Jeb's class-size repeal penalizes South Florida

Gov. Bush's plan to repeal the class-size amendment would cheat South Florida schools out of millions of dollars. He's been lobbying for support but won't find much in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties unless he treats their budgets more fairly.

Last week, number crunchers for the Palm Beach County School District calculated that the district would come out $4,443,706 behind if Gov. Bush's plan were to go into effect. One proposal in the Legislature would put class-size repeal to a vote in February 2006. The same calculations show Miami-Dade losing about $11.5 million and Broward about $9.7 million in the first year.

The governor wants voters to dilute the class-size amendment in return for higher teacher pay. It wouldn't be a good deal in South Florida because the one-size-fits-all proposal does not take into account the region's existing higher salaries and much higher cost of living. Gov. Bush's plan would set $35,000 as the minimum salary for beginning teachers in Florida and give all teachers making at least $33,000 a $2,000 raise. While those would be significant increases in many North Florida counties where home prices are relatively cheap, South Florida districts already pay beginning teachers roughly that much, and $2,000 would be a much less significant increase for a Palm Beach County teacher staggered by median home prices topping $350,000.

The loss to South Florida would come on top of losses inflicted by the Legislature's decision last year to benefit North and Central Florida by doing away with the old cost-of-living adjustment that used to make allocations fairer. Then there's the potential loss if the Senate this year passes its plan to shift another $95 million in school revenue north. If a perfect storm of losses were to hit, the combined drain would be more than $30 million in Palm Beach, nearly $41 million in Broward and more than $75 million in Miami-Dade. Martin and St. Lucie counties would lose nearly $700,000 each under the Senate's shift, but the perfect storm for them actually would be worth about $114,000 to Martin and $849,000 to St. Lucie, which pay teachers less on average.

Potential losses to South Florida under Gov. Bush's plan are harder to take because his sudden interest in teacher pay is so political. As The Post reported last week, the $1.6 billion in recurring tax cuts Gov. Bush has supported since 1999 could have raised the minimum teacher salary statewide from $31,700 to $40,500 and increased the average teacher salary from $41,200 to $49,100. Even as he says Florida can't afford smaller classes and better-paid teachers, Gov. Bush this year supported cutting another $430 million in recurring state revenue. Asked about his belated push for higher salaries, Gov. Bush said: "Why did it take six years? I don't know. That's a good question."

In 2002, Floridians passed an amendment that required the state to pay for smaller classes. The state hasn't. The new promise is that, in return for repeal, the state will pay teachers better. Why should voters believe that? We don't know. That's a good question.