State: School spending up, state share not

The reality is somewhere in between. Spending is up, but the state has shifted more of the burden to local school boards, which are struggling to make small increases cover the growing costs of educating Florida's schoolchildren.

A St. Petersburg Times analysis of Bush's education spending finds:

-- After barely staying ahead of growth in enrollment and inflation in his first three budgets, the governor and lawmakers increased school funding 5.3 percent this year, the biggest one-year increase in a dozen years. In four years under Bush, per-student funding has increased $212 after accounting for inflation and increases in student enrollment, an average of $53 a year.

-- Little of that increase came from general state revenue. The increase breaks down this way: $33 from general state tax dollars; $74 from local school tax dollars; $105 from a surplus in the state retirement fund.

-- The state's share of school spending has shrunk under Bush, continuing a trend begun by his predecessors. State dollars provide the largest portion, but that share is getting smaller. That happened despite an effort by voters to stop it -- a 1998 constitutional amendment declaring it is the "paramount duty of the state" to provide for education.

-- The retirement fund surplus the state has used to increase school spending was possible because of robust stock market returns. With the stock market struggling, those surpluses are expected to decrease.

More than $1-billion of the $3-billion school spending increase came from shifting the burden to local property taxpayers. Voters in more and more districts are agreeing to shoulder even more responsibility for funding their schools by voluntarily increasing taxes.

"Lawmakers say "Look at all the things we've done without raising taxes,' " said Dominic Calabro, president of the watchdog group Florida TaxWatch. "They say it as if it's not costing you anything. But it's not true."

Not surprisingly, the McBride and Bush camps differ on the governor's spending record.

"It's dishonest budgeting," said McBride spokesman Alan Stonecipher. Using the retirement surplus is "an example of what they've done with the whole state budget. It's just a question of which year the bottom falls out."

In Bush's view, the bottom line is school districts got more money.

"It shouldn't matter how money gets to the districts," Bush said in an e-mail. "They got the money to use to improve schools."

* * *

Bush's four-year term started with tremendous good fortune.

A healthy economy helped. The retirement fund surplus provided millions of dollars that allowed the governor to cut taxes and increase school spending.

Then came the recession and the Sept. 11 attacks. School spending barely kept up with growth and inflation. School districts were forced to cut summer school and jobs, and dip into reserve funds.

"He had some first-rate years there at first," said Sen. Don Sullivan, the Pinellas Republican who oversaw the building of those education budgets for the Senate. "Since then, things have gotten pretty difficult."

At that three-year mark, Bush's claims of multibillion-dollar increases didn't square with reality in school districts, which saw a three-year increase of only $10 per student after growth and inflation.

Now in his fourth year and facing a tough re-election campaign, Bush's education spending record has rebounded. The 5.3 percent one-year increase, which amounts to $160 per student after inflation, is bigger than any single-year increases under Bush's predecessor, the late Gov. Lawton Chiles. His four-year increase is bigger than either of Chiles' terms.

Bush's fourth-year increase was dramatic because of the tight budget the previous year when per pupil funding dipped. Still, any increase is difficult in tough economic times. A congressional report this month found Florida one of only four states with increased school funding this year.

How did Florida manage it?

"The school districts are doing more," said Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Boards Association.

Before Bush took office, general state revenue accounted for 61 percent of the nonfederal dollars sent to school districts. Today the state contribution has shrunk to 55 percent. The remaining portion is divided between local dollars, 38 percent, and the state retirement surplus, 7 percent. The retirement fund surplus is helping more and more. Before Bush took office, the surplus provided 1 percent.

"The concern is that if you're going to use that, you have to have a continuing revenue source to replace it when it runs out," Calabro said. "If we don't have a source to replace it, that's unwise."

The reduced state share has occurred despite a constitutional amendment expressing the state's "paramount duty" to provide for a "high quality education."

"Isn't that odd?" Blanton said. "That constitutional amendment seemed pretty clear to me. But the state has not held up its end of the bargain."

* * *

The retirement fund surplus has been good to all school districts. In Pinellas County, for example, the surplus provided about $8.1-million this year.

Technically the surplus isn't additional revenue, but it might as well be. During the years the stock market thrived, the surplus grew so much that districts were allowed to pay less than expected into the retirement fund. That freed up money for districts to spend as they wish.

When the surplus is included as revenue, it contributes a little more than $1-billion to the state's $14-billion public schools budget.

Critics say Bush shouldn't take credit for that windfall, which has contributed mightily to his spending increases. But Bush points out that he could have spent the surplus on something else, but chose to spend it on schools, just as Chiles did.

"That's our action that made that available to school districts," Bush said.

For many districts, that windfall is more than offset by increased costs.

In Pinellas, health care costs are up $15.5-million this year. Utilities are up $1.5-million. That more than eats up the additional $8.1-million from the surplus this year, and cuts into the funding increases.

The result is that Pinellas has had to dip into its rainy day reserve fund.

"We don't have any choice," said Lansing Johansen, Pinellas' chief business officer. "You have to pay the bills. And when you get underfunded, you have to dip into the reserve."

School districts that are dipping into their reserve funds to pay the bills or to raise teachers' salaries are coupling that with spending cuts. Most of those cuts hit during the last two years as the economy faltered. Many of the cuts -- curtailed summer school, eliminated positions -- have not been restored.

Now, some voters are agreeing to pay more.

"I know a lot of people think we've put a lot into the schools, but there's plenty of evidence that it's not enough," said Jill C. Jones, a mother of two in Orlando.

Jones was one of the parents who voted to increase the local sales tax in Orange County by a half-penny to help pay for school construction and renovations.

"If you ever visit a school, it's hard to deny the need," said Jones, who has a daughter in first grade and one in fourth grade at Lake Silver Elementary. "The buildings are crowded. They're worn down. The state money isn't taking care of it."

The Sept. 10 referendum in Orange County was just one of four approved by voters around the state that day. The others were Escambia, Flager and Miami-Dade. They helped keep alive a string of successful referenda across the state in recent months to improve schools.

"Those things are passing because the parents know what's going on," Blanton said. "The voters seem to understand what's going on better than the folks in Tallahassee."

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk