as art, music and band, Blanton said. He said some school officials also are thinking about reducing athletic programs and going to a four-day work week.

"You can forget about meeting the class-size amendment," Blanton said.

Voters in 2002 passed an amendment to the Florida Constitution that requires no more than 18 students per class in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth and 25 in high school as of the 2010-11 school year.

State law, though, requires those limits to be met a year sooner. The law requires they be met on a school average basis this year.

Attempts to make the limits more flexible failed during this year's legislative session, but the issue is likely to emerge again in March. Some legislators insist noting can be done without amending the constitution but others disagree. The teachers union, school boards and superintendents also have argued that changes can be made without passing another amendment.

The budget crunch also has stalled contract negotiations between most county school districts and their local teachers unions. One of the 67 districts doesn't have a union. By this time of year most contracts usually are signed, but only 18 districts have settled so far in 2008, Blanton said.

"We are at impasse all over the place," he said.

In most cases those contracts that have been settled give teachers pay raises of only 1 percent or 2 percent, Pudlow said.
Blanton said school boards again will push for class-size flexibility during the 2009 legislative session. They'll also ask lawmakers to look at ways to increase Lottery income by expanding games and to increase taxes on cigarettes and liquor.

Education spending also is being cut on the state level including reductions in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test program. Parents no longer will be able to see their children's FCAT grades on a state Web site. That change alone will save about $1.3 million.

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