"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
-- Mark Twain


Did the great American author and humorist have a premonition? Did he meet W.C. Gentry in some futuristic dream?

You have to wonder how Mark Twain would categorize Gentry, the Duval County School Board chairman who last week told district parents and taxpayers that the school system can't afford to educate their kids.

It is $97 million over budget.

And how will he meet the deficit challenge? Among other things, by canceling sports of any kind, at any level, starting this fall.

Seems county property tax revenues are flat and Gov. Rick Scott won't hear of raising taxes. In fact, the governor says stimulus subsidies for school districts must end.

So, to cover a $97 million shortfall, you apparently kill the district's entire sports program that costs, what? Is it even $1 million? Of course not. With the active and enthusiastic business and Booster clubs in Jacksonville, is it even $500,000? Is it $200,000?

Gentry's finance staff couldn't immediately tell Sunshine State News on Friday how much sports costs the school system. The only figure they release for public consumption is $6.3 million, which they list as covering "all supplements for extracurricular activities, including sports, band and other clubs."

A $97 million sports program -- twice the U.S. Olympic Committee's estimated cost of fielding our national team in the 2012 Olympics in London? I don't think so.

Gentry is making scary noises 1) to fire up a PR campaign of angry, sports-loving parents and taxpayers who he hopes will lobby the Florida Legislature against the budget cuts, and 2) to distract from his failure to come up with a plan to trim nonessential personnel, or explain why that can't be done. Employee costs are by far the largest share of a school board's budget. Shouldn't he be talking about that before declaring the need to go to a four-day school week and dump sports, music and arts programs?

This isn't a clever maneuver by an elected official, it's an appalling show of lack of imagination and disrespect for the citizens of Duval County.

Seems to me the governor is saying this: You need more money? Show me. Show me why you've exhausted your creativity and you can't make Florida schools more competitive with what you've got and you can't trim any more than you have already. These aren't pretend bad times. The bad economy isn't just happening in the other 49 states. To get better, we have to work better, work smarter.

Duval's School Board budget is more than $1 billion. Ninety-seven million represents less than 10 percent. You mean Gentry and the district's financial gurus can't find 10 percent of nonessential employee and nonstudent program bloat to cut out over a single deli-sandwich-and-black-Magic-Marker working lunch?

Getting rid of high school sports in Duval would leave 15,000 student athletes without a team. Consider, too, that in February, 50 Duval high school seniors signed letters-of-intent to attend college or university on an athletic scholarship.

As Frederick Matthews of the Jacksonville City Hall Examiner said, "Football and basketball generate money, scholarships, and jobs for schools and many adults who have made a career out of school athletics. (Killing them is) not going to happen."

I know the folks in Duval County. I know they're resourceful, positive and proud of their accomplishments as a community. They deserve better than lawyer W.C. Gentry.


Meanwhile, in St. Johns County, Duval's neighbor to the south, Superintendent of Schools Joseph Joyner is looking at a $16 million deficit. Admittedly, St. Johns is a much smaller district than Duval. But proportionately, the difference between them is not that great.

Joyner has the larger spirit.