WEAR TV’s Tanner Stewart interviewed State Rep. Michelle Salzman regarding her call for the Florida DOGE to audit Escambia County Public Schools over its board raising the millage for capital outlay.
- Salzman said, “The idea of raising taxes at a time when literally, almost a hundred percent of your constituency are demanding you lower taxes. That raises a red flag, really, because it’s like, are you not listening? Are you not paying attention?”
Stewart also interviewed Terry St. Cyr, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and business services, who pointed out that many of the district’s fixed costs aren’t tied to the number of students.
- “You can’t just stop doing it because the students are not there. That’s more of a general fund area,” said St. Cyr. “It isn’t an unusual scenario for any school district to levy the full 1.5 mils and then to adopt what the state tells them to adopt in order to receive the per people funding.”
Stewart reported that many Florida school districts already levy up to 1.5 mils, as School Superintendent Keith Leonard told me yesterday.
Calling in DOGE
Salzman spoke with Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia at the GOP gala in Orlando on Saturday, and Ingoglia posted on X: “So let me get this straight… Escambia School Board wants to RAISE property taxes because they have LESS workload.”
- The Florida CFO shared the NorthEscambia.com story on the tax increase and tagged Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Typical big government logic. This is proof that they are spending way too much on administration and not enough in the classroom.”
Voucher Increase Instability
Basics: When students initially leave public schools to use vouchers, state funding follows them, leading to lower revenue for public schools. If these students later return, districts must readjust their resources but may not recapture lost funds, depending on timing and funding formula. The Florida Legislature is aware of the problem but hasn’t addressed.
- Districts make staffing decisions based on projected enrollment. Significant movement of students out of and back into public schools leads to instability, as districts may cut teaching and support staff after voucher exits and then need to rehire or reallocate resources if students re-enroll.
State Sen. Don Gaetz is a believer in choice in education, but the current funding system has created two different education systems funded with tax dollars.
“I think you have to make sure that if taxpayer dollars are going to any educational institution, that there is some accountability,” he said in an interview last year. “And I am afraid that what we have begun to develop are really two systems, a standard conventional public education system where we demand an extraordinary amount of accountability—maybe too much, maybe not enough.”
He continued, “And then, we’re paying over money in vouchers to educational institutions, some of which are doing a remarkable job and giving people a new opportunity to live, to be educated, to get a real job, but some of those educational institutions that take vouchers may be taking advantage of the lack of accountability.”