Florida budget in place
Gov. Rick Scott signed the state’s $88.7 billion budget that includes $21.1 billion for K-12 schools, a $485 million increase from the prior year largely coming from safety measures after the Parkland massacre.
TALLAHASSEE Gov. Rick Scott signed an $88.7 billion election-year budget Friday, but vetoed more than $64 million, the lowest amount he has wiped from a spending plan in his eight years in office.
The budget includes $21.1 billion for K-12 schools, a $485 million increase from the prior year, or a nearly $102 jump in per student funding. But nearly all of that will go to schoolsafety measures lawmakers approved after the mass shooting last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida that left 17 dead. The money will pay for school resource officers, mental health counseling and “hardening” measures such as metal detectors, bulletproof windows and secure locks.
Scott ignored pleas from school administrators that funding for education wasn’t enough to keep pace with costs. The overall increase for operating costs was 47 cents per student.
The Florida Association of District School Superintendents wrote Scott a letter Thursday asking him to veto the education budget and call lawmakers back to work to find more money.
But Scott, who’s expected to run for the U.S. Senate this year, touted the “record funding” for education in the budget and the money for school safety.
“Following the tragedy in Parkland where 17 died, we came together as a state, and I was proud to recently sign the Marjory Stoneman Douglas