Don't punish the students for Tallahassee's behavior

“Although the economy is responsible for the latest shocks to education financing, the situation now is worse than it needs to be. Over the past several decades, the Legislature has passed up or fouled up opportunities to stabilize education financing. In 1987, Gov. Bob Martinez and the Democratic-led Legislature passed a services tax, lost their nerve and then repealed it. A year later came promises that the Florida Lottery would rescue public schools. At first, lottery money replaced general revenue that had gone for education, so the promised "enhancement" didn't materialize. In 1997, Bright Futures scholarships began to eat up most of the lottery revenue, so schools didn't benefit. Under Gov. Jeb Bush, the state gave up billions that could have been used for education by phasing out and then repealing the intangibles tax, which only the wealthiest Floridians paid. Legislators have refused to conduct an honest review of sales-tax exemptions. They failed to close a loophole that allows corporations to avoid millions in documentary stamp taxes on real estate deals. Examples reported by The Post in 2007 showed how three deals that should have generated $4.2 million in taxes instead generated $2.10. Meanwhile, the state steadily pushed the burden of paying for schools onto local governments. They decreased the percentage of general revenue going to schools and made up the difference by ordering higher local property taxes. When the Legislature failed to provide construction money for growth and to comply with the class-size amendment, local governments such as St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties raised the local sales tax to cope. Despite all that -- and to avoid punishing students -- Florida schools should get the waiver, which includes safeguards to prevent states from taking the federal money and reducing the state's share even more. It would be helpful if the feds granted the waiver quickly since the Legislature convenes March 3. We'd like to think that the state's need for an education bailout would jolt political leaders into long-term reforms.”
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Read the entire editorial and post a comment on palmbeachpost.com.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/conte...aiver_0218.html

Thanks to Mark Pudlow for the clip and the lead.