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As schools feel growing pains, cure hard to find
By JULIE HAUSERMAN, Times Staff Writer With three kids under age 12, Donna Patterson expects life to be a little hectic. But the 36-year-old mother in northwest Hillsborough County didn't expect her kids to be jerked from one school to the next while officials struggle to deal with the new subdivisions springing up around her. "My daughter's in third grade, and she's gone to two elementary schools," said Patterson, who has lived in the same house for nearly five years. "There are kids in this neighborhood who have gone to three elementary schools in five years. There are parents who have had to buy three sets of school uniforms. "I don't think my kids should have to suffer because I'm in a high-growth area." On the campaign trail, Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and Democratic challenger Bill McBride talk a lot about schools and class sizes. But they don't talk much about one of the biggest causes of school crowding: growth. All over Florida, local governments keep approving new subdivisions in areas where schools already are jammed. Bush vowed to do something about it, but some local officials say his solution hasn't worked. McBride criticizes Bush's effort but has no specific plan of his own. And newcomers are arriving at a rate of more than 830 a day statewide. Patterson's daughters used to go to a school 2 miles from home, but it's too crowded. Now, they pass their old school to get to their new one 7 miles away. Like other parents in high-growth areas, Patterson wonders how things have gotten this crazy. "They are warehousing kids and operating like a factory," said Pam Prysner, who lives in the burgeoning Hillsborough community of Westchase, near Patterson's neighborhood. "Some of these high schools are as big as community college campuses. Kids are trying to find their identity, and they get lost." A year ago, Bush talked tough about the problem. He called a news conference in front of the Capitol to declare that local governments shouldn't approve new developments when schools are crowded. "You're not going to be allowed to approve it unless you have those funding sources for the schools," the governor said. He later promised to campaign on the issue. But today, the governor's campaign Web site has only a small mention of the issue, buried in a notice announcing "Florida Home Builders Association Endorses Bush." For two years, Bush pushed for a law to tie growth to school crowding. For a variety of reasons, the bill the Legislature passed isn't much different from laws already on the books. It doesn't provide a new way to raise school construction money, and the idea that Bush first talked about -- requiring local governments to reject new developments when schools are crowded -- disappeared. "There's still no teeth in the law," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt. "It says school boards and local governments have to talk to each other, but we've been talking for years, and it hasn't solved the problem." Says Jim Hamilton, a deputy Hillsborough schools superintendent: "There's nothing in that statute that requires them to quit rezoning if the schools are overcrowded." Bush ran into opposition early on from the Home Builders Association. In the end, the debate came down to money. Developers said: If the state wants to stop development because of crowded schools, the state should provide money to build schools. As a protest, the home builders brought 15,000 two-by-fours to the Capitol with "fund schools" scrawled on them by builders from throughout the state. Bush insisted that school districts had unused construction money available, but many disagreed, including the home builders and the Florida School Boards Association. School districts said: We're putting portables on campuses, sending kids into double sessions, opening new schools that are crowded from day one and still the subdivisions keep coming. Help us find a way to raise money to build schools, they said. "He said he did not want a tax increase," Richard Gentry of the Home Builders Association said of Bush. "His goal was to make schools more responsible. He felt they were not spending their money to the best use. When somebody stands up and says there's enough money, what are you going to say? No, there's not." The state Senate proposed letting local school boards raise taxes to build new schools without voter approval. Bush thought voters should have a say, and the House agreed. A new law passed, but without money. Bush and his top planning official, Department of Community Affairs Secretary Steve Seibert, said last week that they were happy with the law because it made school boards and local governments talk about their futures. But people who have studied the new law say it doesn't do much. "Much of it is basically a restatement of what's already in the law," Gentry said. "It's an incomplete solution," said Janet Bowman, an attorney for 1000 Friends of Florida, which advocates growth management. The new law does add one wrinkle: It gives local governments and school boards a deadline to come up with a plan to work together, and it says the governor and Cabinet can withhold state money if the locals don't comply. A school board member also has to sit in on local planning meetings. "I think this law has big teeth," Seibert said. "There are sanctions if a local government doesn't comply." Similar sanctions have been on Florida's books for years but have been used only two or three times in state history. Mike McDaniel, a top state planning official, has been meeting with local officials to explain the new law. "I'm encouraged," he said. "Some of them are not used to talking together." When pressed, McDaniel said locals had expressed "a continuing concern about the need for more funding." McBride said he thought the law lacked teeth but didn't offer a specific plan of his own. He says he would not support stopping growth in areas where schools already are crowded. "I'm for catching up with growth as far as building schools," he said last week. In fast-growing Pasco County, school superintendent John Long said flatly: "What we need is money to build schools. We can't keep up. "The primary economy in this county is driven by growth and housing. If we stop the development, it's going to be devastating to our economy. If we don't stop development, it's going to be devastating to children." Since the state hasn't provided money, Pasco is trying to work with developers to get money and land for new schools, Long said. "Unfortunately," Long said, "I spend more time with developers and attorneys for developers than I do with students now." And Patterson, the mom from northwest Hillsborough, watches the fields she played in as a child sprout houses. She also watches a TV ad that shows a principal thanking Bush for making sure a North Florida school has a new stoplight. "I just laugh. I'm thinking: Stoplight? Come down here, and I'll show you something. I mean, the schools are full, and there's new homes going up everywhere. . . . My stomach is in knots, wondering if my kids are going to have to change schools again."
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