"I recently met a very powerful statewide education leader at a conference in Washington DC, and while discussing my latest frustration with the FSBA, their lawsuit attempting to kill the tax-credit scholarship that benefits 1,000 primarily poor and minority students in Escambia County, this leader simply, wryly, said “Why do you keep funding them, then?” He makes a great point. Why do we? IFCAA, my legislative proposal, fixes this problem. IFCAA is a mechanism that allows each individual board member to allocate (or not expend at all) his/her individual portion of a taxpayer funded board, committee, council, and/or commission’s advocacy budget."
IFCAA stands for the Individual Freedom of Choice in
Advocacy Act--A method for disrupting "Iron Triangles."
IFCAA (Individual Freedom of Choice in Advocacy Act) is a
proposal I have developed and given to Escambia’s legislative delegation,
members of the Florida House and Senate, and to other conservative school board
members around the state.
As school board members we are duly elected, individual
constitutional officers-just like County Sheriffs, elected Superintendents of
Schools, Supervisors of Elections, Tax Collectors, Property appraisers, etc.
Unlike the individual officeholders mentioned above,
however, our individual choice in advocacy for our constituents is handcuffed
by a system that stifles individual officeholders’ choice.
What do I mean?
If the statewide “Sheriff’s” advocacy organization suddenly
started advocating for ideals contrary to what an individual Florida County
Sheriff believed—that individual Sheriff could (and would) rightly withhold the
dues from said organization, or choose
to fund a different law enforcement advocacy organization that more accurately
represented the ideology of this sheriff and his constituents.
Same for Superintendent’s, Supervisors of Elections,
Property Appraiser’s, Tax Collectors, and the list goes on...
Every office in the state that has an officer or board also
has a professional advocacy “association.” These “organizations” receive massive
taxpayer subsidies from state and local officeholders.
As school board members, we send taxpayer funding for
advocacy to the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA).
While the FSBA has done many beneficial
things in the past, recently they’ve made some choices and decisions that have
alienated conservative members; something must change.
The distinction between individually elected office-holders
and members of elected boards is that the advocacy organizations that purport
to represent us as bodies or units sometimes neither represent many of us
individually nor do they represent the collective values of our individual
constituencies.
Worse--sometimes these very organizations actively work
against what many of us want, yet we’ve no choice individually but to fund
them.
This isn’t $30 to NRA or $50 to AARP —For the Escambia’s
Board, FSBA’s price tag is more than $20,000.00 yearly!
While discussing my significant disagreement with FSBA’s
lawsuit (attempting to kill the tax-credit scholarship that benefits 70,000 primarily
poor and minority students statewide), a powerful, statewide education leader
simply, wryly, stated “Why do you keep funding them, then?”
Why do we keep funding them?
FSBA didn’t represent my views when they supported the class
size mandates that blew up the budget-destroying our ability to significantly
raise teacher pay.
FSBA didn’t represent my views when they sought to block
necessary tenure reform in Florida, yet I had no choice but to fund them.
FSBA has ignored every conservative idea I have submitted
for six years running for their statewide
