It’s nothing new to say that public schools in America are having money troubles. Teachers in many states are making at or below a livable wage, administrators consistently are being asked to do more with less, and the federal government continues to do very little to fix either of those issues. Now Florida schools are finding out that they’ll be taking an historic hit to their budget next year which is leading to hundreds of teachers losing their jobs and programs being cut for students.

One major issue in Florida is the legislature still hasn’t approved their budget for the upcoming year, leaving school districts to guess what money they’ll have next year. Orange County Public School Board member Angie Gallo says it’s leaving everyone in a tough position. “The budget should have been passed in March,” Gallo told Spectrum News. “It’s almost into May and we still have no budget. It does create a challenge when we are building out our budget when we don’t yet have the numbers from the state.” 

Gallo and the other school board members in her district voted earlier this year to close seven schools due to declining enrollment, an issue districts across Florida have increasingly been dealing with. Miami-Dade County will either close or repurpose nine schools next year as enrollment drops. District officials say one contributing factor has been a sharp decline in newly arriving immigrant students compared to previous years. Superintendent Jose Dotres noted that, within the past three to four years, the district typically registered between 14,000 and 22,000 new students from other countries each year, compared to roughly 3,000 this year.

In Lee County, the community has started protesting massive cuts and realignments leading to many teachers being let go. Superintendent Denise Carlin says the cuts are necessary. “I’m not about cutting classroom teachers just to cut classroom teachers,” Carlin said during a recent conference. “We are giving the schools a budget based on the student enrollment that they are going to have in the fall, and then they will start those schools in accordance with a priority of student achievement.” However, despite claiming that extracurricular activities, arts programs and athletics won’t be cut, Carlin has admitted those programs will be losing teachers leaving many in the district to question who will be left to replace them.

To make matters worse in Lee County, teachers and parents say the math isn’t adding up. The district claims enrollment has dropped by nearly 2,000 students and that’s what is causing a $47-million budget shortfall. But the district only receives $9,000 per student which would amount to a far lower number. Now parent and teacher groups have taken to protesting at the district office and at school board meetings to voice their displeasure.

The budget issue has affected so many districts, that the Florida Educator Association along with various parent groups and civil rights organizations have now filed a lawsuit against the state claiming that $5-billion marked for public schools has been improperly diverted to private and charter schools. They claim it’s a violation of the Florida constitution which requires the legislature to adequately fund public schools.

The crux of the lawsuit centers around the Family Empowerment Scholarship which is a Florida program that provides money to parents who want to send their kids to charter, private or religious schools. Florida’s Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas says the scholarship gives parents the freedom to pick the school that best fits their child. Detractors say most of that money goes to wealthy parents who were already sending their children to private schools, and it’s public schools that are paying the price.

According to Florida’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, less than 16% of Florida students are using vouchers to attend private schools, yet the voucher program is using up over 25% of the state’s education budget. Florida Educator Association President Andrew Spar says its bad enough that public schools are being unfunded, but they are also over-scrutinized compared to charter and private schools. ““Floridians have made it clear we should be strengthening not abandoning our public schools,” Spar told Palm Beach County’s CBS 12.