Posted on 01/03/2002 6:20:12 AM PST by summer
Bush growth plan is back for a new try
The governor again pushes a bill to make classroom availability a consideration for approving development.
By JULIE HAUSERMAN, Times Staff Write
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 28, 2001
TALLAHASSEE -- For the second year in a row, Gov. Jeb Bush says he will try to get the Legislature to pass a law to make communities take school crowding into account before they approve new development.
It seems like a simple concept that should have been part of Florida's growth management laws long ago, Bush said in a recent interview. All over Florida, parents watch as bulldozers clear the way for new subdivisions in places where schools are already overflowing.
But Bush has been unable to get his proposal to pass the Legislature. The idea bogged down because lawmakers, lobbyists and the governor disagree about how to pay for new classroom space.
This year, Bush is softening his position somewhat in hopes of getting the law passed. And Bush, who said little about growth management when he ran for governor in 1998, now says he wants to make growth management a campaign issue when he runs for re-election in 2002.
"This is a powerful issue," Bush said. "I don't think people have connected all the dots yet. They look at it as: "My roads are crowded, or the schools are overcrowded.' They are not looking at it in a comprehensive way."
A year ago, Bush went up against the powerful Florida Homebuilders Association when he declared that communities should simply say no to developers if the local school district is overcrowded. The developers cried foul. They asked: Why should we pay because a community has failed to plan? A debate then began in the Legislature about how best to pay for added classroom space.
The homebuilders, the Florida School Boards Association and some leading Republicans in the state Senate said school boards and county commissions should be able to raise a half-penny sales tax with a "super majority" (the majority plus one) vote of the board or commission. If every school board passed the half-penny tax, school officials estimated, it would raise $800-million a year statewide.
Bush opposed the idea, saying communities shouldn't be able to raise taxes without a vote of the people. Last week, Bush softened his position: He said he won't propose the super majority taxing authority himself, but he will support it if it will get the bill passed.
"The tax issue was the one we couldn't get through," Bush said.
Bush says his growth management proposal, which hasn't yet been publicly released, would require every local community to add a new "intergovernmental coordination" element to its comprehensive plan, requiring school boards and county commissions to plan together for growth. Counties and school districts that do a good job planning together might be eligible for more state money, and more flexibility in spending it, Bush said.
Only communities that have "exhausted every opportunity" to ease school crowding and curb out-of-control development should tax residents to pay for schools, Bush said.
"I have been trying to get out in front of this because it is an economic development issue," Bush said.
Of course, Bush isn't the first Florida governor to say it's time to do a better job shaping the state's growth. "Growth in Florida must pay for the cost of growth in Florida," former Gov. Bob Graham, now a U.S. senator, declared in his opening speech to the Legislature in 1985, the year the state's Growth Management Act passed. "The alternatives are unacceptable. We are not going to pay for growth through a deteriorated quality of life."
Last week, Bush sounded a similar note: "If we strain the infrastructure of our communities, the quality of life diminishes," he said. "And lifestyle is our competitive advantage. I think it's a problem when people make a major investment -- their home -- and have their dream shattered because we didn't plan properly for the roads and the schools and the water."
I don't know why.
She would certainly endorse the principle of formulating policy based on what is "fun."
....my point is, they often don't have the income to pay private school tuition.
And my counterpoint to that is that the public schools' capture of the mass of students prevents the economies of scale that would allow these parents to pay private school tuition.
Name one private school in Florida -- just one -- that wants to accept non-English speaking kids for a K-12 education.
Couldn't tell you of one. But then, I lived in Pinellas, which wasn't exactly burgeoning with Latin Americans. I can tell you that they exist in south Texas, for Spanish-speaking kids. The point, though, isn't the existence per se of non-English private schools, but rather the possibility. This has been addressed above.
LOL...tuition at many private schools are sky high because the owners are BUSINESS PEOPLE in BUSINESS to MAKE MONEY. They will charge as much as they can. This has nothing to do with public schools.
