In the past week there have been a number of favorable articles and editorials written about a fund rising initiative suggested by the Education Foundation of Martin County. The idea put forward is for the School Board to “sell” naming rights, or “branding” a number of our public schools. According to a Foundation spokesman “There's never enough money. This can raise significant resources …and the … Foundation … is looking for different ways to bring money into public school classrooms and the business community might be able to pitch in.” A number of educational institutions that have successfully named gymnasiums, auditoriums and other facilities were offered as positive examples of how such a scheme could work.
We applaud the creativity exhibited, but also have some significant reservations. We like having our schools named, but preferably for an individual or family that has made a difference in Martin County. It seems to us that there is a very basic problem in having a “Publix Middle School” or “Home Depot High”. The first might be the student’s perception of the crass commercialism involved. Also, playing sports for what would inevitably be called the Home Depot “Associates”, Publix “Clerks”, or worse, might not be appreciated. What if the company eventually becomes less than the best expression of our motto “Character Counts in Martin County”? How would we like to have our kids graduate from an “Enron” or “Adelphia” High School?

If the School Board decides to “go commercial” there are also the twin questions of who decides, and what would be done with the money? There is no data readily available for Martin County, but the local Education Foundations in Florida raised over $31 million in 2004-5 and spent some 2/3 on helping poorly performing students, literacy programs and teacher incentives. However, 1/3 of the total, or over $10 million, was spent on “other programs” with no definition offered. Obviously we would like to see a commitment made as to the exact disposition of any money raised, and the elected School Board controlling the spending.

We would like to offer our congratulations to the entire Martin County School System for the enviable record set last year on student achievement, having the lowest drop-out rate in Florida, Teacher-of –the-Year and the numerous “above-average” results from individual schools and programs. It would certainly appear that our school leadership are performing well and producing much better results than most other districts. We still note that US and Florida educational achievement averages are still worse than many of the world’s industrialized, or even some second tier countries.

We also question the previous quote that “there’s never enough money” given that our schools are among the worlds most costly and the systems with the very highest cost per student are among the worst performing nationwide. There are many answers and even more hypothesis as to why this occurs, and whether the facts apply to Martin County. However, instead of always looking for more money, perhaps more effort could be utilized figuring out how the funds available could be spent more efficiently and effectively. A fast review of the System’s financial statement should provide perspective on that comment. Martin County School Board spends about 302,000,000 or over $2,150 for each of the 140,000 men, women and children in our County. A more telling figure may be the cost per student. Martin County had 17,839 students listed as registered in the grades Kindergarten through 12 for the 2006/7 school year. While we cannot determine the cost distribution, simple division equates that to approximately $17,000 per K-12 student this year.

The School Board gives further insight into financial issues by pointing out that over 82% of their operating budget is personnel cost. The figures available as to total number of personnel on the payroll vary, but the numbers converge on approximately 1,350 teachers and administrators, 850 staff and 250 part-time employees. This equates to nearly 2500 employees or 1 full time employee (plus the part-times) for every 8 students and makes our school system the second largest employer in the county. Is this good, adequate or excessive? We are not in a position to judge, but when the operating cost is so heavily weighted to personnel cost, and the total student cost is high even relative to private school tuitions, it begs the question.