Florida community colleges could lose millions in budget cuts, Central Florida 13 News

December 29, 2008

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's community colleges have learned they are on the chopping block, and could see at least $21 million in budget cuts.
In response, some lawmakers want to loosen the rules over the amount of money community colleges are required to have in the bank.

Community colleges currently must stash away 5 percent of their total budgets, but some lawmakers argue that money could prevent layoffs and equipment shortages.
The lawmakers said that law was passed for a reason -- to have security in the midst of uncertainty -- but Rep. Will Weatherford, the state House's point man on community college funding, noted the 5 percent holdback does not do much good if it cannot be accessed.

"This whole act, I think, is healthy," Weatherford said. "It's not fun cutting budgets. It's not fun going through this process, but it forces us to look at how we do state government, and what kind of mandates do we put on local government, and can we do better?"
Under Gov. Charlie Crist's budget-cutting proposal, there is also another $43 million, mostly in new building construction, that community colleges could lose.

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Low marks on higher education, St. Pete Times

December 28, 2008
By Donald R. Eastman IIIThe three-ring circus of politicians, higher education and declining tax revenues in Florida is certainly entertaining, but it obscures the real issues of quality and access and further diminishes the confidence of taxpayers that their dollars will be used effectively. Consider:

• The absence of a statewide strategy and an effective coordinating body for higher education — since the demise of the Board of Regents — has been destructive of both public confidence and efficient allocation of tax dollars. Florida has spent more money on studies of how to improve the higher education system — many of them, including the recent Pappas Report and the 2004 Florida Council of 100 Report, quite good — than it has on putting those plans into effect. The current "forums" being sponsored by a few elected officials and the Florida Chambers of Commerce are a wholly unnecessary exercise. There are already plenty of good plans lying around; choose one!

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Researchers leaving state and taking their grants, Palm Beach Post

By December 25, 2008
By Kimberly Miller

When a lead Florida State University researcher needed five faculty members last year to start a landmark center dedicated to studying autism, state budget cuts prevented the school from hiring the additional professors.

The Ohio State University, however, had the money, recruited the researcher - and his more than $1 million in federal grants - and in a few years could be reaping the benefits of an autism program that may bring $10 million annually to the school.

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Crist makes budget recommendations as revenue drops,Times Advertiser

December 26, 2008

Local officials have been bracing for another round of budget cuts for several weeks. They now know how Gov. Charlie Crist is looking at the situation.

On Dec. 23 Crist sent a letter to Chief Justice Peggy Quince, Senate President Jeff Atwater, Speaker of the House Ray Sansom, and Budget Committee Chairmen Ken Pruitt and David Rivera noting the results of the recent revenue estimating conference and laying out recommendations on budget action in the coming special session of the State Legislature.

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Education groups compete for piece of the stimulus package, CQ Today Online

December 24, 2008
By Lydia Gensheimer

Teachers groups and school administrators, citing state budget shortfalls that are strangling local school districts, are continuing an end-of-the-year lobbying push to ensure education funding is part of the 2009 stimulus package.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), sent a letter Tuesday to members of Congress and President-elect Barack Obama in which she detailed the AFT’s priorities for inclusion in the package. Weingarten said the legislation should provide fiscal relief to states, investment in infrastructure and measures to increase college access. Weingarten also called for a $3 billion temporary fund for school districts to pay for activities already authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act (PL 107-110) or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA - PL 105-17).

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College handed Sansom $122M wish list, The Buzz (St. Pete Times blog)

December 22, 2008

The president of the college where Ray Sansom now works provided him with a "pricey" $122-million funding request over five years with the implicit expectation that Sansom would help "make it a reality."

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Lawmakers cash in with campus jobs, Miami Herald

December 20, 2008
By Jennifer Liberto


TALLAHASSEE -- By taking a six-figure job at a state college, House Speaker Ray Sansom has focused attention on a pattern of behavior that has gone on largely unchecked for decades in Florida's higher education system.

Even in a time of bleak finances, with curbs on enrollment and spikes in tuition, nearly two dozen current and former legislators are employed throughout the system -- six at the University of South Florida alone, including the wife of a state senator.

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