Executive Summary

Times and Situations Change

In 1896, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was created. The twelve companies that made up the original DJIA were the industrial giants[1]. Today, only one of the original twelve companies remains in the DJIA – General Electric. The others have either gone out of business or have been absorbed by other companies and/or bear little resemblance to the original company.

In 1885[2], the Constitution of the State of Florida mandated a free K-12 Public Education System (“K-12”). Its role was simple - teach children math, reading, writing and history, etc. Since that time, K-12 has grown unchecked into an entity which is top heavy, burdened with non educational tasks, hamstrung with mandates sent down by Tallahassee and Washington and in some cases somewhat controlled by the courts. Its behemoth size consumes an incredible portion of the public treasury and when compared globally largely delivers an inferior product. It did not grow to its current size with one bite. It grew “one bite at a time”. The pictorial on page 5 shows the progression from 1885 to 2008.

Comparing Business and Government Solutions

From time to time, businesses must “restructure” or “reinvent themselves” stripping away unnecessary departments, functions and waste or face going out of business or being bought by someone else who can and will restructure the company.

K-12 (government), on the other hand, can just raise more tax revenues to cover waste and unnecessary departments and functions.

Sobering Statistics

The following statistics should give you pause.

Class Size Amendment (“CSA”)

The taxpayers of the State of Florida have been led to believe that there is a need to continue to build classrooms to meet the requirements of the Class Size Amendment. It will probably come as a great shock to most to find out that currently statewide:

There is one existing teacher for every 14.6 Students[3].
There is one existing classroom for every 17.7 students.
The state budget for 2007 – 2008 would add approximately 6,918 more classrooms which would result in one classroom for every 16.9 students.

A puzzling question is, “Why, if there are more than enough classrooms are students sitting in classrooms with far greater numbers of students than required by the CSA?”

Global Performance

Our children will have to be prepared to compete in a global economy. In studies comparing the academic performance of students of difference countries, the U.S. does not fair well. In one study cited in this document, the U.S. came in at 11^th in science and 15^th in math.

In a second cited study, the U.S. came in 21^st out of 26. The U.S. academic performance exceeded only Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Mexico, even though the U.S. outspends every other country in this study when adjusted for purchasing power parity - in one case, as much as 5 times more!

Burden to Taxpayers

The tax burden of the ballooning government has become so great[4], that it is crushing Florida taxpayers. Education is by far the largest sector of the state budget[5] – 34%. And, K-12 spends 57% of the 34% or 19.4% of the total state budget. It is largely funded through property tax and K-12 spends the majority of the public funds spent at the county level. Further, the majority of ALL K-12 education is funded by property taxes[6] - both “local” and through the “Required Local Effort” of the Florida Education Finance Program.

Without further classroom construction (except in a few cases), the taxpayers of the state would breathe a collective sigh of relief!

Reinvention

Just as businesses must be reinvented from time to time, government in the State of Florida must be reinvented before it brings the entire state to its knees[7]. Taking a “worst first” approach, K-12 should be the starting place. It is a monumental task, but it can and must be done.

Goal

The reinvented K-12 must strip away as much overhead, undo unnecessary mandates and remove as many non educational functions as possible providing the funds to put the focus on the classroom, where education is occurring. In the process, the tax burden on the taxpayers will be reduced. In order to accomplish this goal, a K-12 Reinvention Task Force must be created.

Fear and Reassurance

Education has been seen as “off limits” for politicians. They are simply afraid of the educational lobby and the backlash from the teachers. As a group, teachers believe that there is not enough money for education. What they do not understand is the huge amount of money that is spent in the school districts. There is more than enough, but a huge portion is being spent to fund new classrooms and a sizable portion is being spent as overhead in the county office rather than in the classroom. When teachers understand that the reinvention would focus resources in the classroom and that, along with the children, they will be the biggest beneficiaries, they should enthusiastically endorse the commissioning of the Task Force.

