Florida needs to overhaul the way it funds school facilities, and make the system fairer for charter schools, the incoming Speaker of the House said Wednesday.

State Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, speaks on the House floor during a June special session. Photo via Florida House.

During questions on the state budget, the chamber plunged into a perennial debate over state funding for public school buildings. Democrats like Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, seized on a recent Associated Press investigation that found charter schools had received tens of millions of dollars in construction funding, but later shut down.

If the state was going to set aside $90 million for charter schools, Dudley asked, would there be any "clawback" provisions or "anything to assure taxpayers" that money for school facilities "will be protected and secure" if charters eventually close?

Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, who chairs the Appropriations Committee and is set to become Speaker after this fall's elections, tried to put the issue in perspective. School districts, he said, raise nearly $2.2 billion a year in local property tax revenue, plus hundreds of millions more in local sales taxes and impact fees. Charter schools, for the most part, do not share in that money, so they rely on funding in the state budget that has eroded over time. (more…)