With about a week to go before the end of the school year, many students and teachers are filled with excitement but a looming budget crisis has a lot of teachers worried about their bottom line.
The education community is encouraging Governor Rick Scott to veto the budget and education bill that goes along with it, but he hasn't made a decision yet.
Kathi Gundlach is a former teacher and now the president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association. She called the budget an embarrassment. "It's scary, it's scary what they are trying to do," she says. "There is not enough going to true public education. We need to raise the base student allocation, this budget cuts it by 27 dollars, goes back to 2007-2008 funding."
She wants more people to continue flooding the governor's office with phone calls, telling him to use his veto power.
What I think is- everyone who can hear me and can hear my voice- should call the governor and say this shouldn't be a tough decision. You need to veto the budget and conforming bill HB 7069."
Governor Scott was visiting a Boca Raton business and was asked about his plans for the education funding bill. "I'm reviewing all my options. I can veto the bill, I can veto the budget, veto a portion of the budget, veto lines of the budget so I'm reviewing all my options," he said.
Gunlach hopes the governor listens to the education advocates who say this bill also puts more pressure on teachers' pockets. "It's an added burden, yes, the fact that there is so little money in the budget for education it does increase the burden. Teachers get about $200 a year from the state to buy items for their classroom, that's very little of what we put into it. Teachers spend up to $1,000 a year on their classrooms. You have to look at the overall picture, and when you cut student allocation, it hurts."
"Teachers are angry because they do feel that it's not respectful of what they do, teachers work hard every day."
The Governor pointed out that he asked for more money per student.
"One thing as governor, I don't get to add things to the budget, I get to review the budget. I'm going to do everything I can to continue to fight for education," he said.
Gunlach points to so many education organizations coming together, like school boards, teachers unions and superintendents, to show they all agree on this. "It is the worst budget possible, it's like a perfect storm so I think everyone rallying around it saying this is not good makes it clear that this is not a good idea."
The Governor's Office says Governor Scott has not physically received the budget or the education bill yet. Once he does, he will have 15 days to make a decision.