Teachers would be a major resource for this task force. They are where “the action is”. They would be so very important in identifying the onerous mandates and non educational issues which keep them from teaching and the students from learning. Their voices would be heard and their input would be invaluable.

Task Force Make Up

The Task Force needs the leadership of business executives who are used to making tough decisions. The final product of the Task Force would be a Transition Plan. Most likely, the Transition Plan would require some major legislative and judicial, as well as administrative changes. Therefore, the make up of the Task Force should include key leaders from government and representation from education – from the classroom to Tallahassee.

The Next Step

This draft plan provides background information on K-12 to support the above claims and a logical “high level” approach to reinventing K-12. It is not the final product, but one to get leaders engaged in an intellectual discussion. The discussion should be quickly followed by a modified Task Force Plan. The Task Force should be quickly commissioned so that work can begin shortly. The goal should be to have a report within a year.

Reinventing the K-12 Public Education System is a monumental task, but it must be done. When completed, it could become the model for all of the United States.

Background

Expenditures for Education – State and Local

In Florida today, there is an outcry concerning the tax burden with which our citizens are saddled which has jumped to the 12^th highest in the nation among the 50 states[8].

What is the largest consumer of tax dollars in Florida?

· 34% of our state budget[9] is spent on education and it is growing[10]. 57% of the state education budget is spent on K-12. Therefore, K-12 accounts for roughly 19.4% of the total state budget.

· In many or most counties, the school system has a budget larger than the county government.

o For the 2006 – 2007 budget year, roughly 59%[11] of the total dollars spent through the combined budgets of the County Government and School Board in Manatee County were spent by the School Board[12].

o To put this expenditure in perspective, if every man, woman and child (babies, children, teens, the elderly and the infirmed) in Manatee County worked a 40 hour week and the county government and school system were funded through payroll taxes, everyone would have $2.30 per hour deducted from their pay checks. Education would account for $1.37 per hour of that deduction[13].

In business, working on issues on a “worst first” approach can result in the biggest benefits the quickest. Following that approach, the first area of the budget to be studied should be education. Since K-12 accounts for 57% of the state education budget, analyzing it first makes sense. Interestingly, analyzing K-12 is “reasonably” easy at the macro level size since we know what it costs and it hypothetically produces essentially one product – our “educated” children.

School Districts – Economic Size

The economic size of a local school district is difficult to fathom. However to try to gain perspective, understand that in most counties, the School District employs more people and has a larger budget than any other entity in the county – public or private.

School Board budgets are so very large that few people can understand numbers of that magnitude. And even fewer people, including most school board members, have taken the time to REALLY investigate school budgets. They just accept whatever the budget director produces as the budget.

Interestingly, some budgets are very difficult to understand. With a common format including data which must be known within the district, it would be much easier to make a high level analysis of the different school board budgets[14].

A Quick and Simple Analysis of the Manatee County School District

The following numbers are the numbers for the Manatee County School District[15] for 2006 - 2007:

“Operational” Budget

· Total Budget - $889,900,000 (including $16 M to be carried forward to 2007 – 2008)

· Number of Students - 42,000

· Expenditure per Student - $21,188

For the sake of discussion, the $379 Million for NEW SCHOOLS of the $426.1 Million[16] Capital Budget will be removed.

· Budget including “Normal Capital Items” - $510,000,000

· Number of Students - 42,000

· Expenditure per Student - $12,143

School Level	Elementary	Middle	Senior
"Operating Expenditure per Student"	$12,143	$12,143	$12,143
Students per Teacher per “CSA”	X 18	X 22	X 25
Total Amount per Classroom	$218,574	$267,146	$303,575
On average, the cost of the CLASSROOM teacher is:
Average Teacher's Salary	44,440	44,440	44,440
Teacher's Benefits (Budget 25% of Salary)	11,110	11,110	11,110
Total Teacher Expense	55,550	55,550	55,550
% Teacher of Operating Expenses	25%	21%	18%
After paying the teacher, how much is consumed by overhead?
*Overhead*	$163,024	$211,596	$248,025
% Overhead of "Operating Expenses"	75%	79%	82%

Of the $218,574 - $303,575 spend on each classroom:

Teachers and their benefits accounts for just 18% – 25%
Overhead accounts for the other 75% - 82%

Clearly, there are other operational expenses, but you have to ask, “Where does the money go?”

