NEWS

Gov. Scott's per-pupil spending increases wouldn't cover a pack of gum

Staff Writer
St. Augustine Record

One of the upsides of a buyout such as the purchase of 11 newspapers formerly owned by Morris Communications last year is that the tribe increases.

Morris owned The Florida Times-Union and The St. Augustine Record. Under the new banner of GateHouse Media, our reach within Florida has vastly grown and certainly improved. At the time of our sale last October, the GateHouse properties included the Apalachicola Times, the Holmes County Times Advertiser, the Washington County News, the Crestview Bulletin, the Daytona News Journal, the Destin Log, the Northwest Florida Daily News, the Gainesville Sun, The (Lakeland) Ledger, the (Leesburg) Daily Commercial, The Santa Rosa Press Gazette, the Ocala Star Banner, The Panama City News Herald, The (Port St. Joe) Star, The Walton Sun, the (Sarasota) Herald Tribune and the (Winter Haven) News Chief. It added The Times-Union and The Record.

Two weeks ago it purchased the Palm Beach Post for a reported $49.5 million.

To us here in St. Augustine the expansion of GateHouse in Florida means two things up front. First, it sees value in community newspapering and is investing heavily in an industry generally thought to be in decline. And second, we have eyes and ears across the state with the combined investigative ability of several staffs; most important for our page here, editorial staffs.

They see what we may not, and vice-versa – or sooner, or differently.

A clear example comes today from our newest sister, the Palm Beach Post and its take on how education made out when the dust in Tallahassee settled in March.

It’s not pretty.

Gov. Rick Scott vowed early on to go on a spending increase of $200 per student. And yes, his intention for the Senate run had much to do with his Pollyanna promise.

What ended up OK’d, was half the original request. What’s more significant was that the bulk of that “increase” was earmarked for specific and specious reasons. For example, $145 million was set aside for maintenance and construction of private charter schools, while a third of that went to public schools. There ought to be a law …

And again, Richard Corcoran refused to allow school funding to raise with state property values, losing a potential $377 million in revenue.

Thus, Florida ranks 49th among the states in per-capita spending for K-12 and 35th in teacher pay; over $9,000 below the national average.

Gov. Scott also told us that he increased per-pupil spending “to an all-time high.” The Post says that’s deceptive.

Most of that increase went to other causes. So, $400 million was dedicated to hardening schools after the Parkland tragedy. Another $41 million was wasted on another Corcoran scheme, paying for a program to allow bullied students in public schools to find safety and tranquility in charter schools.

Inquisitive taxpayers wondered out loud why we didn’t spend the money sending the culprits to reform schools rather than uprooting victims. And how would we know that bullies did not lurk in the charter school?

Then Corcoran’s war on public schools continued with a bill meant to weaken teacher unions, with a 50 percent participation minimum for them to remain viable.

The Post calculated that, after it’s all said and done, the actual per-pupil raise is 47 cents.

There remains an unthinkable, yet unmistakable, mindset in Tallahassee that choking classroom funding and strangling teacher pay will eventually lead to private school education in our state.

Floridians have met the enemy – and elected them.