[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by crazynip

Ok, so he is increasing spending for education. I dont give a **** because I dont have kids. Is he doing anything else positive? I still see nothing but negatives

Do you understand that regardless of whether you have children or not these are the people who will be "taking over" when you're older if you remain here?

And that could be said for anywhere in the country.

Education in this state already pales compared to most of the nation.

And the US now comes in at #26 in the world.

[chopchop0]

FL is middle of the pack in this county for education. CA spends less per pupil than we do if I recall correctly

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

The rest of the story:

And more of the rest of the story. This is the same in many states. The federal stimulus money propped up school budgets and I am sure most states have a budget decrease now without it.

School budgets crashing without stimulus

Education Budget Cuts: Schools Face Fiscal Cliff As Stimulus Money Runs Out

End of stimulus funds worries school officials - Roanoke.com

I can post more but you get the idea.

The states that put more thought into it used the money on things like new computers and other items like that.
The states that did not think about it hired more teachers and now have to lay them off or have already done so.
I think most states chose the wrong path.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Do you understand that regardless of whether you have children or not these are the people who will be "taking over" when you're older if you remain here?

And that could be said for anywhere in the country.

Education in this state already pales compared to most of the nation.

And the US now comes in at #26 in the world.

Actually education in Florida ranks pretty high. You can read up on what the ranking is based on. It does not include things like how states rank graduation rate and such since each state seems to have a different way of counting.
This ranking is based in part on the Chance for Success, K-12 Achievement, and School Finance.


Education Week: Weighing States' School Performance, Policymaking
Nation Earns a C for Education Policy and Performance

The nation receives a C when graded across the six distinct areas of policy and performance tracked by Quality Counts. For the third year in a row, Maryland ranks first in the nation, earning a B-plus, and posting a total score of 87.6 points. New York ranks second and Massachusetts third, each earning a grade of B. Most states fall between a C-plus and a C-minus in the grading. Two states and the District of Columbia received a D-plus, the lowest grades awarded.

1. Maryland B+ (87.6)
2. New York B (84.7)
3. Massachusetts B (82.6)
4. Virginia B- (81.8)
5. Florida B- (81.5)
6. Arkansas B- (81.4)
7. New Jersey B- (80.7)
8. Georgia B- (80.5)
9. Pennsylvania B- (80.1)
10. West Virginia B- (79.9)
11. Ohio B- (79.8)
12. Vermont B- (79.7)
13. Texas C+ (78.8)
14. Indiana C+ (78.6)
15. South Carolina C+ (78.3)
16. Connecticut C+ (78.3)
17. Oklahoma C+ (78.1)
18. Wisconsin C+ (77.8)
19. North Carolina C+ (77.8)
20. Hawaii C+ (77.6)
21. Louisiana C+ (77.6)
22. Delaware C+ (77.5)
23. Tennessee C+ (77.4)
24. Michigan C+ (77.2)
25. Alabama C+ (76.8)
26. Iowa C+ (76.7)
27. Maine C+ (76.6)
28. New Hampshire C (76.3)
29. Wyoming C (76.3)
30. California C (76.2)
31. Rhode Island C (75.7)
32. New Mexico C (75.7)
33. Washington C (75.4)
34. Kentucky C (75.2)
35. North Dakota C (74.9)
36. Minnesota C (74.6)
37. Kansas C (74.4)
38. Missouri C (73.9)
39. Colorado C (73.7)
40. Illinois C (73.0)
41. Utah C- (72.4)
42. Arizona C- (71.5)
43. Oregon C- (71.5)
44. Idaho C- (71.2)
45. Nevada C- (70.7)
46. Alaska C- (70.7)
47. Montana C- (70.4)
48. Mississippi C- (70.0)
49. South Dakota D+ (69.2)
50. District of Columbia D+ (69.1)
51. Nebraska D+ (68.6)

Note: States are ranked based on unrounded scores.
SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2011

[MovedfromFL]

He wanted to cut education by 10% last year. Lawmakers tempered that a little bit.

Then this year he sees his approval rating is in the low 20% range, so what does he do? Yeah, propose to put more money to the schools. First he gutted education and now he should be cheered for giving a few cents back?

Also, keep in mind that this is just the Governor's proposed budget. Lawmakers are the ones who actually make the budget and put all of the pieces together. There is ZERO chance that they will be able to find the money to give $1 Billion more to education! We are facing a $2 Billion deficit in FL now (sales tax revenues are way under projections). What Scott is proposing is taking money from Medicaid and giving it to education. He wants to make cuts (40%) to some hospitals for their Medicaid reimbursements. Do you think lawmakers will go along with that? No way.