The school board staff will probably not like this simplistic approach and argue that there are expenditures included other than strictly “Operational Expenses”. However, in Florida households or businesses, everyone has to look at both TOTAL revenue (income) and TOTAL expenses.[17]

Capital Budgets

· For the most recent 8 year period (budget years of 2000 – 2001 through 2007 – 2008), the capital expenditures (things that are supposed to LAST) for the Manatee County School District totaled approximately $1,958,000,000 or roughly $46,600 per student based on current enrollment.

· If there are 20 students in a classroom, that would equate to roughly $932,000 per classroom.

Where does the money go?

Class Size Amendment – The Disconnect

In 2002, the Class Size Amendment passed (“CSA”). The implementation of this amendment requires that by 2010 - 2011, there be a specified maximum number of students per classroom as shown in the table below.

Manatee County

With the cover of the CSA, within a very short period of time, Manatee County began an unprecedented construction program. Along the way though, it was determined that renovation was largely not acceptable – some new schools were built and old schools torn down. The new schools are of a VERY high quality.

An analysis of the Manatee County budget information which was available by grade level by school revealed some interesting information:

Type School	CSA Requirement	CURRENT Students per Teacher	CURRENT Students per Classrooms
Elementary School	18	14	15
Middle School	22	17	15
High School	25	19	19

Statewide

The Florida Department of Education’s web site has a number of reports containing important information which were combined into a spreadsheet contained herein as Exhibit 1. The results are county by county and the state as a whole.

An analysis of the results indicates the following information for the K-12 school system statewide:

	Students per EXISTING Teacher	Students per Existing Classroom	Students/Total Student Stations	% Capacity
Statewide	14.6	17.7	0.84	88%

Based on this data, we find that on a gross basis, we have more than enough classrooms to meet the CSA.

Fixed Capital Outlay

On August 15, 2006, apparently there was a presentation concerning an analysis done by the State Board of Education looking at the “Fixed Capital Outlay” requirements for 2007- 2008. Exhibit 2 The request was for $2,876,352,301 to apparently build 6,918 classrooms[18]. In fact, the Governor’s budget proposed for new classrooms was $2,764,545,105 which is reasonably close to the $2.876 Billion requested.

With the addition of classrooms paid for by these additional funds, the above table would now look like this:

	Students per EXISTING Teacher	Students per Classroom	Students/Total Student Stations	% Capacity
Statewide	14.6	16.9	0.76	83%

Interestingly, the funding envisioned here accounts for ONLY the classrooms paid for in full. It does not account for the classrooms that are paid for through bonding by the local districts!

Clearly, there is a “disconnect” between what we have been told and what the numbers say.

In addition, using the numbers from the Fixed Capital Outlay from above, we can determine for the new classroom to be built:

o Cost per Classroom

Dividing $2.876 Billion for classrooms by 6,918 classrooms yields an average of $415,778 per classroom

o Cost per Student

Dividing $415,778 for a classroom by an average of 20 students per classroom yields an average of $20,789 per student

Those numbers seem somewhat high! All of the above begs the question - What is going on?

Cost and Results - The Disconnect

Prior to the implementation of the FCAT[19], Florida educational results lagged behind many other states. Since the implementation of the FCAT, Florida are academic results are rising when compared to the rest of the nation. Globally, however, we are way behind.

Global Comparison

According to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement[20], in 2003, 13 year olds in the U.S. ranked 15^th in Math[21] and 11^th in Science[22].

