BRADENTON — A group of Manatee County parents who are concerned about cuts in state education funding is making efforts to let state lawmakers know they are fed up.
Dozens of Manatee County School District parents this week joined forces with Fund Education Now, an Orlando-based advocacy group.
About two dozen of the state’s 67 school districts are now represented in the statewide alliance. The group’s mission is to inspire parents, teachers and residents to become advocates for education excellence and funding reform in the state.
A trio of parents from Orlando started the alliance in February after becoming frustrated with budget cuts and unfunded mandates.
Their strategy: Get all the state’s school districts to form one advocacy group to speak as one voice.
“This is in response to the Legislature’s repeated choice not to execute their responsibility to fund public education as required by Article 9 in the state constitution,” said Kathleen Oropeza, one of the co-founders.
She said districts have more than their share of unfunded mandates, when a law is passed stating that districts must provide certain services, but the state does not fund them, in turn, putting the financial burden on local taxpayers.
“We want to create a permanent and muscular voice for our kids, hold elected officials accountable and define and establish a true solution that reflects what we expect of public education in Florida,” she said.
About 40 parents in the Manatee school district formally merged with the group during the district’s Joint Parent Organization quarterly meeting on Tuesday.
“We’re trying to become uniform and get the state to listen — to speak as one voice now rather as individual counties,” said Christine Sket, who heads the Manatee group.
Oropeza and the two other alliance founders, Linda Kobert and Christine Bramuchi, all have children who attend Blanker Elementary, a K-8 school in Orlando. They decided to do something about crippling budget cuts after Superintendent Ron Blocker approached them earlier this year about an estimated $240 million loss of state funding.
“He told us, ‘This is a wake-up call, get your parents, sound the alarm and tell them to start advocating. We cannot do this by ourselves,’ ’’ she said.
Blocker could not be reached for comment Wednesday because he was in Portland, Ore.
Since 2007, the Legislature has cut the K-12 education budget by almost $1.4 billion. according to the 2009-10 Florida Legislature Budget Conference Report. In 2006, the state spent $7,400 per pupil and now it spends $6,400 per pupil, said Bramuchi. The national average is more than $10,000.
“For starters, it should be somewhere near the national average,” Oropeza said. “We have to consider and delve into corporate tax reform in the state.”
Manatee School Board Chairman Walter Miller attended the meeting this week with others, including Sket and Oropeza, and said he welcomes the alliance and its local supporters.
“It gets parents involved. These are their children,” Miller said. “It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for legislators to adequately fund education in this economy but it is still their responsibility. They need to find new sources of revenue.”
In an effort to educate voters, the group created a Web site that covers various school-related issues.
“For example, this week we touch on the graduation and high school dropout rates,” she said.
Oropeza said she looks forward to working with Manatee parent advocates. They plan to meet four times a year.
“Christine is going to provide strong leadership for the parents of Manatee,” she said. “I’m so impressed with (Superintendent) Tim McGonegal and his very forward thinking. He understands the value the voters and parents bring to this discussion.”
McGonegal could not be reached for comment Wednesday because he was out of town.
“It’s really important that people not think their voice isn’t important.” Oropeza said. “They should never think their letter or phone call doesn’t count because it does.”
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