Throughout this semester, I've followed the county school board and government by reading The Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times, and I've noticed that Hillsborough County dealt with two main issues: the budget cuts and public access to government.
Schools all over Florida are facing budget cuts.
Specifically Hillsborough County schools have had to deal with budget cuts and the next school year is not looking much better. The school board is seriously considering cutting back on spending by a total of $55 million (by approximately $26 million the first half of the year and $28 million the second half). The district has estimated another $30 million in cuts for the 2009-2010 school year.
Superintendent MaryEllen Elia has said that Hillsborough County has made many of the same cuts as other school districts, except for some measures like massive layoffs. Hillsborough has cut 20 percent of its budget over the last few years.
Other cutbacks have included a hiring freeze, not filling vacancies, cutting supplies, cutting travel and reducing the number of school bus routes by 1,000. The district also converted to a 7-class period day. While it eliminated a planning period for teachers, it saved the district $38 million.
The second round of cuts may have more of an effect in the classroom. Students at Jefferson High School held its homecoming at the school this year to save money. In addition, the student planners that are usually given to all students were given only to freshman and sophomores because of the lack of funds.
The school board consider layoffs a last resort, but schools are being asked to look at their staff size.
Much is suffering during this economic crisis, but governments in the States have placed education below other issues for a long time--Hillsborough County government is not exempted. When schools are suffering while corporations are fighting for buy-outs and getting bailed out of the current economic crisis by the government, Florida's priorities seem a bit skewed.
Florida has long held a broad right of access. We have a consitutional right to access public records, whether it be e-mail, video, audio, paper documents or even Post-It notes. The
Sunshine Laws basically state that we have access to any public records or meetings, and public agencies must comply and let people access the records in a reasonable manner.
When I participated in the Florida Society of Newspaper Editor's public records audit, I had heard from many of our guest speakers about how accommodating an agency would be to those requesting records.
Florida in the Sunshine is a great concept, but it doesn't seem to be working in action. I went to the Hillsborough County School Board t ask for e-mail records, and I came out five minutes later with no records and no idea of when they would be made available. The people I spoke to were immediately suspicious of me and acted as though fulfilling my request would be big inconvenience.
I had to act like a regular citizen, meaning I only had a general knowledge of the Sunshine Laws. Now, I know what I would do if I were in this situation again and not a part of the audit, but I wonder whether a regular citizen would just walk out with nothing like I did and give up.
The governement needs to enforce the public records laws if they are to be followed. In addtion, citizens should be better informed of their right of access. Not all of them have the opportunity to take a Public Affairs Reporting class. People don't even show up to most public meetings. If the newspapers or the local news stations told people about public meetings tell them (in advance) when and where they will be held.
Hillborough County is not perfect, but it can be the best it can be if the public fully utilizes its right to public records and the governement fully enforces the public records laws.
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