South Florida Schools Concerned About Budget Decision

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Florida legislators are expected to cut more than $1 billion dollars from education in a budget they will vote on Friday night.

The cuts mean school funding for the state will decrease 7.5% from last year or about $540 dollars per student.

Carmen Zaldivar fears what the cuts to education will mean for her autistic son -- Jorge -- a sophomore at Everglades High School. Jorge is an ESE student.

"ESE students are traditionally helped with drama and music," Zaldivar told CBS 4's Carey Codd. "I don't know if we're going to have drama and music. I don't know if we're going to have sports."

State legislators said the 7.5% number is misleading. They said school districts will save some money by not having to fully pay for teacher's pensions. Under a new law, teachers will pay 3% of their income into their pensions.

Also, legislators said districts were expected to save millions in federal stimulus funding from last year.

Miami Schools Spokesman John Schuster said they expect to see a drop in funding of $85 million but hope to retain all of their employees and programs.

"We'll do our best to preserve all of the programs -- especially art, music, world languages and physical education," Schuster said.

Schuster said in three years the district's budget has declined from $6.3 billion to $4.3 billion.

The Broward School District said each school is working on its' budget and trying to determine which programs and jobs to save. Spokesperson Nadine Drew said the district is considering a host of options to make up a $100 budget gap.

The district is looking at teacher layoffs, fewer electives and larger class sizes to help cut costs.

Broward Teacher's Union spokesperson John Ristow said no layoffs have been announced at this time and likely won't be until the middle of May.

"Our goal at the Broward Teacher's Union is to make sure cuts to student programming are minimized," Ristow said.

Nova Southeastern University Professor Dr. Charles Zelden follows the budget process in Tallahassee closely.

"The real simple answer is we are not adequately funding education in this state and haven't for a long time and it's getting worse instead of better," Zelden said.

For parents like Carmen Zaldivar, they wonder why legislators made the choices they made in slashing funding for education.

"As a taxpayer, I'm very upset," she said. "I understand there's less money but I also think there's better decisions that could be made."