A second group - Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development – conducts an internationally standardized assessment that was jointly developed by participating countries and administered to 15-year-olds in schools called “The Program for International Student Assessment” and is abbreviated as “PISA”. The survey was implemented in 43 countries in the 1st assessment in 2000, in 41 countries in the 2nd assessment in 2003[23], in 57 countries in the 3rd assessment in 2006 and 62 countries have signed up to participate in the 4th assessment in 2009. Tests are typically administered to between 4,500 and 10,000 students in each country.

The results that are currently available are those of the 2003 testing and are summarized in a 471 page report “Learning for Tomorrow’s World - First Results from PISA 2003[24]”. Combining the results for math, reading and science and comparing, it is easy to rank the overall results by country. Also included in the PISA report was the spending per student in equivalent U.S. dollars using purchasing power parities. The results are revealing. Consider the graph:

The blue series indicates the performance of the students taking the PISA. The red line indicates the U.S. Student performance. Note that every country to left of the red line performed better than students in the U.S. The green series shows the Spending per Student in equivalent U.S. Dollars using purchasing power parities.

The U.S. spending per student is greater than all other nations that participated – Switzerland and Austria are close. However, even though the U.S. spends more than any other country in this study (in some cases more than 5 times countries that performed better academically - The Slovak Republic), the U.S. academic performance exceeded only Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Mexico!

This graph suggests that there is little or no correlation between how much money is spent on education and the results.

Clearly, there is a “disconnect” between the spending per student and academic performance. How do you deal with this disconnect?

Dealing with the Disconnects

The Metamorphosis

Over the years, K-12 systems have grown from the original mission of teaching children math, reading, writing and history, etc., to trying to perform an incredible number of functions that may or may not be educational related and have morphed into gargantuan amalgamations[25]. Again, K-12 systems did not start at their current sizes. They grew a “bite” at a time. The reasons for this morphing are most likely many and varied. But, each must be investigated and studied. Most likely, many solutions would require “outside the box” thinking. Importantly, K-12 has reached its present configuration under the past and current School Boards and Administration leadership. It is unreasonable to believe that School Boards and Administrations can reinvent K-12.

Dealing with Tough Issues

When there is a constraint on revenue[26] for a business, if it is to stay in business, it has to cut expenses[27]. Sometimes businesspeople have issues that they cannot solve through their own resources and/or skill sets. If they are financially able, sometimes they bring in consultants to dispassionately identify the issues and make recommendations. Why do they use consultants? They come with the required skill sets and no bias. Consultants can get around internal politics. They do not have to worry about ruffling feathers. They do their study, make their recommendations and move to the next job.

Some educators will say that you cannot use business methods to analyze the educational system. If everyone was intellectually honest, they would have to admit that the school system is a BUSINESS – a very large business and the most important business in our country. The reason that K-12 is in its situation today is because it was never managed using a business approach[28]. The following analogy might be helpful:

· Raw materials: Our children

· Production facilities: Our schools

· Producers: Our teachers

· Product: The education of our children to compete in a global economy

· Current Quality of the product: Inferior to the global competition

K-12 Reinvention Task Force

As currently configured, K–12 has major problems:

· Taxpayers are paying a fortune.

· On a global basis, Florida and the U.S. are losing the competition.

These issues MUST be addressed by the K-12 Reinvention Task Force.

Mission, Fundamentals and End Product of the Task Force

The mission of the Task Force is to reinvent K–12 in Florida. Understanding that there is a great diversity in size and location of our 67 school districts, a “one size” plan would not fit all. Therefore, it would be necessary to have modifications to a general plan based on the district size and location.

Our children must be educated to excel in the global economy in which they will have to compete. Therefore, the focus should be on achieving results in the classroom and the school.

The process should be to ask, “If no school system existed today and it had to be invented, what would it look like?” Every possible idea and solution would be “on the table”.

