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Penny Protesters Hope It Will Bring Change To Education Funding

The Associated Press

More than 2 million pennies are unloaded at the State Capitol in Tallahassee by Florida Education Association members.

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The Associated Press

Published: March 18, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - The pennies — some shiny, others worn or tarnished, arrived today by the bucketful, in bottles, jugs, bags and plastic containers — more than 2 million in all.

The coins, which add up to more than $20,000, were donated by parents, teachers and children from across Florida to support temporarily increasing the state's sales tax by a penny per dollar to prevent more spending cuts in the state's public schools.

"You can't afford not to pay it," said Lea Rhoden, a parent and kindergarten teacher at Clay Hill Elementary School in Clay County just outside Jacksonville. "I have two small children and I want there to be programs for them."

The pennies were unloaded from an armored car and stacked in a plaza near the Florida Capitol. The goal was to collect one penny for each of about 2.6 million students in Florida, but Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow said the total probably fell a bit short. The money will be donated to the Florida Children's Home Society.

The association, which is the statewide teachers union, collected the pennies. The union wants lawmakers to raise the 6 percent statewide sales tax by 1 percentage point for three years and spend the new dollars on education.

The teachers hope the Legislature would use that time to revamp Florida's tax structure to provide a permanent and dependable flow of money to schools without some of the wild fluctuations occurred as the economy has gone up and down, said Florida Education Association President Andy Ford.

Hundreds of PTA members and other school supporters also held a rally to protest further cuts in education spending due the state's economic troubles.

The Legislature has cut about $3 billion from public schools, universities and community colleges in the past two years.

Leaders of the usually tax-fearing, Republican-controlled Legislature have said all potential new revenue sources are on the table including such a sales tax increase, although they also expect more spending cuts.

Gov. Charlie Crist, though declared his opposition to the proposal at a town hall meeting in Jacksonville.

"I don't like that," Crist said. "I don't like taxes."

House Finance and Tax Council Chairwoman Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, called said it was "problematic."

"I think the discussion is premature," she said. "A lot families out there are having trouble makings ends meet. That is a broad tax that is going to affect every family and every business in this state."

Senate Ways and Means Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said lawmakers certainly will take a look at the proposal.

"I'd probably prefer to see that option put before the people of Florida so that they can determine whether they want to make that commitment," Alexander said. "Clearly there's much support in our state for education."

Unless lawmakers call a special election, though, that would put off any action until November 2010 and they're facing a budget crisis now.

Lawmakers would be abdicating their responsibility if they put it on the ballot because they were elected to make those kinds of decisions, Ford said.

A new financial estimate last week indicates the state is facing a gap of about $6 billion between anticipated revenues and expenses for the budget year beginning July 1. Alexander said federal stimulus money could fill only about half of that hole, leaving a $3 billion potential deficit.

It'll have to be filled with a combination of spending cuts and new revenue, Alexander said.

"We've gotten ourselves into a complicated problem," said Columbia County School Superintendent Mike Millikin, who was in Tallahassee for the education rally. "It may take a variety of solutions. Maybe it's a sales tax. Maybe it's a look at different way how we collect our revenues."

Millikin said his rural, north Florida district has cut supplies and field trips. It hasn't filling positions that open up due to resignations and retirements, has delayed maintenance and construction to pay other bills and frozen most purchases including school buses. Buses also have been rerouted to save transportation expenses.

"We feel we've done our share," Millikin said. "The easy things have been done."

So far his district has avoided layoffs, but others have not, contributing to Florida's 8.6 percent unemployment rate.

"If we're letting go the workforce we're in effect feeding the monster keeping us in an economic downturn," Millikin said.

Clay County is among the districts that have laid off teachers, said Elizabeth Crane, president of the Clay County Education Association.

"My day usually starts at 7 with crying teachers," Crane said.

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