Editor's Note:
This essay was written by Frank Barbieri, the Council's 1st Vice President,
who was elected to the School Board in 2008.  Prior to that election, he
was the only president the Loggers Run HOA ever had.

At the time I am writing this, the School Board is hopefully one day

away from beginning a series of "Budget Retreats". The mission is to

analyze every line item of our $2.7 billion dollar annual budget. The

objective is to determine where we can slash expenditures without

causing the system to hemorrhage and the patient to die.
 

We seem to be amid a war of sorts in our nation - the Hatfields and the

McCoys, the Capulets and Montagues, we're red, we're blue, we're left,

we're right, Democrats, Republicans in a civil war, muskets aimed across

the battlefield from one another. Many stand on principles of their

labels, refusing to compromise and fail to see that in the middle of the

battlefield lie our children seeking protective cover.
 

Each year, Tallahassee and DC bureaucrats face off trying to prove who

is right and who is wrong - rarely realizing that compromise is not a

means of surrender but a means to victory. Some seem more tied to

scoring points for their parties to ensure a victory at the next ballot

box than fighting for our children in the classroom. They push education

further and further down the priority scale because education doesn't

garner enough media attention - like health care, our economy, the

jobless rate, or even war - it's not press-hungry enough to gain the

attention of the ballot casters. What they fail to realize is they may

win the battle but they are most certainly going to lose the war. This

is a majority rule democracy. If that majority is not properly educated,

our entire nation suffers.
 

The Palm Beach County School District is facing an $80 million shortfall

next year. The Board will examine how to continue operating with $80

million less. As awful as that seems, it could be much worse. We are

receiving stimulus money this year and next, and that stimulus money has

kept us from cataclysm. But, the stimulus money "goes away" in 2012.

Unless the economy surprises forecasters and miraculously fully recovers

by 2012 resulting in real estate surges and subsequent surge in property

tax revenue which supports our educational system - then the District is

going to have an almost impossible task of operating the 11th largest

school district in the United States effectively in 2012.
 

Members of my generation and our parents have lived most, if not all of

our lives, like me, in a country which has been the undisputed

heavyweight champion of the world. We led the world - not just

militarily - but in other, more important areas. We made this United

States, the envy of the world, where people from around the globe wanted

to come to live, work and, most importantly, be educated. We have been

the world leader in education, innovation, quality of life. We

understood that a world class country is supported by a world-class

educational system.
 

But what path are we now traveling? We had a healthy and prosperous

country, and unless we wake up and realize what we are doing, we will be

leaving our children and grandchildren a country on life-support.

The School Board is now faced with the unenviable task of providing

170,000 Palm Beach County children in 186 schools a world-class

education on a third world budget. "Misery loves company." But, there is

no comfort in knowing we are not alone. As I watched the news last

night, school officials from school districts around the country were

being interviewed. They were telling the horrors of war - a war in which

they are faced with closing schools, laying off teachers, cutting art,

music and physical education classes, shortening the school day,

increasing class size, cutting transportation - to make ends meet with

the meager funds their own bureaucrats have allocated to them. Florida

is dead last in the amount of per student spending, approximately $6K

vs. the national average at $10K per student.
 

Ladies and gentlemen, you elected me to the School Board to represent

you. I am trying my very best to do that. I want every child to have the

benefit of a world-class education. I must admit, however, I have an

ulterior motive for serving on that Board - I have two grandchildren.

They are among the most precious gifts God has given me. They live here

in Palm Beach County. In fact, they live here in West Boca, and my

oldest grandchild will start kindergarten in our public school system in

August. They are among those children who deserve a world-class

education. But I and my colleagues on the School Board are faced with

seemingly insurmountable obstacles being placed before us by the

bureaucrats in Tallahassee and Washington who hold the purse strings

containing dollars available for education.
 

In these upcoming budget retreats, I vow to do everything humanly

possible to allocate each available dollar as efficiently as possible to

ensure that our children and grandchildren receive the education they

deserve - the education we owe them - but you must raise your voices.

You must be vocal on the issue of education. Education is the key to the

very survival of this great nation, and education isn't free. The

dollars must be re-prioritized. I'll do my part at the local level. You

need to do your part and get the state and federal legislators to do

theirs - they must adequately fund education or we are dooming our

children and grandchildren to a third world existence.
 

A highly respected education historian and best selling author is coming

to speak on May 12th at 5:30 at Lynn University. Dr. Diane Ravitch

discusses how bureaucracy is undermining education and offers some

practical advice as to how to put education back on the right track. If

you cannot attend this free event, take a look at her informative and

well-written book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School

System." We need to work together.

Frank Barbieri, Palm Beach County School Board