Throughout the state of Florida school officials, teachers and students alike are in a state of limbo, not knowing what to expect now that education here in Florida might take a harder hit than ever. Over $3 billion might be cut from Florida’s educational budget, with Governor Rick Scott’s new budget proposal on the horizon. That means approximately around 10 percent, which indicates millions of dollars, from each district will be cut for funding education.

            “The latest numbers tell us that there will be at least 20,000 teachers that will get laid off across the state,” said social studies teacher Mr. Daniel Vinat

            Due to Florida’s overwhelming deficit, these cuts to Florida’s education are being made in Scott’s efforts to balance the overall budget in Florida. Scott plans on making these cuts by not accepting any more federal stimulus money the state has received in its previous years.  

“I think if we are professionals, we should be paid as professionals. We should be treated as a professional career just like doctors and lawyers are,” said Mr. Vinat.

The federal stimulus money sent to Florida by President Barak Obama was initially used to help keep crucial programs up and running, halt anymore possible pay cuts, and even save jobs. Discontinuing any more of the stimulus money is a part of the strict fiscal conservative viewpoint Scott campaigned with to win governor.

“As governor, I’ll require accountability budgeting to force the bureaucrats in Tallahassee to justify every tax dollar they spend,” he said on rickscottforflorida.com.

Many fiscal conservatives believe in the concept of making due with what we have. Scott is planning on not just cutting off federal stimulus money this year but for many years to come.

“Take this for an instance; if you were to receive lets say $40,000 that $40,000 will pay for one teacher. That same $40,000 dollars is not always going to be there, and he/she will just end up getting laid off,” said James Roman, an intern teacher from Florida International University. “So why even hire that teacher with the stimulus money if that teacher is going to get laid off? That’s the fiscal conservative mindset when making these decisions.”

Miami-Dade is especially said to get affected by this massive cut on education. Miami-Dade already has higher cost of living due to the fact that it is home to over two million residents, and many say they need all the help they can get.

“We don’t know what to expect yet, since budget conferences haven’t happened yet. But the superintendent of our schools says that the new budget will leave us in a huge deficit,” said principal Connie Navarro. “I would like to see education to be funded the way it should be.”

Miami-Dade is also a product of the district cost differential legislation, where all counties throughout Florida get the same amount of money distributed to them for education. Counties, such as Duval, which have fewer students than Miami-Dade, benefit from this being they get more money to spend per student. The overall budget cuts are said not to help the situation, yet still many have an opportunity to change the minds of the legislatures throughout Florida and make a difference.

“Until the budget is approved by Tallahassee, I think that young people such as yourself should go out and vote and let their legislatures and representatives know what they think,” said Navarro.