Posted on 03/07/2002 9:43:18 AM PST by summer
No-pay idea upsets school chiefs [FL GOP lawmaker/teacher seeks to eliminate pay for SCHOOL BOARDS]
By Karla Schuster | Tallahassee Bureau
Posted March 7, 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- A massive overhaul of Florida's school code is headed to the House floor with a controversial provision that would eliminate salaries for school board members, drawing sharp rebukes from local education officials.
By a 12-7 vote, a House committee on Wednesday approved an amendment proposed by Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah, making local school board seats essentially volunteer jobs, noting that school board members earn more than first-year teachers in most Florida school districts.
In Miami-Dade County, school board members earn about $38,000 annually, compared with about $33,000 a year for first-year teachers, Arza said.
Broward and Palm Beach County School Board members earn $35,782 a year. First-year teachers without a master's degree earn $30,300 a year in Broward and $31,725 in Palm Beach County.
"What kind of message are we sending when we pay people in the classroom less than those on the school board?" Arza, a government teacher at Miami Senior High School, told the House Council of Lifelong Learning.
Arza's measure generated some of the most heated debate of the more than 80 proposed amendments to the school code revision bill (PCB 02-01), which is a high priority for Gov. Jeb Bush because it codifies key elements of the education reorganization he pushed through the Legislature last year.
Arza and other council members pointed out that members of the Florida Board of Education and the trustee boards at each state university, bodies created as part of Bush's education reorganization, are not paid.
But unlike the state board and the university trustees, local school board members are elected, not appointed, and they meet more often, opponents of the amendment argued.
"We believe school board members are dedicated, hard-working public servants," said Joy Frank, general counsel for the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. "The salary sometimes makes or breaks the decision whether someone runs for office or not."
Karla Schuster is a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune publishing company.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
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