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March 22, 2006
School districts hunt for affordable housing for teachersSkyrocketing home prices have made it difficult for teachers to come to Florida, a state where teacher salaries are $6,000 below the national average. School district leaders say they are struggling to attract teachers, even as they try to meet restrictions on class sizes that voters approved four years ago.
"It's not just in the coastal areas," where housing costs have jumped the highest, Jack Lamb, president of the Florida School Boards Association, tells AP. "It's in any area that's experiencing growth."
But at least some help may be on the way. Teachers, firefighters, and other workers struggling to find affordable housing in high-cost areas like Florida's Manatee County could get a boost from the state under a bill moving through the Legislature.
The bill, which has three more scheduled committee stops, would provide incentives for public-private partnerships to find and maintain affordable housing for targeted individuals and areas across the state, reports the Bradenton Herald. Cities, counties, and school districts in high-cost areas could partner with the private sector to keep housing costs down. The Florida School Boards Association supports the measure. Counties eligible for housing assistance are those where the median sale price of a single-family home is above the statewide average.
In Palm Beach County, Fla., local commissioners just yesterday approved a plan to force builders to construct less expensive homes in new developments. "The builders are going to hate it. The Realtors are going to hate it. Too bad," a county commissioner is quoted in the Palm Beach Post. "We've got to do what's right for the county and that's to diversify these units." The paper reports that the plan will result in only about 5,000 affordable houses being built, far less than is needed in the pricey county.
Posted March 22, 2006 2:02 PM | School Finance
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