About half the likely 4.5 percent budget increase is for class size reduction. Little is left for soaring costs or teacher raises.
By Associated Press
Published April 20, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - Public school funding would get a modest boost in the $57-billion state budget lawmakers are trying to agree on, in part because of the allocation toward class size reduction.
That means school boards aren't going to have much money to pay for soaring insurance premiums or gasoline costs - or boost teacher salaries, something some lawmakers say is long overdue.
Exact figures for next year won't be calculated until the budget deal is struck by the House and Senate, but both sides are calling for an increase of about 4.5 percent in school spending for the 2004-05 fiscal year.
"This is a fair budget," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida Association of School Boards. "It's not real good. It's not real bad."
Joint Senate-House committees continued working through the details of a budget deal Monday for the fiscal year that starts July 1. After they agree to a compromise, the chambers can vote on the plan 72 hours later. The two-month session is scheduled to end April 30.
This year, Florida spent an average of about $5,500 on each of the 2.5-million students attending its public schools, up about 4.5 percent from the year before and requiring about $840-million in new money.
The school spending for the 2004-05 year won't be calculated until the cost-of-living factor used to divvy the money among Florida's 67 districts is resolved. But like last year, about half of the new money will be tied to class size reduction as the state moves into the second year of an eight-year schedule for implementing the 2002 ballot measure.
Blanton said he's concerned that so much of the money going to districts is going to be earmarked for things other than insurance premiums and gas bills, both of which are soaring.
And that's not even getting to pay raises for Florida's teachers.
Florida Education Association lobbyist Marshall Ogletree said teachers in many districts had a difficult time negotiating contracts because there wasn't enough money. Ogletree called this year's proposed budget increases modest.
Some disagreements between the chambers on university and community college tuition hikes remained unresolved Monday.
Nursing staffing in play
A requirement that nursing homes increase staffing would be delayed until January 2005 under a proposal offered by House budget negotiators Monday.
Lawmakers passed a measure in 2002 that called for incremental increases in the number of certified registered nursing assistants, the frontline care personnel in nursing homes. The final increase, from 2.6 hours of care per resident per day to 2.9 hours, was supposed to take effect next month.
The Senate has pushed for postponing the increase until next April as part of its effort to balance the health care budget. House budget negotiators made a counteroffer Monday to boost the staffing to 2.7 hours per resident per day Jan. 1 and then finish the increase to 2.9 hours April 1, 2005.
