State: Class size plans lack in detail

"We are two-and-a-half times more likely to solve these issues under our proposal than under Bill McBride's proposal, based on simple math," said Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan.

It's not so simple. Both plans are long on promises and short on details.

Bush's $2.8-billion borrowing plan would pay for 12,000 classrooms over five years by pledging growth in a tax on telephones and satellite dishes. McBride would borrow less than Bush and would pay for teacher pay raises and other improvements with a 50-cent-a-pack tax increase on cigarettes that stands little chance in a Republican Legislature.

But Bush can't say by how much his plan would reduce class sizes, and other parts of his "Blueprint for Achievement" have not been released. Democrats claimed victory by forcing Bush to address a high-profile issue that enjoys broad bipartisan support.

"It looks like the governor is trying to become a tax-and-spend liberal," said state Democratic Party chairman Bob Poe. "I thought he was the conservative governor. It seems like the Rip Van Winkle administration over there. They're waking up."

Shame on Democrats, Brogan said, for not dealing with classroom failures when they were in charge and now criticizing Bush.

The class size battle reflects the long shadow cast over the state's politics by a ballot initiative, spearheaded by Democrats, to require smaller classes by 2010. Voters will decide Amendment 9 in the Nov. 5 general election.

If voters approve, the next governor will be forced to carry out the amendment at a cost of $8-billion to $27.5-billion over eight years. That would force drastic budget changes at a time when lawmakers will face other fiscal constraints. Polls show the initiative enjoys strong support, though the level of enthusiasm ebbs when the cost is mentioned.

McBride offered an education plan in May, when he trailed Janet Reno by 30 points in opinion polls, and it got limited attention. He said he could find $1.1-billion a year for education improvements such as higher teacher pay and more pre-kindergarten education.

He also would use $100-million in state lottery money as collateral to borrow $1-billion for school construction over five years to reduce class sizes, but his goal of 22 students per class in kindergarten through third grade falls short of the 18 set by supporters of Amendment 9. McBride supports the amendment and Bush is opposed.

McBride also contends he can get $200-million by reallocating 1 percent of the state budget to education, but did not say what would be cut.

More than half of McBride's plan -- $565 million -- would be paid for with a cigarette tax increase of 50 cents per pack. McBride would find another $100-million by eliminating lawmakers' pet projects. He has not said which ones.

McBride spokesman Alan Stonecipher said such projects change every year. Still, eliminating "turkeys" has proved elusive, even for Bush.

McBride would find another $50-million by taxing products or services now exempt, another unpopular idea in the Capitol. Another $100-million would come from eliminating "school recognition" grants that reward schools for higher test scores.

Brogan described the latter shift as a cut in a popular education initiative.

Bush and Brogan say McBride has avoided hard questions about his plan. Said Bush on a recent campaign trip: "Don't give me any of this waste, fraud and abuse stuff. That ain't cutting it."

On Monday, Brogan stood at a lectern at Republican Party headquarters before a bright blue backdrop with a "Classrooms for Kids" logo, the name of the newly minted plan to reduce class sizes.

Brogan lambasted McBride for a lack of specifics in a 64-page plan Brogan said "looks like it was written the night before a college project was due."

But Brogan was then asked questions that revealed a lack of specifics in the Bush plan.

How much of the existing classroom shortage would be fixed? Brogan could not say specifically, but he cited state projections showing the pace of enrollment growth declining in coming years. But those projections are meaningless without knowing the plan's goal of class sizes.

How much interest would be paid over the 20-year life of the bond issue? "We can find that out for you," Brogan replied.

State Rep. Johnnie Byrd of Plant City, the incoming House speaker, said McBride's plan has laudable goals for increasing teacher pay and reducing class sizes for the youngest students. But he disagrees with McBride on a cigarette tax increase.

"I don't think Floridians should be paying more taxes. I think they're paying enough taxes already," Byrd said. "The thing is how to prioritize our current revenue to make education our No. 1 priority."

McBride said he is not worried about legislative opposition because his victory would be a mandate to reduce class sizes.

"A better assumption is that Republicans will care about investing in our public schools if they've got a leader who's got budgetary authority, executive authority and a mandate from the voters," McBride said in a recent interview. "I think they'll cooperate with me."

-- Times staff writers Stephen Hegarty and Adam C. Smith contributed to this report.

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