In a 2003 study conducted by William Oucchiof UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, he found decentralized public schools had significantly less fraud, less bureaucracy and staff and more money at the classroom level.
In Miami-Dade County we currently have exactly the opposite.
During the recent school board elections, many facts and figures were brought to light that exposed the widespread fraud, exponentially increased costs and bureaucracy and less money being spent in the classroom.
Public schools need an overhaul not just in Miami-Dade County but throughout Florida. The implementation of a decentralized educational system will greatly improve the quality of that education while reducing costs and limiting if not erasing the rampant fraud.

Executive Summary

To implement a true school choice system, we will assign a monetary value to each child which the school he/she attends will receive. The value can be determined by averaging the cost of private education in the district, but also taking into consideration other factors such as special needs students and a sometimes less than adequate home environment of some public school students. Also there must be consideration for higher construction standards for public schools.
School principals will be granted greater autonomy and control on how to use funds that come into the school by way of the values attached to each student. This takes control out of the hands of bureaucrats in central administration, and puts it in the hands of those closest to the students.
Financial controls will include measure like capping increases in per child funding to inflation and requiring a referendum in order to increase funding beyond that point. A system of prioritization will be put in place to keep certain schools from becoming overcrowded. This new competitive environment will bring about improvements in many schools.

Goals and Objectives
- Real public school choice by liberating parents from current geographic restrictions in public school system by allowing them to choose which school within the system they want their children to attend.
- Empower parents & students to make educational decisions
- Increase parental and community involvement
- Limit special interest influence on policy, procedure and implementation
- Local control of budgets (decentralize monetary control)
- Greatly reduce administrative costs
- Introduce accountability and efficiency into the system
- Principals are CEO’s of their schools

Operational Principles
- Decentralized education system model
- Money for education follows the child
- Public & Charter schools only
- Local schools and Principals control budget
- School staff is optimized and efficient based on student population – no wasteful spending
- No central admin making blanket decisions across the county or state
- Failing schools will be closed, staff/students redistributed

Leadership Model -SFUSD
- San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD - Very robust school choice system)
- Since 1996, SFUSD has realized
o Exponential improvements in student performance
o Significantly increased student performance
o Greatly expanded parent and teacher interactivity
o Healthy competition between public schools
- Miami-Dade can draw upon the experience, success and knowledge and tailor to our community – no need to reinvent the wheel

Implementation
- Create an “Education Market”
o Monetary values are assigned per student
o Use a “weighted” student formula – a foundational allocation is given for principal and one administrator(clerk) – the rest is on a per student basis
o The more students a school attracts, the larger it’s budget!! That value follows the child
- Parents can choose school
- Schools will compete for students
- Schools will be able to spend their budgets in a manner that makes the school more attractive
- Schools will ‘market’ programs to attract students

Community Involvement
- San Francisco has PPSSF.org (Parents for Public Schools) – Miami-Dade should implement a similar model that involves parents in each community at the local level
- Joint effort between community and school board to market schools and programs (will dramatically reduce the current marketing expenses that top 1.5 million per year which is a hefty burden on the system)
- Involves parents in the education process
- Every grade level in SF schools has seen marked achievement

Together with educational leaders, community leaders and legislators at all levels we can design and implement a robust, living educational environment for our children and our future that includes vision, necessity and empowerment.

Santoro's plan will also protect taxpayers from runaway government spending.

August 13th 2008
For Immediate Release Contact:contact@santorosenate.com

Concerned about profligate government spending and affordability in the housing markets, State Senate candidate for District 35 Dean Santoro has introduced his five point plan to bring viability and affordability back to South Florida’s housing market. “Unfortunately few companies are considering relocating or opening facilities in South Florida due in large part to the lack of a good affordable housing stock” Santoro observed.

What the plan curiously lacks is using tax dollars to subsidize the program. Rather than put taxpayer dollars through a filter laden with corruption, waste and malfeasance that produce dismal results, Mr. Santoro’s plan would cap impact fees, government spending and help liberalize zoning and land use codes to encourage smart growth while at the same time preserving South Florida’s natural beauty.

South Florida is going through one of its worst economic downturns in history and there appears to be no end in sight. “We must find new and innovative ways to jump start South Florida’s economic engine, not by enacting more ineffective programs that soon become hotbeds of corruption, but by lowering governments tax burden on property owners and businesses” Said Santoro.

This short video is from the NAACP Candidate Forum on Aug 4, 2008. Unfortunately the voters were denied the chance to hear a true debate on the issues because my opponent was a no-show. I'm still waiting for the debate my opponent challenged me to a few weeks ago... This video poses the question: Where is Dan Gelber?