How can we afford to not adequately fund OCPS?
Residents in Orange County understand the importance of children and youth. There’s total harmony between what their mouths and their money have said.
Now they’re being invited to say it again, via the ballot on Aug. 23.
In 2010, Orange County voters approved a surcharge on their property taxes: a one-mill ad valorem millage to be used for essential operating expenses by Orange County Public Schools — to compensate teachers and support staff, and to preserve academic programs, arts, athletics and student activities.
In the 2010 initial vote, 54 percent said yes to a four-year trial of the program. When it was reconsidered in 2014, 76 percent of voters called for the program’s continuation. And when in 2018 the program was once more on the ballot, an amazing 84 percent voted to continue.
OCPS’s statement of mission highlights the need for symbiotic relationships: “With the support of families and the community, we create enriching and diverse pathways to lead our students to success.”
But how do we know the funds are producing the desired results? Here’s just one impressive statistic: In the year 2000, 49.5 percent of OCPS’s students actually graduated from traditional high school. By 2021, that figure had risen to 98.4 percent.
Keep in mind, those impressive graduation rates are happening in a context where 75 percent of the students come from a household with so little income it entitles them to free or reduced charges for school lunches.
If the foregoing challenge isn’t enough, Orange County Public Schools — the ninth-largest school district in the United States, with an enrollment of more than 206,000 — daily accepts the challenge of teaching an amazingly cosmopolitan group of students, who represent 208 countries and 166 languages or dialects.
In the 2020-2021 school year, ad valorem funds to the OCPS totaled about $161.5 million. Of that amount, nearly $86 million was used to preserve academic programs and retain highly qualified teachers (1,165 teachers, counselors, social workers and career and college-readiness programs).
Nearly $55 million was used to bolster the arts (art, dance, drama and music teachers). Some $7.7 million went to protect athletics (pay for coaches and athletic trainers).
About $196,000 funded student activities (field trips and after-school tutorials). And a proportionate share of the ad valorem monies — about $12.6 million — went to charter schools (whose usage of such funds is not controlled by OCPS).
Without the ad valorem funding, OCPS would still exist. But it would seem like all work and no play, all main course and no dessert, all information and little inspiration. The schools would be different. So would the entire region. And the change wouldn’t be just short-term. It would have implications for years to come.
Full disclosure: I don’t live in Orange County. I don’t pay taxes there. Or have children or grandchildren who attend school there. But because of my role as executive director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, I’ve been privileged to serve on OCPS’s Faith-Based Advisory since its inception.
Four times each year, for the past 10 years, the Faith-Based Advisory has met with OCPS administrators to hear reports of unmitigated successes and daunting challenges. I’ve seen the needs. I’ve seen the creative approaches employed to address the needs. And I’ve seen what a huge difference adequate resources can make.
I once asked a medical-rescue helicopter pilot how much it cost per hour for the medical team and the chopper. I gasped at the figure he provided. He quickly reminded me that a helicopter and rescue team are often the difference between survival and death.
After he gave me a quick breakdown on the immediate and ongoing costs to society when a family’s breadwinner dies, he asked. “So, how could we afford not to spend that kind of money?”
I hope Orange County residents will ask themselves a similar question: “How can we afford not to continue paying the ad valorem millage when so much is at stake for our children and youth?”
James Coffin is executive director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida.
Four times each year, for the past 10 years, the Faith-Based Advisory has met with OCPS administrators to hear reports of unmitigated successes and daunting challenges. I’ve seen the needs. I’ve seen the creative approaches employed to address the needs. And I’ve seen what a huge difference adequate resources can make.