by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
As he prepares to head to Tallahassee for the 2006 legislative session, State Sen. Jim King has a warning for Duval County Public Schools: South Florida wants its money back.
King led a successful fight in 2004 to change the way the state funds its school districts known as the District Cost Differential. The shift took hundreds of millions away from heavily populated South Florida districts and sent the money north. In 2005 the change netted Duval County’s schools an extra $12 million, said King, who was elected to the State senate in 1999 as a representative from Dist. 8 which includes parts of Duval, St. Johns, Volusia and Nassau counties as well as all of Flagler County.
But that windfall could be short-lived if South Florida lawmakers have their way. Led by incoming House Speaker Marc Rubio of Miami, those legislators want a return to their districts’ good old days.
Several South Florida districts, including Miami-Dade County, sued unsuccessfully in 2005 to restore the old formula, which tied funding more to the cost of living than the area’s population. King was a defendant in the case with then House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and the state’s Department of Education and Board of Education. But Rubio hopes to succeed where the court challenge failed.
“It prevailed in courts and it’s the law today,” said King following a Tuesday speech to Jacksonville’s Meninak Club. “But Marco Rubio wants to get some of that money back.”
The previous cost-of-living formula provided additional school funding as a subsidy for families and teachers living in costly South Florida counties like Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.
But the method for calculating the cost of living was flawed, said King. The new method ties funding to salaries earned by certain district employees. Districts with less high-salary employees benefit from the change. Duval County schools have four administrators earning more than $125,000, said King, while Dade County has more than 100.
King said he needs support from his constituents to fend off the South Florida challenge. In addition to Rubio’s interest, the Palm Beach County School Board has made changing the DCD one of its 2006 legislative priorities.
“We will fight ardently to keep the DCD fair,” said King, who spent 12 years as a member of the Florida House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate. “But we need support from our districts back home.”
King was twice named “Legislator of the Year” by the Florida School Boards Association in 1999 and 2000 for his work on behalf of public education.