Corcoran’s duplicitous ad on public education

Two leading Democrats running for governor embarrassed themselves during a debate last week by not knowing how much Florida spends on public education.

But the Republicans who run Florida should be far more embarrassed for having short-changed public schools again this year.

After the Parkland school shooting, lawmakers patted themselves on the back for having found an extra $344 million for school security improvements and mental health programs.

But the $101 per-pupil increase they celebrate — which includes the school security money — left just 47 cents more per student to cover other growing expenses, from fueling school buses to giving teachers raises.

Worse, to find the school security money, lawmakers raided the state’s affordable housing trust fund. They also shifted $56 million in school property-tax dollars from urban to rural counties. As a result, Broward and Palm Beach counties expect to have to forego teacher pay raises. And Broward may not have enough to add the special education teachers the district badly needs.

“Schools should not have to make a choice between properly funding basic educational needs and providing safe schools and mental health services,” Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie wrote in a March 9 op-ed for the Sun Sentinel.

Runcie and other superintendents asked Gov. Rick Scott to veto the Legislature’s education budget and convene a special session to properly invest in schools. But the governor quickly blew by the request and signed the budget before announcing his run for the U.S. Senate.

But while Scott and other Republicans are quick to hail the $21.1 billion K-12 budget as the state’s highest ever, they fail to note the state’s $88.7 billion budget is the highest ever, up from $82.3 billion last year. So while these so-called fiscal conservatives grew the state budget by $6 billion, they short-changed public education.

Republican House Speaker Richard Corcoran, a likely Republican candidate for governor, pounced after last week’s debate, when two Democratic candidates didn’t know the budget for education. He tweeted an ad, based on the Jeopardy game show, mocking their flub.

The ad shows the moderator asking: “How much are we spending on public education?

“I know it’s right in the billions, Craig,” says former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine. “I think it’s in the multi-billions, Craig.”

Says former Congresswoman Gwen Graham: “Fifteen percent below what it needs to be currently.”

It is a fact that any candidate running for governor should know the outline of the state budget, including that a quarter is spent on K-12 education.

But two candidates did get it right, something you’d never know from Corcoran’s selective editing.

Orlando businessman Chris King said he estimated the budget to be between “$21 and $22 billion.”

And Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum said the budget is in “the $22 billion range.”

Corcoran’s ad flat-out claims the budget is $25.1 billion and taunts: “Democrats want to spend more money without knowing any of the facts.”

Hold your horses, Mr. Speaker. Gov. Scott’s budget summary says the “total funding” for public education is $21.1 billion.

According to Florida Politics, Corcoran’s fuzzy math factors in multiple other unnamed programs.

That said, it’s good to see the outgoing speaker — long a crusader for charter schools and privatizing public education — recognize Florida public schools for having “the most improved math scores in the nation.” For Corcoran famously calls public schools “failure factories.”

Corcoran also went after the teacher’s union this year, requiring decertification of those chapters that don’t have at least 50 percent membership. The requirement applies to no other public employee union in Florida.

At the same time, he pushed to arm teachers as the front-line defenders against school shootings. With or without guns, teachers have become our first responders to school shootings, plus a host of other societal problems, including drug use and homelessness.

But instead of getting rewarded with steady wage increases that reflect the increasing cost of living, teachers are lucky if state leaders lob them a periodic bonus.

Is it any wonder that colleges of education report a dramatic decline in the number of students who want to become teachers? Sure, most teachers get summers off, but to ensure their kids can pass all the state-required tests, they’re also dipping into their pockets to make sure they have enough paper, pencils and supplies.

Florida’s war on public school teachers won’t be solved by duplicitous campaign ads and Tallahassee chest-thumping.

It’s time for voters to smarten up and start sending people to Tallahassee who will deliver the help schools need.