Lindsey Cretton, a teacher at KinderCare in Indian Harbor Beach, read to about a dozen 3-year-olds who listened in rapt attention to her every word.
“This one is called ‘Little Llama Misses Mama,’” said Sky Beard, executive director of Brevard County’s Early Learning Coalition, looking on. “At 3, we’re not teaching them how to read, but we are laying the foundation for the skills they will need to read. Like letter sounds and recognition.”
And KinderCare, which the coalition helps fund, doesn’t just provide babysitting services for busy parents, Beard said. The staff, she added, under director Jessica Garcia, actually serves early-childhood education.
KinderCare is approved by the state to teach 99 children, from infants through 5 years old or school age. Now they have just 83 youngsters, Garcia said.
With some extra help from taxpayers, however, KinderCare could help all 99 children it can hold, and the county could also assist parents with 6- to 8-year-olds, Beard said. And it could even provide help for children with mental and behavioral issues.
But it wasn’t to be, not yet at least, the County Commission decided last week. Members failed to support Commissioner Jim Barfield’s motion to put a referendum on the November ballot that would ask voters if they wanted to tax themselves at up to 33 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value to provide more help for poor children.
The county’s Children’s Services Council requested the referendum. Former commissioners created the council in 1990 under new state law, but never authorized a funding source for it. The council wanted such a source.
There are thousands of children living in poverty in Brevard County. The proposed tax would add up to $11 million a year to the council’s efforts.
“We’re not asking you to approve or endorse this decision (to seek a taxing source),” Circuit Judge Kelly McKibben, who chairs the council, told commissioners. “We’re just asking you to put it to the voters.”
Eight audience members agreed with the council during the public hearing, but six others argued against the additional tax. Some said it would be a slush fund for the county and lead to an extravagant lifestyle for United Way President Rob Rains, who leads the council’s efforts.
“Do your jobs!” Merritt Island resident John Weiler told commissioners. “Don’t leave this to taxpayers. You know this is not a good resolution.”
He urged commissioners to create a nonprofit agency to do the things the council wants to do. And Brevard County has enough wealthy residents, he said, to voluntarily donate to such an agency.
Lois Lacoste of Port St. John accused the council of trying to force taxpayers to support what she called a charity. She said she has already paid enough taxes to the School Board and opposed any call for more.
“The best use of my tax dollars is leaving them for me to spend,” Merritt Island resident Cheryl Lankes said.
Commission Vice Chairwoman Kristine Isnardi of Palm Bay is the commission’s delegate to the child-welfare panel. She said she is wary of giving an independent agency so much access to taxpayers’ money.
“This is the largest form of taxation without representation,” she said.
Wealthy people might support the referendum, she said, while the less-affluent would be stuck with the tax.
Council members weren’t ready to fold up their effort, however. McKibben said the members would meet in the near future and look at other options, such as seeking petition signatures to put the referendum on the ballot.
