Florida Tax and Budget Reform Commission

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Florida Tax and Budget Reform Commission

• Innovation, Efficiency and High Quality
• July 20, 2007

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The Collins Center

• Established 1988
• Private, independent, nonpartisan
• Miami-Tallahassee
• Mark Pritchett, Executive Vice President
• Doug Tuthill, Education Consultant

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Key Points

• Innovation drives efficiency addressing
  challenges such as overcrowding and diverse,
  mobile families
• Innovation is important to high quality education
• Legal threats to innovation can wipe out
  constitutionally mandated efficiency, adequacy,
  uniformity and high quality

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Education Innovations

• Florida Virtual Schools Program
• Charter Schools
• Voluntary Pre-K Program
• Home Education
• Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship for Low Income
  Children
• McKay Scholarship Program for Special Education
  Students

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Efficient

• Adequate provision shall be made by law for a
  uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high
  quality system of free public schools.
• Article IX, Section 1
• Florida Constitution

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Savings Calculations

• 1. Student station savings
• Student enrollment x 15,412
• 2005 average actual cost of elementary school per
  student station
• __________________________________________________
  ____
• 2. Operating savings
• Student Enrollment x (6,155 - Innovation Program
  Cost to State)
• 6,155 2005 FEFP

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Innovation Efficiency Totals

• Students served 323,797
• Operating savings 389,687,253
• Capital savings 4,128,653,415
• Total Tax Payer Savings
• 4,518,340,688
• 2005 FY data except for 2006 Virtual School
  data

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Florida Virtual School

• 54,100 students enrolled
• 6,769 successful completions
• 2006 FY estimated annual savings
• 1,617,791 (operating)
• 58,365,244 (3,787 student stations)
• Total 59,983,035

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Charter Schools

• 92,214 students
• 2005 FY estimated annual savings
• 28,401,912 (operating)
• 1,421,202,168 (student stations)
• Total 1,449,604,080

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Voluntary Pre-K Program

• 105,896 total children participate
• 88,423 in faith based private providers
• 2005 FY estimated annual savings
• 0 (operating)
• 1.36 billion (student stations)
• Total 1,363,571,083

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Home Education

• 52,613 students _at_ 36,000 homes
• 2005 FY estimated annual savings
• 323,833,015 (operating)
• 810,871,556 (student stations)
• Total 1,134,704,571

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Corporate Tax Credit Program

• 13,497 low income students
• 2005 FY estimated annual savings
• 35,834,535 (operating)
• 208,015,764 (student stations)
• Total 243,850,000

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McKay Scholarship ProgramSpecial Education
Students

• 17,300 special education students
• 2005 FY estimated annual savings
• 0 (operating)
• 266,627,600 (student stations)
• Total 266,627,600

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Effectiveness
Adequate provision shall be made by law for a
uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high
quality system of free public schools. Article
IX, Section 1 Florida Constitution
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Legal Threat to Innovation

• Holmes decision
• Uniformity
• Blaine
• If applied to Charter Schools, CTC, McKay, and V
  Pre-K
• Children affected 229,041
• Operating shortfall 96,982,000
• Capital shortfall 4,055,885,172
• Cost to Tax Payers 4,152,867,172
• 2007 data and estimates

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Recommendations

• Expand public education to include qualified
  publicly-funded private providers
• Focus on uniformity of opportunity not
  uniformity of delivery
• Remove barriers to innovations
• Enable more local flexibility to spur creativity