Most of us in Martin County believe School Funding is approved by the Martin County School Board after a recommendation from the School Superintendent. Unlike what most of us believe, the State of Florida Department of Education, DOE, actually mandates the cost of education. The school administration, with approval from the School Board, allocates these dollars to fund the education of our children.

The process proceeds as follows: The State Department of Education requests an estimate of how many full time equivalent students will attend our schools in the succeeding year. In the second step, the State requires the County to provide it with the overall property value in real estate. The Department of Education then calculates the projected student cost times the number of equivalent students to arrive at the total dollar requirement from the County and the State. The State then determines the millage rate to be applied to all property owners without the benefit of any input from the Martin County School Board. The State appropriation is determined by a complicated formula which takes into account the wealth of the County. In the case of Martin County, the total state contribution from this formula this year was $2,963,704, a reduction of $5,986,959 from the previous year. The local funding, however, mandated by the state, was $98,436,606, an increase of $5,852,897 over last year.

In addition to these dollars, both the Federal Government and the State allocate additional monies for mandated programs too numerous to mention in this article. The dollars however are not insignificant. The Federal Government allocated almost 1 million dollars and the State added another $24.million, a great majority to fund the class size amendment. Unfortunately, this allocation of the State funding was reduced by $13million from the previous fiscal year. More importantly, imbedded in the State’s $24 million funding was six million dollars from the Federal Government Stabilization Act. The 2009/10 State’s funding shorted Martin County by some $14 million but would have exceeded $20 million without the Federal Stimulus.

Why do we bring this to your attention? It is quite simple. We anticipate that the State of Florida will include the Stabilization funds again this year, but we can anticipate further reductions in funding for education in the future as federal funds are not available. During this prolonged economic crisis the Legislature has reduced spending by several billion dollars in an effort to balance the budget. We appreciate the effort, but how much longer will we be able to make up the difference with county funds?

We all need to understand this funding mechanism and be prepared to allocate many more millions of dollars from property taxes as the State reduces its financial commitment if we are to continue providing our children with a quality education.

Notwithstanding the funding side of the equation, we have also been evaluating the spending side. Some spending we believe to be unsustainable, and will be addressing those for you after discussion with the School Board and the School Administration.

We all need to understand and pay attention to the state funding of education. It is very clear that the State Legislators are balancing the State budget at the expense of the Counties and we will address this in future articles as well. Tallahassee is a long way off, but our local Senators and Representatives are close by and need our input.