Fundamentals

With the focus on getting results in the classroom, the following are fundamental to the mission:

o Teacher compensation should be enough to recruit and keep good teachers.

o Teachers should be supported in the classroom.

o Bureaucratic red tape must be reduced or eliminated.

o Unnecessary mandates must be rescinded.

o Other fundamental issues that keep teachers from educating our students to their full potential must be grossly reduced or eliminated[29].

Also fundamental:

o School Administration

o The function of the Principal and School Administration is to support the needs of the teachers, students and parents and manage the school.

o As the person responsible for the results at the school, the Principal must be given business training and the broad authority to make decisions in school management.

o As with the classroom, the same burdensome red tape, unnecessary mandates and other fundamental issues which hamstring the Principal and his/her staff, must be grossly reduced or eliminated.

o School District

o The function of the School District is to support the Principals and Schools and to provide only those services to the schools that they cannot provide for themselves or which could truly be provided more efficiently at a district level.

o Only to the extent necessary, the School District would provide coordination among the individual schools.

Visual of New Focus

The new structure would look like this:

Also fundamental:

The roll of the Florida Department of Education must be CAREFULLY studied. Unnecessary functions and requirements must be eliminated.

End Product

With an idealized model (with the modifications due to district size and location) in place, the Task Force should then compare that model to what exists. It should create a blueprint for transition from the old to the new.

The Transition Plan would be presented for implementation. Implementation must follow.

Empowerment

This Task Force would most likely be looked upon with apprehension by many sectors of the educational community. Some would fear the end result of the Task Force’s work. Some would not want to share the data that would be needed by this Task Force to do its work. There must be an empowerment that requires those queried to provide the data in the form requested within a reasonable time frame.

Desired Qualities of the Task Force Delegates

It is important that all Task Force Delegates come as patriots with no hidden agendas. Careful consideration in the selection of the Delegates is imperative. They must come with a strong commitment to solve this difficult, but solvable problem.

Make up of the Task Force

Considerable time has been spent considering the Delegate make up of the Task Force. It is imperative that the delegate selection process follow the spirit of the proposed plan so the business sector can make the ultimate decisions, as they do everyday in their own businesses.

Classes of Delegates

As with the Constitutional Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, the Task Force would have two classes of Delegates – voting and non voting.

Voting Delegates

There would be 11 voting Delegates[30] of the Task Force – 7 from business and 4 from the state government.

Business Delegates

Since the K-12 districts differ vastly in size, it is important to have Business Delegates with employee numbers to similar to those of the different districts. There would be 7 business leaders:

Delegates	Category	Description
2	1	Large Companies with greater than 10,000 employees
3	2	Middle size companies with greater than 1,000, but less than 10,000 employees
2	3	Small companies with less than 1,000 employees

Business Delegate Selection

· The Governor would select one business Delegate from each Category.

· The President of the Senate and The Speaker of the House would each select one Delegate from the Category 2. The President would pick one Delegate from Category 1. The Speaker would pick one Delegate from Category 3.

Government Delegates

Most likely there are changes that would be required in our laws[31] and the administration of the laws. There would also be a need to address issues before the courts. Given those needs, very senior level representatives from each of the Branches of Government would be required:

· Executive – The Governor

· Legislative – The President of the Senate & Speaker of the House

· Judicial – The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court[32]

Non Voting Delegates/Advisors

The people in the trenches have information that would be invaluable. In some cases, it may not be necessary to reinvent the wheel. Therefore, there should be great resources representing the existing educational community:

· Teacher Delegates[33] - Chairs for reporting teachers’ thoughts and suggestions.

· Principal Delegates[34] - Chairs for reporting Principals’ thoughts and suggestions.

· Administrative Delegates[35] - Chairs for reporting Administrators’ thoughts and suggestions.

· The Commissioner of Education.

· The President of the Florida Teachers Association.