Standard teachers' union cant. Of course they're businessmen. Of course they want to make money. Horrors. But this line of argument ignores some very basic economic principles: economies of scale, and competition. In a truly free educational market, competition would drive down prices. However, we don't have that at any level (elementary, secondary, or collegiate), for the same reason that undercuts the economy of scale -- the public schools capture the consumers. By your logic, the makers of Coke would charge $100 per can simply because they held a monopoly on Coke, and they wanted to maximize profits. This isn't true, though -- Coke costs $1 a can, and why? Because it is far better, and simpler, to sell many units at low profit then few units at high profit. This proves true in virtually every industry, and it has proven true in education. It can again.
You complain about high private school tuitions, but you misdiagnose the cause. It isn't profiteering greed -- it's the distorting influence of government.
And, how did you pay? Via "impact fees"? -- the Homebuilders Association is AGAINST such fees, as they clearly state in the 2nd article I posted above. So, you are not on their side.
I don't recall offering any opinion on impact fees, or proper methods of taxation. Fill me in.
And, you later mention "planning" as a solution. You seem to agree with Gov. Bush, without wanting to say so.
That was pure, undiluted sarcasm. I'll be more explicit next time. I think "planning" is a joke.
(1) the rate of population growth is phenomenal. This is not a normal rate of growth. What is happening in FL is happening at a very high speed in terms of population.
Florida=Texas=San Jose=Northern Virginia. Florida is exceptional, not unique.
(2) the demand by these new consumers is NOT for private schools
Why not give them a real choice, not only by not making them pay the requisite taxes for funding public education, but also by allowing the elementary and secondary education market to flourish? Then you'll see what the real demand is. As it stands, asserting that people "want" public schools is like asserting they "want" Amtrak -- there's no effective alternative for most.
(3) FL voters are very anti-tax. People here don't want to pay more taxes for anything, even though taxes are relatively low. Yet, something has to give with this incredible increase in population.
Something does indeed. I suggest that what must give is the government's self-assumed educational monopoly.
Somehow, there has to be a way to coordinate this constant growth with the need for more public schools.
Schools can keep up with growth as best they can. Making growth keep pace with schools is to hold the economy hostage to a government bureaucracy with a wholly dubious track record.
But, if you think there is absolutely NO relationship between (a) the increased burden on public schools, and (b) new businesses and new homes, then: IMHO, you are living on another planet.
But I don't think that at all. I simply think it's no reason to stop, or slow, building.
Well, you have the anecdotes, and then you have the empirical evidence. I'll go with the latter.
And, for my own anecdote, I'll offer my brother, who is a first-year private school teacher, and doing pretty well off of it.
Well, then vote for someone else in this FL gov race, because I think more and better planning can only help in this area. And, any candidate who thinks like you do -- that "planning is a joke" -- would never get my vote.
You're a strange breed of Republican. We're the party of individual freedom, not centralized bureaucracies. Strange indeed.
Pure ignorance. You have no real answer to my explanation of the economics, do you?
I think your brother is telling you a big FIB about his salary to IMPRESS YOU.
And now you accuse my own brother of lying. You're pathetic.
people DO want public schools, and some people choose public schools over other options.
And this affects my argument how? The real question here is who has a choice to begin with.
And a recent GOP candidate in NJ LOST because, IMO, all he could talk about was vouchers, while the suburban voters in NJ are quite PROUD of their public schools.
You didn't follow that campaign very closely, did you? It was hardly lost on vouchers; McGreevy ran a campaign that was thoroughly more professional than Schundler's, and won accordingly.
I happen to believe private schools should be one of the options, as should public schools, along with homeschooling, and every other kind of educational environment supported by parental choice.
Well, good. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen so long as the public school juggernaut continues to exist in its present form.
No offense intended to you personally, but your above statement is [Schools can keep up with growth as best they can.] downright pathetic.
Why don't you back that up some?
I suppose you can use the Hussein method, and declare victory even as your armies lay in smoking ruins. When you have substantive responses, let me know. You're all doctrine and no rationale. It's the memory of teachers like you that convinced me to homeschool.
PS Tell your brother who is a first year private school teacher that you'd like to see one of his paychecks, and let me know how that goes!
I don't know how your family works, but I tend to trust members of mine. You have my pity.
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