Approve tax increase for struggling Broward schools

After the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Florida lawmakers congratulated themselves for a decisive response to a horrific event.

In passing a record $89 billion state budget, legislators hailed the extra $400 million set aside for new school safety requirements, including more school resource officers, more school-based mental health care and more school hardening measures, such as bulletproof glass, metal detectors and alarm systems.

Broward school district leaders don’t yet know exactly how much of the money they are going to get. But it’s clear they will need at least $26 million more than what’s been allocated so far to meet and exceed the health and safety requirements of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.

Now consider that Florida has about 4,500 public schools.

And that to come up with that $400 million, lawmakers took money away from basic education. They also cut the cost differential given big-city districts with higher costs of living.

For all their talk about the importance of education, Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature gave Broward Schools just 47 cents more per pupil this year to turn on the lights, gas up the buses and give teachers a pay raise.

Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie, who leads the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, pleaded with the governor not to sign the budget. But his calls for a special session to increase school funding fell on deaf ears.

So now about a dozen Florida school districts — including those in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties — are asking local voters to raise property taxes.

And while South Florida has become a pricey place to live, Tallahassee’s relentless slashing of public education leaves us little choice. Poorly paid teachers across the nation are getting restive. Broward’s teachers need a substantial raise. And more money is needed to make schools safe.

The Sun Sentinel recommends that Broward voters approve the school property tax referendum on the Aug. 28 ballot.

The district proposes increasing the property tax rate by 50 cents for every $1,000 in taxable property value. That’s about a $100 increase for the owner of $225,000 home with a homestead exemption. Runcie said the average homeowner would pay $130 extra per year, the average condo owner half of that.

The tax increase would generate $93 million a year for four years. The tax hike ends after four years.

Here’s how the district says the money would be used:

– $19 million a year – would enable hiring about 100 more school resource officers, adding enough to the ranks to have at least one officer in each school. However, Broward wants to exceed the state standard, and provide an armed officer for every thousand students in high schools like Cypress Bay, which has more than 3,500 students.

would pay for more school personnel to identify and help students who might be dangerous. The additional $7 million is enough to hire about 80 more guidance counselors, social workers and behavioral staff.

— $66 million a year — would go toward salary increases for teachers and other school employees who have day-to-day contact with students. That includes everyone from bus drivers to custodians, but excludes administrators and district officials.

Broward’s teacher salaries could go up about 5 percent or 6 percent, Runcie told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.

While that’s not enough to compensate teachers whose average salaries rank 45th in the nation, it’s a move in the right direction for the people we entrust to educate our children and train our future workforce.

In addition to teaching reading, writing and computer coding, we expect teachers to tackle a lot of society’s intractable problems — broken families, poverty, abuse, mental illness, gun violence and more.

What do they get for their hard work? For many, it’s a paycheck that’s not big enough to cover the needs of their own families.

About 20 percent About 8 percent About 72 percent

Broward’s average teacher pay is about $54,000 a year, according to the district. That makes it hard to own a home in one of Florida’s most expensive real estate markets. The tax increase could boost teachers’ paychecks closer to what they deserve.

Broward officials are hoping that by the time the four-year increase ends, legislators will have started investing more in teacher pay. If not, they’ll likely ask taxpayers to re-authorize the tax.

Florida teacher salaries last year were about $10,000 less than the national average, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

That pay disparity can’t continue if Florida hopes to avoid the teacher labor revolts spreading across the country.

“We have to do better in terms of compensating teachers,” Runcie said. “The education system is probably the best investment we can make. That starts with teachers.”

Yes, the school district over-promised and is under-delivering on the $800 million bond that voters approved in 2014 to fix leaky school roofs, get rid of mold and create single points of entry.

But the problems plaguing the 2014 bond wouldn’t affect this proposed tax hike. The construction bond pays for building things – projects that have been delayed by design flaws, engineering challenges and contract snafus.

The money up for a vote this month pays for hiring people – operational costs that the district could start paying for as soon as the money comes rolling in next year.

Our children shouldn’t have to keep waiting for the necessary investment in school employees that the referendum can bring.

The governor and Legislature may be failing to do their jobs, but we can’t afford to fail our students.