Miami-Dade Parents Oppose Education Cuts
March 23, 2010
It doesn’t take a math geek to know that a state facing a deficit of more than $1 billion has to make cuts somewhere.
The students are just trying to make sure those cut aren’t to education.
“Education is not a legislative priority in the state of Florida,” said Mindy Gould, president of the Miami-Dade Council of PTAs/PTSAs. “Our legislators need to know that we are watching.”
South Florida students, parents and school administrators will head to Tallahassee this week to protest potential cuts to the state’s education budget.
The students and parents, many of whom made the trip last year, will meet with local lawmakers — and later rally on the steps of the state Capitol.
They came together Monday night at Miami Northwestern Senior High for a community rally in advance of their trip.
“Now is the time to act,” School Board member Wilbert “Tee” Holloway said. “It is important to our children that we come together with once voice and one purpose.”
The Miami-Dade school system has lost about $1 billion in funding over the past three years, according to school district figures.
<br /& gt;
This year, state economists are predicting a budget deficit of between $1.1 billion and $3.2 billion.
As a result, both the Senate and House are considering cuts to education spending.
Additionally, under a constitutional amendment, the district could be required to shrink class sizes from their current levels — an expense Superintendent Alberto Carvalho says the school system can’t afford.
All told, the Miami-Dade district could be facing a $200 million budget gap.
“The landscape in Tallahassee is not pretty,” Carvalho said. “It is, quite frankly, rather daunting.”
He added: “This rally is critically important. . . It’s a rallying cry for what is right.”
Local students and their parents say that they are prepared to take action.
They’ll board a dozen buses late Wednesday night, arriving in Tallahassee in time for early-morning meetings with local lawmakers on Thursday.
Then, the teenagers will join thousands of students and parents from across the state for an afternoon rally.
“We’re still fighting these budget cuts,” said Liz Schlotzhauer, the president of the Ferguson Senior High School PTSA. “We’re looking for our legislators to vote a little differently and find the money wherever they can.”
Last year, some students said that they were disappointed in their trip to Tallahassee.
Many of them said that they felt rushed by local lawmakers, who set aside little time to discuss school funding.
This year, they are determined to make their voices heard.
Members of the Miami-Dade School Board plan to make the trip, too. They’ll be meeting with members of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation on Wednesday afternoon and rallying alongside the students Thursday.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/23/1542435/kids-parents-oppose-cuts.html#ixzz0j0qIxmo3