· 3 Ad Hoc members – One each appointed by the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

Selection of Educational Delegates/Advisors

Given the importance of understanding the issues within the system, there must been a method of funneling that information to the Task Force. Because of the diversity in size and locations of the districts, the needs in a small district might be entirely different from a large district, but both need to be heard. To tackle this issue, the 67 Districts have been broken down into 5 groups[36]:

Large
Medium Large
Medium
Medium Small
Small

Further, issues in each of the school levels – elementary, middle and senior high – are very different and each of these must be heard.

Teacher Representatives and Delegates

With roughly 190,000 teachers in the state, it would be impossible to have every person who wanted to have a voice involved directly; therefore the following is a method of electing Representatives who would in turn elect Delegates.

Depending on the size of the district, each district would hold three teachers meetings – one for each school type. (Smaller districts may elect to hold just one where they address all 3 school types.) A Task Force PREPARED presentation[37] would be delivered concerning the purpose of the Task Force, its importance, its Delegate composition and the duties and responsibilities of Task Force Delegates and Representatives.

Each of the 67 Districts would elect three teacher representatives – one for each school level yielding a total of 201 Representatives to meet at a “Teacher Caucus” in Orlando.

At the Teacher Caucus, the 201 representatives would each attend one of 15 mini caucuses based on their school level and their district size:

School Level	District Size
Elementary School	Large
	Medium Large
	Medium
	Medium Small
	Small
Middle School	Large
	Medium Large
	Medium
	Medium Small
	Small
High School	Large
	Medium Large
	Medium
	Medium Small
	Small

Each of the mini caucuses would meet to discuss the issues for their school type and district size. Further, each mini caucus would elect a Non Voting Teacher Delegate to the Task Force. They would also elect an alternate in case the Delegate is unable to serve.

Each mini caucus Delegate would be responsible to regularly communicate with its “constituency” to properly represent them.

Principal Representatives and Delegates

Likewise, with 4,000 – 5,000 Principals in the state, it would be impossible to have every person who wanted to have a voice involved directly; therefore the same process that was used to select Teacher Representative and Delegates would be used for Principals.

Administrative Delegates

Since there are 67 Superintendents in the state, they would elect 5 Delegates based on the District Caucus Grouping Designations.

3 Ad Hoc Delegates

One ad hoc Delegate would be appointed by each of the following: the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

Task Force Chair

The Task Force Chair would be one of the business leaders who would be elected by the Voting Delegates.

Administrative Staff

There would be a need for some administrative staff available to the Task Force.

Researchers

Much research would be required to produce the end product and therefore there would be a number of researchers who must be available to research issues including:

· Consultant(s) – See Suggested Procedure / Plan

· Legal – Specializing in constitutional and educational law

· Accountant – Experience in auditing educational districts

· Economist(s)

· Financial Modeler(s)

· Budget Manager of a school district

· Systems Analyst

Rules

Because of the large number of Delegates, the Task Force Chair would run the meeting and recognize each Delegate wishing to speak.

As it would not be necessary for all Delegates to be at all meetings, the Chair, with input from the Delegates, would determine a schedule of meetings and the required attendees at the different meetings. The Chair would also create sub committees as he/she deems appropriate.

Task Force Budget

There would be a number of expenses that would occur during the life of this Task Force. Some could be rather large. An initial budget of $_______[38] must be established for this Task Force.

Travel Expenses

Transportation and room and board for Representatives and Delegates would be paid by the school districts and reimbursed from the Task Force budget. The expenses of the other Delegates would be reimbursed by the Task Force. The reimbursements would be consistent with State travel policy.

Educational Delegates & Representatives

Each delegate / representative would be paid as if they were functioning in their normal position. Their personnel attendance records would reflect that they were working on this Task Force.

Suggested Procedure / Plan

A suggested high level overview procedure to accomplish the task is:

· The Task Force would “commission[39]” two studies by consultants.

· “Start from Scratch” Study

If you were to start over today, what would the K-12 educational system look like today from the Classroom (in the different size districts) all the way through the Department of Education in Tallahassee? To Washington[40]?

