There’s a much further distance these days between Washington, D.C. and Jacksonville than just the 705 miles and eleven hours north up I-95.

A much further distance and a whole different language being spoken.

While President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are busy pushing for sweeping education reform, Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals is worried about just surviving.

In Washington, the president and his education secretary have been aggressively striving to overhaul the entire system: They’ve fast-tracked Race to the Top, released an inclusive education budget and are in the process of reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

They've also already spent nearly $200 billion on education and are requesting an additional $78 billion for next year.

Meanwhile, in Jacksonville Pratt-Dannals has been holding community meetings to share details about the district’s $75-125 million budget crisis.

By necessity, his goal is much more pedestrian than reform. He simply wants to persuade people to appeal to Florida’s legislators to stabilize funding at its current level, reduce restrictions on the way education funding is spent and defer the requirements on the Class Size Reduction Amendment.

He continued in this aim Thursday evening at Ribault High School during the third of four scheduled Budget Community Meetings. As with the first meeting at Sandalwood High and the second at Ed White, this one drew a capacity crowd of nearly 900.

Also in keeping form with the first two meetings, those present listened attentively, voiced due concern in agreement with the superintendent and asked questions about the best ways to save money.

But the issue of reform has been raised only in the context of what the district would like to do if it could afford the proper resources, such as: provide more professional development; offer more assistance to struggling schools; increase student and teacher FCAT preparation; and improve on data collection and assessments.

Unlike his two predecessors – John Fryer and Joseph Wise – Pratt-Dannals has so far not had the luxury to invest in many significant reform initiatives.

It is clear from his Strategic Plan that he generally embraces reform strategies – though perhaps not with quite the boldness and vision of Fryer or, thankfully, the impulsivity and short-sightedness of Wise. But the time and the money to roll them out have not yet been abundantly available to him.

The superintendent simply can’t focus on creative reform initiatives when the district can barely pay its bills.

And this is one of the biggest casualties of the current budget shortfall.

It’s like the screaming baby in a movie theatre where everyone is distracted and those sitting closest to the kid may even get kicked. Eventually, the parent either calms the child or removes him from the theatre, and people can concentrate on the movie again.

But in the meantime, there’s been a lot of missed action and it takes a minute or two to pick up the plot again.

The budget crisis will, eventually, calm down. But until then, all talk of reform – whether it is cast in the light of the greater national discussion or focuses on necessary local changes – will be put on hold.

Even worse, it forces everyone to think in terms of money and not in terms of what is best for children. People’s priorities get turned upside down.

At each of the three meetings so far, Pratt-Dannals has told the story of how he and the school board decided to cut 45 minutes out of the middle and high school schedules on the very day that President Obama was saying that students needed more time in school.

“We agreed,” said Pratt-Dannals, “We hated to do it. But in order to give kids more time, we needed the resources, and they just weren’t there. That cut saved us $13 million, but to what cost to our students?”

The reform efforts coming out of Washington are creative and necessary, if not in proposed execution than certainly in intent. But their true potential may never be realized if local school districts (Jacksonville is by no means alone in its budget battle) are too engaged in simply surviving.

The final Budget Community Meeting will take place on Tuesday at Mandarin High School at 6 p.m.

Go here for the DCPS budget information page.

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