Also, Florida is expecting 30,000 additional students for the next school year. We need to fund that extra expense as well.

It's just like "VaughnWilliams" said in the earlier post: Scott is hoping to get some political points for it. "Hey guys, I tried to increase education funding but the lawmakers just didn't make it work!"

Now if he actually vetoes a budget that doesn't give more funds to education (as he claims he will), THEN I will give him some credit. However, I bet he will sign whatever comes along and just say "Well, budget conditions are even worse than planned, so education has to take more cuts."

I will be surprised if education doesn't take MORE cuts this year. We are running out of things to chop. We're just cementing our spot in the bottom nationwide for education funding. We can all see how well that is working out for the other "bottom of the heap" states, like Mississippi and Alabama.

[MovedfromFL]

Oh and Florida recently ranked 5th best in the US in Education Week's study. We were making some real strides, while spending in the bottom of the heap compared to the other states. (and Florida has greater diversity and higher childhood poverty than the other top-rated states)

What that #5 ranking means is Florida teachers are paid low wages (worse than even Mississippi teacher pay now!), yet teachers managed to show some pretty strong results.

Did we ever hear anything about that from Scott and his crew? Nope. Instead, all we heard was how overpaid Florida teachers are and how terrible the results are. BOTH LIES.

So it's premature to give this man any credit. Let's see if (a) he leans on lawmakers to increase the budget (remember how he said immigration reform was important, but then we never heard another peep out of him?) and (b) if he actually vetoes a budget that doesn't fund education as he promised he would!

[Gatornation]

In Florida you have to live in the right area for a top school. Great differences in the same district between schools.

[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by MovedfromFL

Oh and Florida recently ranked 5th best in the US in Education Week's study. We were making some real strides, while spending in the bottom of the heap compared to the other states. (and Florida has greater diversity and higher childhood poverty than the other top-rated states)

What that #5 ranking means is Florida teachers are paid low wages (worse than even Mississippi teacher pay now!), yet teachers managed to show some pretty strong results.

Did we ever hear anything about that from Scott and his crew? Nope. Instead, all we heard was how overpaid Florida teachers are and how terrible the results are. BOTH LIES.

So it's premature to give this man any credit. Let's see if (a) he leans on lawmakers to increase the budget (remember how he said immigration reform was important, but then we never heard another peep out of him?) and (b) if he actually vetoes a budget that doesn't fund education as he promised he would!

Shows you that blindly spending money on education does not = outcome. Plenty of teachers in NY and NJ might disagree with that one though.

[MovedfromFL]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Shows you that blindly spending money on education does not = outcome. Plenty of teachers in NY and NJ might disagree with that one though.

Yes, at some point pouring more money into a system doesn't lead to better outcomes.

However, I'm pretty sure that cutting funding year after year will yield a negative outcome.

Costs are rising for districts across the US for everything including liability insurance, health insurance, electricity, and diesel fuel. These cost increases must be covered by either higher revenues or cutting in other areas, like teacher wages or layoffs. Notice I didn't say wages are rising. Teacher wages are frozen in many areas of FL and have been for years.

[OrlFlaUsa]

Originally Posted by MovedfromFL

Oh and Florida recently ranked 5th best in the US in Education Week's study. We were making some real strides, while spending in the bottom of the heap compared to the other states. (and Florida has greater diversity and higher childhood poverty than the other top-rated states)

What that #5 ranking means is Florida teachers are paid low wages (worse than even Mississippi teacher pay now!), yet teachers managed to show some pretty strong results.

Did we ever hear anything about that from Scott and his crew? Nope. Instead, all we heard was how overpaid Florida teachers are and how terrible the results are. BOTH LIES.

So it's premature to give this man any credit. Let's see if (a) he leans on lawmakers to increase the budget (remember how he said immigration reform was important, but then we never heard another peep out of him?) and (b) if he actually vetoes a budget that doesn't fund education as he promised he would!

Incredible post, reps to you. My fiancee is a teacher and her income doesn't go up and has actually decreased while her productivity has gone down. We're not complaining, just happy to have a job that changes lives and pays decent money to pay bills. Florida has made huge strides and regardless of motive or probability, I'm excited to see any hope that the current people in power are moving to support the success.