Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Posted on July 6th, 2016 by Thomas Kennedy

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Recently the School District Fix Capital Outlay Funding report by the House Education Appropriations subcommittee has been making its rounds on social media. This questionable report has undoubtedly been shared in hopes of proving that the Citrus School Board has not been a good steward of taxpayers’ money. This report being shared is highly suspect and many news reports questioned its credibility. (see http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/incoming-speaker-corcoran-says-bill-that-would-benefit-his-wifes-charter/2271194 and http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article59914131.html).

In February I blogged about this very subject post and how misleading this report was: (https://thomastalks.org/2016/02/06/rep-fresen-battles-with-superintendents-over-construction-costs-then-files-bill/)

To recap: the School District Fix Capital Outlay Funding report’s purpose was to show that schools did not use their capital dollars responsibly. It reported that Citrus spent $249,652 per student station. That would be true IF you divided the $5 million whole school renovation project by 18 student stations. However, the project encompassed more than 18 student stations. It also included a new media center, a new cafeteria, a new multipurpose room, a new stage, a new covered play area, and other related areas all sized to meet the needs of the entire school. Rep. Fresen said that because the state requires that student station costs not exceed $18,000 per student, Citrus was an example of exceeding the student station limit. However, had just the area of the student station cost been in the report, and not the additional items mentioned, the actual cost would have been well under the $18,000 per student station cost. Furthermore, the project received prior approval from the Florida Department of Education.

What made this report even more suspect was that the authors, Rep. Fresen and Rep. Corcoran, have a clear ethic concern as this report was published to make a case to provide more capital funding to Charter schools of which both of these Representatives have personal strong business connections. (see http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article59914131.html and http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/incoming-speaker-corcoran-says-bill-that-would-benefit-his-wifes-charter/2271194)

If that wasn’t enough, as a result of this report the Florida House– on the last day of session– approved the controversial “train bill” HB 7029 which added new sanctions to school districts that violated projects over the set per student station cap. This educational bill included forced local opened enrollment for out of county students and a new state law that allows students to opt out of standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I personally do not agree with this new law or much of anything else found in the approved HB 7029. (see http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_3b185194-a5b4-5a9b-a231-647f1ba2bd73.html and Overview of HB 7029 Relating to Education , DOE Memo with Summary of Key HB 7029 Provisions , FHSAA Analysis of HB 7029 Provisions on Athletics)

Please learn the facts!

I would encourage you to study these links below on this School Capital Outlay Report Report: (below are linkable)

FADSS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FADSS Response to Capital Outlay Report, 2/1/16

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