OK, Clay County, here is your opportunity to show how much you care about the public education system. 

From 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 7, 2009, residents are encouraged to line the streets at the corner of Kingsley Avenue and Blanding Boulevard in Orange Park to show support for our school system and voice our displeasure with the funding shortfall that is expected out of the Legislature again this year.

A large majority of the residents who have moved to Clay County in the last 1 5to 20  years have done so because of the quality of the school district. It is now time for those newcomers, as well as all of you who have been here for decades, to add your voices to what should be a crescendo appealing to legislators correct the funding inequities Florida schools have suffered for far too long.

The state is 50th in per pupil funding, a statistic that is embarrassing to the max. Despite that, Florida schools were rated among the top 10 in the nation by Quality Counts, according to the Pew Research Foundation. Clay County teachers and staff do a great job of educating our youngsters and it is a travesty that we have to put up with potential job losses after all the gains the system has made.

The school administration proposed, and the School Board agreed this week, to cut some 450 positions within the school district. I am not going to tell you that everyone of the people in those positions are indispensable but a great many of them are much more valuable to our students than the mere cost of their salaries and benefits.

I know these are tough economic times and that payroll is the biggest chunk of the school budget, but I don’t think we have exhausted all the other options yet. And what is the big hurry? Let’s take time to study this very carefully before rushing to judgment on something that is going to do a lot of damage to the system, the students and the personnel, possibly irreparable harm.

Just this week, a husband and wife announced a $21 million endowment to the University of Florida. That amount of money would go a long way toward cutting Clay County’s funding deficit, wouldn’t it? Maybe there is someone out there with that kind of money who would like to be forever remember as a great humanitarian in Clay County. And maybe if not that much, maybe just a few million. A million here, a million there, and who knows, maybe that deficit just disappears.

There is also another area we could consider, and that is raising taxes. I know that is a taboo subject in a conservative county such as Clay County, sometime we just have to bite the bullet and dig deeper for worthwhile causes. Superintendent Ben Wortham could ask the board to approve an increase in the local property tax effort and there is also that half-cent local option sales tax increase that the school district has been unsuccessful in trying to get passed. Now may be the time to hit that one again. Tax increases won’t solve all of our problems, but they will certainly help.

OK, enough of my postering. Get out there on Saturday and make your voices heard. Change has come to America, so let’s also change the status quo in Tallahassee, and in Green Cove Springs.