According to the March 6th, 2005 St. Pete Times, Florida ranked 47th among the 50 states in per pupil (education) spending.
Keeping that in mind, consider a story I heard on the local public radio station this morning. They were discussing higher education funding, and they mentioned an interesting fact about the local, state university (the University of South Florida in Tampa). Apparently, they bus students to a nearby movie theater for some lecture classes due to a shortage of facilities on campus.
I think that pretty much sums up the state legislature’s spending priorities.