· “Present Situation” Study

This study would “peel back the layers of the onion” to understand what we have now in the different sized districts. What is good? What is bad? What should we keep? What should we cut? Etc., etc., etc.

These studies should be done entirely independent of each other. The people conducting the studies should not communicate any findings with the other study team until both studies are complete. The Teacher, Principal and Superintendent Delegates can expect to be interviewed extensively by these consultants.

· The two completed studies would be presented to the entire Task Force.

· The studies would then be analyzed and compared with the goal of determining if anything was missed by the “Scratch” Study.

· The next step would be to compare, brainstorm, study and analyze the updated “Scratch” Study with the goal to come to agreement on what the system should look like.

· The next step would be to create a Transition Plan from the “existing” to the “ideal”.

· The final step would be to report the plan for adoption and implementation.

Conclusion

The Task Force would have a daunting mission, but given the importance for our children and our state and the likelihood that it might become a model for other states and perhaps the nation, this could be the most important task ever undertaken by the Task Force Delegates during their lifetimes.

Exhibits

1. Calculation of Students per Existing Classroom and Students per Existing Teacher

(Students / Total Student Stations and Students to Capacity)

2. State Board of Education – Fixed Capital Outlay – August 15, 2006 Presentation

3. Requirements imposed on Public Schools

4. District Caucus Group Designation

5. Presentation for the public to explain the need and process. (To be created)

In order to get the broadest support, the public needs to understand the need for and the goals of this Task Force.

6. Presentations for perspective Business Delegates (To be created)

The Business Delegates would likely be making a huge sacrifice for Florida and, even the nation, perhaps. They must be made fully aware of the commitment required for the successful completion of this Task Force

7. Presentations for: (To be created)

There would be many in the educational system who would be terrified of the changes that they think or believe would come as a result of this Task Force. The teachers and principals, in particular, must be made to understand the thrust of this Task Force would be to put the emphasis in the class room – where the teaching and learning occur. The presentation must be created and presented – perhaps simultaneously through the internet – to allay fears and create an excitement for the changes to come.

Teachers at the Districts
Teachers at the Caucus
Principals in the Districts
Principals at the Caucus
Administrators at the Caucus

8. There are numerous questions that would be included. The basic thrust is as follows: (To be created)

· Task Force – Philosophical questions

· Teachers – Questions crafted for teachers targeted at enhancing their ability to teach and the students to learn.

· Principals – Same

· Administrators – Same

· District – Organizational, budget, etc.

· Department of Education

9. Etc., etc., etc.

[1] http://www.djindexes.com/DJIA110/learning-center/

[2] Interestingly, the 1885 Constitution stated: “Any incorporated town or city may constitute a School District.” In those days, there were few counties. K-12 school district did not become coterminous with counties until sometime later.

[3] The spreadsheet in Exhibit 1 shows the numbers district by district along with source data. I suspect that there will be major objections from those in the educational community who would say that a large number of these teachers are for Exceptional Children, Children for whom English is a second language, etc. This is true, but the fact remains that there are A LOT of teachers and their best utilization needs to be considered.

[4] According to the Tax Foundation, Florida now has the 12^th highest tax burden of the 50 states, behind Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island, Nevada, California, Washington, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Maine. http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/

[5] Source: http://peoplesbudget.state.fl.us/govpriorities.aspx

[6] The Property Tax Reform Committee Preliminary Report and Recommendations

http://www.propertytaxreform.state.fl.us/docs/Meeting121506/PrelimReportFINAL121506.pdf

[7] It already has essentially “knocked out” real estate. Unchecked, the rest of the state economy could soon follow.

[8] Source: http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/

[9] Source: http://peoplesbudget.state.fl.us/govpriorities.aspx

[10] The next largest item is Health Care Administration at 24%, followed by transportation at 12%. The sum of these three areas totals roughly 70% of the total budget.

