School Climate & Safety

Florida’s School-Crowding Woes Offer Fodder for Ongoing Debate

By Kerry A. White — September 24, 1997 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Press Floridians to put a price tag on the school crowding problem in their state, and they’ll sigh heavily and say it depends.

That’s because Florida’s governor, the state education commissioner, state lawmakers, and school groups are brandishing figures that are billions of dollars apart, and state officials’ assessments of classroom crowding range from schools having ample classroom space to an $11.1 billion construction backlog.

This despite a long summer of well-publicized meetings led by Gov. Lawton Chiles intended not only to reconcile those billion-dollar differences, but also to come up with a long-term solution to the state’s crowding problem.

Fueling the arguments is a new law requiring districts to count 75 percent of their portable classrooms and all music rooms, art rooms, and computer labs as permanent, regular classroom space.

The law, known as House Bill 2121, was passed on the last day of the legislative session last May. It eliminated much of the state’s need for new schools, at least on paper. It could shrink the total dollar estimate of school construction needs as low as $775 million. Details of the law’s implementation are still being ironed out, and likely will be made final during a special legislative session expected to be held before Thanksgiving.

‘Other People’s Money’

Sponsors of the measure, which also limits the size of new classrooms that districts build, said its intention is to curb wasteful spending on school construction.

“It’s always a question of more money--other people’s money. It’s time for schools to be frugal and functional,” said Rep. Stephen R. Wise, a Republican who chairs a key education committee. “Somehow, educational professionals have said you can’t learn in portable classrooms. Well, I know a lot of doctors, lawyers, and scientists who were schooled in portables.”

But since its passage, the law has been blasted by the Democratic governor and school officials.

“The bill is an attempt to hide the problem,” said Gary Landry, a spokesman for the Florida Education Association United, the state’s second-largest teachers’ union and an American Federation of Teachers affiliate, which assesses the state’s total school construction needs at $3.5 billion. “Everyone’s doing a lot of denying and finger-pointing, but the bottom line is, we’ve got overcrowding.”

However big a problem, the crowding itself stems from the more than 600,000 students who have poured into the state’s schools over the past 10 years. But an end may be in sight, as the number of students enrolling in public schools in Florida is expected to begin slowing down by 2002, according to the state education department. The projected slowdown is one of the reasons many lawmakers want to tame school construction spending.

Not a Permanent Classroom

Critics say the new law fails to take into account how portable classrooms can impede learning and strain core school facilities such as libraries, cafeterias, and bathrooms.

“Portables were never intended to be permanent,” said Dewitt Lewis, the principal of the 250-student Waldo Community School in Alachua County, where about one-third of the students attend classes in the school’s seven portable classrooms.

Mr. Lewis said the students who spend their school days in portables lack the same access to technology as their peers in the main school building, get wet moving to the lunchroom or library on rainy days, and are displaced during bouts of severe weather.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Opinion What Do Restorative Practices Look Like in Schools?
Such practices teach students how to resolve disputes amicably, own their actions, and be empathetic and forgiving.
9 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety School Dress Codes Often Target Girls. What Happens When Male Teachers Have to Enforce Them?
Male teachers say the task can put them in a risky and uncomfortable position.
11 min read
Image of articles of clothing on a coat hook outside a school entrance.
Laura Baker/Education Week via Canva
School Climate & Safety Are School Buses Safe? An Expert Explains
A perennial concern is getting new attention.
4 min read
Photo of rescue workers and turned over school bus.
Brandy Taylor / iStock / Getty Images Plus
School Climate & Safety A School Removed Bathroom Mirrors to Keep Students From Making TikToks. Will It Work?
The desperate strategy for keeping students in class illuminates the challenge schools face in competing with social media.
5 min read
Empty blue school bathroom showing the bathroom sinks without mirrors.
iStock/Getty