Reduced School Overcrowding
In November 1996, Governor Chiles appointed the Governor's Commission on Education, a blue-ribbon panel of business leaders that took a comprehensive look at the state's education system. Though the Commission's charge was to look to the future, its first series of recommendations called attention to the basics — the need to reduce Florida's desperately overcrowded schools.
When the 1997 Legislature ignored the recommendations, Governor Chiles took the message to the people — criss-crossing the state in vintage Walkin' Lawton style.
Governor Chiles visited schools across the state and saw too many of Florida's 2.2 million school children eating lunch at 10:00 a.m., attending classes in hallways, converted closets and other inappropriate areas, and facing the school day in unsafe conditions, leading to discipline problems for the teachers.
Florida's public school enrollment had increased by 60,000 students each year for the previous nine years. Florida had the largest elementary schools in the nation and had more students per school, from pre-kindergarten through high school, than any other state. And more than 305,000 of the state's public school students, or 14 percent, attended class in a portable unit.
Governor Chiles called a special session on education held in November 1997 to help end the classroom crunch. With strong support from the Florida PTA and other education groups, Chiles sent a message to lawmakers that our children deserve better. He fought for a comprehensive long-term solution to solve the problem for Florida's school children. At the end of the special session, lawmakers sent a bill to Governor Chiles that include $2.7 billion for school construction and renovation. The centerpiece of the education plan allows up to $2 billion in state money to flow to districts through a modified Public Education Capital Outlay formula. Other dollars available under the plan include $200 million in the School Infrastructure Trust Fund to reward districts that build cost-effective schools, encourage enrollment in charter schools and recognize high-quality, functional and cost-efficient schools.
