The argument over funding of the public schools in Florida drones on, generating far more heat than light.
To hear some tell it, the schools are starving for funds, and funds educate children.
Really?
A while back I became curious about the debate and looked at the budgets for the school system in Duval County. As reported in a previous column, the school district spent more money every year of a 10-year period, an increase of more than 30 percent overall.
Still, I continued to read the same old stuff about school budgets being slashed.
Finally, I dragged the data for the entire state from the Florida Department of Education's website into a spreadsheet.
You can, of course, cherry-pick the starting and ending years to get whatever result you want, which is what some will do. I just wanted to have at least 10 years' worth of data beginning with the most recent available.
Total spending per pupil did not decline in any of the state's school districts between 2003 and 2013, according to FDOE.
Spending (not including capital outlay and debt service) increased 29 percent overall throughout the state.
For the fiscal year just ended, the numbers are not in yet, but since state funding has increased, the increases probably are even larger.
A lot of the confusion about school spending is caused by the media, which only focus on state government funding and have a template: more is better.
Apparently, reporters seldom look at the budgets of their own districts, where the politicians spend whatever they can get their hands on, whether it comes from state, federal or local taxpayers.
Again, none of this is any indication of how much learning is going on in any district. Touting increased spending is an appeal to ignorance for the most part.
Last week on Facebook, I cornered a self-styled "education expert" who was promoting more spending and asked how much it would take to get the government schools in Florida to perform. Most duck the question. He said $26 billion more! (Last year the total cost was $23 billion.)
Let's put that proposition on the ballot.
Progress is measured by learning gains. Reforms put into place before either the current governor or his predecessor largely are responsible for the learning gains that have taken place over the past 15 years.
The difference is that the incumbent would be expected to continue on that course while the challenger would be expected to help the special interests backing him reverse the course. Currently, those political forces are going to court in an avaricious effort to destroy a program that has enabled thousands of poor children to escape failing government schools and begin getting an education.
If you are shocked, you should be. Obviously, they will do anything to protect their turf.
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as a policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
