Here Are The Facts

Maureen Dinnen on Budget Cuts
School Board Member
District 3




Budget concerns and shortages of income are the focus of the Broward School District as they are today for many businesses, governmental agencies, and families. Every week the School Board holds 4-6 hour budget workshops in addition to our regular meetings and duties.

Last year, the district cut 4% and froze jobs and non essential purchases.  Recently, in April/May, non-instructional departments of the school district were directed to cut 16% of their ’09-’10 expenses. District schools have been asked to cut 6%. 

This year’s cuts will mean more employees will be laid off or will lose their jobs, and programs will be reduced and a few eliminated.  School principals have been directed to include their faculty, parent groups and staff members in budget cut discussions.

Like any huge organization, our district has areas of waste which we are investigating.  All local newspapers accounts are of audits that the Board requested and our audit department performed. 

However, the true cause of the current school funding crisis is twofold.  First, Florida has consistently under-funded public education until the state now ranks 50th (dead last) of 50 states in per-capita funding for public schools.  Second, the Great Recession has lowered the amount of tax funds collected so that schools have less income.  Like many businesses, our light bills, premiums for property and employee health insurances, and general operating costs have increased.

Two additional facts are:
1) State law requires that school districts have two budgets, a capital budget (construction, technology hardware, school bus purchases) and an operating budget (salaries, programs, upkeep, operating expenses).  By law we cannot move money from one budget to fill needs in the other.

2) The state determines most of the taxes the school district can levy.

State under-funding has caused Broward schools a deficit of $101 million.  Also, the state used temporary federal funds for the money it did give the district.  This year, the Florida Board of Education and the state Commissioner of Education requested $354 million for all 67 Florida school districts to implement the final phase of the Class Size Amendment.  The Legislature appropriated $82 million.  Based on our student population, Broward was supposed to receive $35.4 million, but now we will get $8.2 million. 

Just two weeks ago the state Department of Education notified our finance office that they had made an error and we must give them $3 million out of this year’s budget.  Will we receive another shortfall notice this year?  Probably! We have gotten such notices for the last two years.

By law, the Broward School District must approve a balanced budget.  Voters will be asked to modify the Class Size Amendment in November. Broward is being required to budget money to meet a regulation that could very well turn out to be null and void.  It makes no sense to be forced to lay off teachers and staff, cut or reduce art, music, sports, media center, and language programs to create a lawful district budget based on an uncertain requirement.  Yet that is what we have to do or suffer a large financial penalty.  Last week our district sent Governor Crist a letter asking him to veto the Budget Conforming Bill, HB 5101, which contains these funding penalties.

Prior to service on the School Board I spent 35 years in Broward classrooms teaching, encouraging, nurturing students.  My School Board colleagues and I believe in public schools and in our number one purpose: educating children.  We detest the cuts we are being forced to make.  Those cuts directly violate our values of providing our students with a well-rounded education and of helping our employees, particularly our teachers, to deliver that education. 

This is but a brief view of today’s money situation in our Florida and Broward public schools.  One fact that is encouraging is that so many citizens like you pay attention and value our public schools and our children. We are determined to weather these severe financial storms, but the waters are indeed extremely rough and choppy right now.