[11] Including Local expenditures and Federal “Grants” which are, of course, tax dollars with a spiffy name – “Grants”

[12] Clearly, a large portion of the spending was paid for by BONDS, but bonds do have to be repaid. Spending tomorrow’s dollars today, puts the burden on our children.

[13] The math is really pretty simple:

· School Board Budget = $ 890,000,000 59% (includes $16M to be carried over to 2007 – 2008)

· County Government = 606.000,000 41%

· Total = $1,496,000,000 100%

· Citizens of Manatee County = ~312,000

· AVERAGE Cost per Citizen = $4,795 for Manatee County Schools and Government.

· Divide the Average Cost per Citizen by 52 weeks per year, then 40 hours per week = $2.30 per hour per Manatee County citizen.

· Doing the same math for just the School Board Budget and you get $1.37 per hour per Manatee County citizen.

[14] The information would include the number of students, the number of teachers and the number of classrooms by school.

[15] While the numbers here are for Manatee County, most likely most counties’ Operating Costs per student would not be appreciably different.

[16] Think about this number - $426,100,000! How can a district spend that much capital dollars in ONE year?

[17]It would be like saying, “I am not going to count my house payment in my monthly expenses.” Try that and see what your banker will say when you start bouncing checks.

[18] http://www.flboe.org/meetings/2006_08_15/K12_Budget_Pres.pdf

[19] See results at: http://foundationforfloridasfuture.org/index.php?id=plan&sub=after

[20] The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is an association of national research institutions and government research agencies related to education. http://www.iea.nl/

[21] Behind countries including Estonia, Hungary, Malaysia, Latvia, Russian Federation and Slovak Republic.

[22] Behind countries including Estonia and Hungary.

[23] Even though 41 countries were included in the testing, complete data for comparison was only available for 29.

[24] http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/60/34002216.pdf

[25] See Exhibit 3 – A 5 page list of requirements imposed on the Public Schools by the Federal Government and the State of Florida included in the 2006 – 2007 Budget of Polk County.

[26] The education system will most likely find revenue constraints in the foreseeable future in the form of tax caps, etc. Without a major restructuring, K-12 will most likely make some wrong decisions because the right decisions might adversely impact the decision maker personally.

[27] Historically, with taxing powers, school districts have not had to make those tough decisions. Largely, they are unacquainted with the approach of making cost/benefit analyses and making the tough choices.

[28] Clearly, K-12 can not be run exactly as a business; however, using principles of good management will have huge results on the quality and cost of the end product.

[29] Understanding that there are non controllable factors such as lack of student motivation and the student’s home life.

[30] Rationale: Large groups have difficult times making decisions. Smaller ones work better.

[31] See Exhibit 3 – Requirements Imposed on Public Schools

[32] Given that some cases might make their way through the court system and end up before the Supreme Court, this position might need to be reconsidered.

[33] See Exhibit 8 - Questions for Teachers.

[34] See Exhibit 8 - Questions for Principals.

[35] See Exhibit 8 - Questions for Administrators.

[36] See Exhibit 4 – District Caucus Group Designation

[37] There will likely be people who are resistant to any change and would slant the presentation. Therefore, the Task Force would prepare the presentations that are presented to all teachers, principals and administrators so that the message would be consistent and without personal prejudice. See Exhibit 7. Alternatively, there could be a web cast presentation from the leadership of the Task Force. This would insure that a uniform presentation was made to all Teachers, Principals and Administrators.

[38] To be determined. Some people will say, “This is going to cost a lot of money!” They are correct; it will. However, the cost of spending this money pales in comparison to the cost and ramifications of not doing so.

[39] The Task Force may choose to give direction to researchers and have them conduct the study OR the Task Force may choose to take a more active role.

[40] While what happens in Washington may be more difficult to change, the issues should at least be identified. In time, the Task Force may wish to take the issues to Washington, as well.

[41] http://www.flboe.org/meetings/2006_08_15/K12_Budget_Pres.pdf