Great Question: How do we fund Safe Public School Transportation in the State of Florida?

We Fund Our Schools through Several Revenue Streams, Federal, State, Local Property Tax and County Sale Tax

Safe Public School Transportation to Public Schools is funded primarily through:

·         Florida Property Land Owner State Educational Tax dollars

·         Florida Land Owners County Educational Property tax revenue

(Special Needs transportation receives Federal Funds through Several Streams)

We will explain the Base Funding for Safe Public School Bus Transportation:

a)      Every land owner in Florida pays State Educational Tax Dollars in their Property Tax bill

b)      Every land owner in Florida also pays a County Educational Tax in their Property Tax bill

c)       Your State Educational Tax Dollars are placed in a big pot to be divided by a formula set by the legislature to be distributed across the State (The reason for this formula is to ensure areas with low local tax revenue are able to have equal access to funding & public education resources)

d)      The local County School Districts Fund Safe Public School Transportation with your State Land Owner Educational Taxes & Your County Land Owners Educational Tax

e)      Every County in the State of Florida adds to your State Educational tax dollars to complete the full funding for your students Safe Public School Transportation.

a.       In many Counties such as St. Johns County the portion is 2% of the Cost. In Hillsborough County it is a 46/54 split between your State Educational Tax dollars & your County Educational Tax Dollars.

·         No matter how you slice it. Funding for Safe School Bus Transportation is fully funded by public tax dollars, for public school students to travel to public school.

So, it appears people are concerned with State Funding Educational Dollars & how much this will add or subtract from funding in the Classroom. I will explain the State portion & then give an example of what that looks like in 2 Counties. I will utilize base unweighted numbers for clarity; there are a lot of variables which add to funding.

2018 -2019 FEFP (Florida Educational Finance Program)

Base Student Allocation $4,204.42

                Several Categories are added to the base Full Time Student Allocation  (A total of 18)

Total Base Per Student Allocation Including the Funding for Transportation per Student:

$7,428.79

Total Base FEFP Funding 2018 -2019 School Year: $16,366,679,632

Total Student Transportation Allocation from your Base Student Allocation:

$443,043,407

.027%

 of (FEFP) Florida State Educational Tax Dollars is for Safe Public School Bus Transportation to School

This does NOT include your County Educational Tax Dollars

How does this funding look in a local County District?

·         Let us look at Hillsborough County School District, the 8th largest school District in the Nation:

1)    HCPS transportation budget is funded with 46% with your State Educational tax dollars. 

2)    Safe School Bus Public Transportation Cost is .018% of the total 3.3 Billion dollar HCPS budget. 

3)    If you doubled the budget to ensure every child had a seat on the bus and our County Educational Tax Dollars covered 75% of the cost of providing Safe Public School Bus transportation without any additional legislative change, it would be .024% of HCPS budget. This equate to only a .006% of an increase in spending for public school bus transportation to public school for Hillsborough County Public Schools.

4)    Total Cost to Transport 1 Student in Hillsborough County for 1 year $1,121.23

5)    Total Cost to Transport 1 Student in St. Johns County for 1 year $ 567.

People are asking, will this take away from the classroom funding?

·         No, safe public school transportation is another categorical line in the Per Student Allocation. The proposed legislation would require additional funding to protect students’ lives, especially our children walking in hazardous walking conditions.

·         We can and should fully fund all aspects to equal access to public education. We should especially fully fund areas where student’s lives are on the line.

Several Other category of weighted funding for Special Needs, Military Students, Federal land, Federal Funds not included in the Base Student Allocation.