The ongoing debate over the financial challenges facing the Leon County school system coupled with declining student enrollment raises serious policy questions about government efficiency, public school mission, and spending priorities.
In an attempt to provide some clarity to the debate, TR has begun to dig into the budgets of the Leon County School District and other comparable districts. The hope is that this information will inform citizens, parents and decision makers about an issue that has immeasurable impact on the community.
The Trends
Board member Alva Smith has argued for months that declining student enrollment has resulted in some schools operating below 70% capacity.
The chart below shows that over the last seven years Leon County School spending has increased approximately $41.7 million, a 14.4% increase, while the number of students has declined from 33,391 to 29,990.
According to Smith, during this period, average Leon County School teacher salaries have ranked as low 59th in the state.
Smith has argued that to address teacher salaries, closing schools should be an option. Others have argued that the mission of the school district is not to be efficient, but to serve students equally throughout the district.
The next question – how have spending priorities changed over the last seven years in Leon County resulting in teacher salaries losing ground to other districts.
LCS Spending, Student Growth Trends added by Steve Stewart on
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I have not supported/voted for many elected officials with a “D” after their names since Bill Clinton. For many reasons, sadly, I normally disagree with “progressive” viewpoints. School Board Member, Alva Smith, and her LCSO proposals make so much common sense that I support her 100%!
Our Leon Co. School system has been driven by so much political, “don’t offend” costly, political corruptness that I thank God I don’t have children in this school system anymore.
School Board Members: Tune out the local political noise. Teachers: get the hell out of the radical Teacher’s Union…who do nothing for you except print signs so you can protest. I quit paying teacher’s union dues many years ago.
Make some ADULT decisions and consolidate underperforming schools.
Teach classes like my former school system now teaches: Financial Literacy. Teach children how to save, invest, use credit, how to shop for insurance, and the ability to read, sign and understand wills, power of attorney and other financial documents.
Teach Socratic methods and show them how to put away the damn, handheld, electronic screens in order for them to to think, read, and learn.
Lazy teachers need to leave and become “digital content creators”.
Today’s kids need teachers, and school boards to focus on life skills.
Integrate schools into learning centers. Stop the “day care” mentality of thinking and invest public school resources into actually teaching our next generation to lead us into the future.
Thank you, Alva Swafford Smith, for your courage to make changes.
It would seem that if our schools did a better job of teaching math and basic economics our elected leaders would find this as disturbing as the rest of us.
So, the “others” are arguing that inefficiency is ok as long as the students are equally illiterate. Stupid people are running the school board.
I see the morbidly obese elementary school teachers at Hartsfield everyday, and I hear them yelling at the students in broken, improper English almost as often.
I think most of them are paid too much!
P.S. I went to Hartsfield, Fairview, Rickards, TCC and FSU. The best teachers in the world taught there at one time. (Shout out to Mr. Fleming, Fred Hollis, Coach McDaris and Bill Cunningham!)