Today on MidPoint, Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent Van Ayres and School Board Member Jessica Vaughn (Dist. 3) joined us to discuss the Hillsborough County Commission’s surprise decision to delay putting a referendum on the November ballot that was approved by the school board to ask the voters to increase the property tax millage to raise money to pay teachers and school staff. Commissioners instead voted to move the millage referendum to the 2026 ballot. The county commission’s vote to postpone the teacher pay referendum to 2026 was 4 to 3 along party lines, with the Republicans in the majority. Hillsborough has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, pay for teachers in the State. In our surrounding counties, teachers are paid upward of $7,000 more a year than they are in Hillsborough, largely because all of the surrounding counties have already increased their property tax millage so that they can pay their teachers more. Consequently, Hillsborough County is hemorrhaging teachers and staff to the surrounding counties. Hillsborough County currently suffers from about 500 vacant teaching positions now, about two weeks from the start of the school year. The loss of the referendum on increasing teacher pay means it is continuing to be difficult to recruit teachers for Hillsborough County. All of those teacher vacancies will translate into larger class sizes and less instructional attention for all students in the coming years.
As usual, it’s the Republicans fault
The Republican-controlled Florida legislature has been under-funding public education in favor of charter schools and vouchers for many years. Property taxes for public schools become the only way for schools to gain any additional funding, and the funding that they do get from the county property taxes is also tightly controlled by the Legislature. So, for example, by State law the funding that schools receive from the Community Investment Tax (CIT) is limited to use for capital expenditures, like building schools and repairing air conditioning, for example; it can not be used for salaries. This year, the Hillsborough County Commission voted to put a referendum on the November ballot to approve extending the CIT, but with some significant changes affecting schools. Since the 1990’s, the CIT had allocated 25% of its revenue to the schools, but the new Republican majority commission reduced that percentage in this referendum to only 5%. As Superintendent Ayres pointed out, Hillsborough’s population has grown exponentially since the 1990’s, even more since Covid, and more schools are needed, especially in the South and East county areas. It isn’t the time to reduce the funds available to expand schools. Member Vaughn noted that the CIT was not up for renewal for another two years and the Commission did not have to put it on this year’s ballot in competition with the school board’s request for a millage increase. Because so many voters do not understand the difference between the two funding sources and the restrictions on their use, many people have challenged why there should be two referenda on the same ballot for schools. Superintendent Ayres and the school board members who support the millage increase will have to work hard to campaign for passage of their referendum if it appears on the same November ballot as the CIT referendum.
Off to the courthouse, we go
Yesterday, following the BOCC action, in a special meeting, the Hillsborough County School Board voted 4-3 to approve Ayres’ plan to ask a judge to order the commission to put the millage initiative for teacher pay back on the ballot in November. Immediately after the special meeting, the lawsuit was filed. A final decision in the school board’s favor must be entered before August 20 when the November ballots must be finalized for printing. At issue in the lawsuit is whether or not the county commission exceeded its authority by delaying the referendum to 2026 over the school board’s objection. Ayres and Vaughn both insist that the county commission only has the authority to follow the instructions of the school board in this regard, that directing the Supervisor of Elections whether and when to place the school board-approved referendum on the ballot is a strictly ministerial act for the commission, and, the commission lacks any power to change what the school board has approved. Member Vaughn argued that the failure of the commission to recognize their appropriate limited role in this matter was a direct attack on democracy and on the independent authority of the elected school board to put this issue before the voters.
There’s a new cell phone policy too
Also yesterday, the school board unanimously voted out a new cell phone policy for Hillsborough County public schools. In essence, elementary school children will not be allowed access to their cell phones during the school day. High school students may be allowed access to their phones during the lunch hour. Teachers are given greater discretion to control cell phone use as disciplinary and reward tools as well. While there is some concern that some parents will remove their children from public schools in protest over this new cell phone policy limiting their telephone access to their children during the school day, Member Vaughn and Superintendent Ayres are optimistic that the benefits of the policy will outweigh most of the parents’ concerns.
The entire July 24, 2024 episode is available for on-demand listening at wmnf.org/midpoint and as a WMNF MidPoint podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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