Orlando Real Estate

As a Realtor, I can tell you that nothing affects property values like schools. Just look at Winter Park. The schools in the Winter Park area consistently earn some of the highest grades in Orange county, and the prices of the homes reflect a preference for the Winter Park schools. The same can be said for the Dr. Phillips, Conway and others.

The recent decision by our school board to swap the times of the middle and high schools will have an impact county wide. Students and their respective families have schedules arranged around the existing times. Local businesses that specialize in after school programs will be negatively effected. Juvenile crime that has become an issue will become worse. There will almost certainly be a drop off in the level of achievement as a direct result of this short sighted change.

The school district has a three billion dollar budget of which about half is operations and half capital. It just seems like the reported six million dollar savings (0.2% of the total budget) in transportation expenses created by the time change could be found somewhere else. Between fiscal year 2004 and fiscal year 2008 the required local effort portion of the budget increased by 49.2%. Maybe somebody should have save a little bit for a rainy day.

www.DavidWelch.com, www.OrlandoAreaRealtor.com