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Universities To Legislature: We Need To Fix Our Buildings!

March 31st, 2014 by flanews

As lawmakers dig in to put the finishing touches on a budget that’s expected to be more than 74 billion dollars, charter schools and traditional classrooms are war over will get money for maintenance.  A proposal from one of the state’s cabinet members could go a long way in helping public schools and universities.

Freshman Courtney Hollis hasn’t been on FloridaState’s campus long, but she sees some room for improvement.

“I think we have a lot of nice buildings but maybe one that I’ve been in that could use some work is the chemistry lab,” said Hollis.

Students around the state have the same feeling.  When student body presidents came together last week at the Capitol, they asked lawmakers to remember how old some of their campus classrooms are.

“It’s difficult for people to expect us to cure cancer or get us to Mars if we’re learning in classrooms that were built before the eradication of small pox,” said University of North Florida Student Body President Carlo Fassi.

It’s not about diminishing the history of some of the campus buildings, but the state’s agricultural commissioner would at least like to bring them to the 21st century.

Much of public school infrastructure money comes from Public Education Capital Outlay or PECO funds which is funded by a tax on cable tv and landline phones.

“Think of the irony, think of the absurdity, that we are building dorms for the smartphone generation using taxes on landlines to pay for that building,” said Putnam.

No PECO funds were given to public schools between 2011 and 2013. Charter schools got more than $100 million dollars. Putnam’s plan would shift more than $200 million dollars toward the fund through portions of business electricity taxes. Governor Rick Scott’s proposed budget is asking for just 80 million dollars in capital funds.

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