We have a major problem brewing in Alachua County, and in Florida. All of our elected officials must work together to provide the basic services required by our Florida Constitution. This problem grows worse with each new home we build.
This problem is twofold: We build houses without determining the impact on our schools, and we do not fund the schools we have or need.
Consider the following: Since 1990, our county grew by 27,000 people. We added 4200 students and 4 new schools. Right now, Alachua County has 1000 more enrolled elementary students than our schools will hold. High schools are a bit more crowded with 1900 excess students.
Our school board admits we need 2 elementary schools and 2 9th grade centers right now.
By 2005, we will add another 21,000 residents to Alachua County.
No one has looked ahead to plan our new student population and increased school needs. In fact, official school projections look retrospectively, and project no student increase in the future. That's a safe way not to build unneeded schools, but it only works if new schools come promptly when the need is identified. It is not working for us right now.
New homes increase property values, and taxes, and county budgets, and keep our builders employed. It's seductive for our county and city governments to allow further development. Even with this increase in tax base, it takes years to pay for the additional infrastructure needs: increased road usage, law and fire expansions, and utility capacity not directly attributed to the developer.
Schools are not even considered. Schools are every bit as necessary, and are part of our community and infrastructure. Education -- not roads, utilities, welfare, or even social security -- holds prominence in Florida's Constitution.
Unfortunately, our budget for
building schools is woefully inadequate. The Gainesville Area
Chamber of Commerce position statement on the Alachua County Schools
states:
"It appears that Alachua County faces a critical need for
capital facilities for our schools. The Chamber believes that
to ignore this need would be detrimental to local business and
future growth of the Gainesville area and Alachua County. School
Board personnel appear to be seriously dedicated to holding unnecessary
costs down and attempting to obtain the best buy for the dollar
for the county."
The report goes on to state that the capital outlay needs for
the next 5 years calls for $231 million dollars.
State PECO funds to maintain and build Alachua County school facilities dropped 50% in the last 6 years.
We've tried bond issues, but raising taxes locally is unpopular. Pressuring Tallahassee produced only 8% of the capital needs budget.
Rezoning schools is messy, ugly and necessary. Senator Kirkpatrick, our "Leader in Education," quickly points out that we have beautiful, under-enrolled schools on our East side. He blames our school board's lack of fortitude. It's hard to uproot children, to tell families they bought their home in a different school zone. Very few things governments do disrupt so many families so directly. It seems better to let a few thousand children suffer at double school occupancy rates throughout their school careers than face this task.
But rezoning won't solve our overcrowding, anyway. We just have too many children in our school system, and too few dollars to deal with it.
What else can we do? A moratorium on new construction and new residents is not likely to happen. There are other solutions. Impact fees, which our county tried and repealed, would place the burden where the problem starts: on the new homes.
Our county and city comprehensive plans, which are under evaluation this year, can be amended to address schools and the increased student loads. Orange County adopted an entire element into their county comprehensive plan that deals only with schools. Once our comprehensive plan is adopted, it must be strictly followed to allow only the growth designed into it.
We can also change the mission and structure of the Florida lottery. Georgia and other states use their winnings well. Citizens see results, and are proud of them.
I am positive other ideas and solutions can be found, and their merits and problems discussed.
Please help find the solutions
best for our communities, and our children. Please vote. 4 out
of 5 parents do NOT vote, and our politicians know it. Please
discuss your concerns with your legislators. You can bet that
those profiting from short-changing our children already have
their appointments set, and they vote.