Come one! Come all! Step right up and take a sip! In the midst of the worst funding crisis in Florida in decades, the Legislature has just the tonic for schools – the 70 percent solution! (Not to be confused with the 65 percent solution.)

In case anyone has forgotten, the 65 percent solution – the idea that if we just made districts spend 65 percent of their operating budgets in the classroom, we'd cut fat and boost student achievement – was all the rage in 2005 before policy wonks of all persuasions got a taste and wrinkled their noses.

In Florida, though, the 65 percent solution is still on the shelf, thanks to Gov. Crist and the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.

Now Crist is putting a new label on the same bottle. The only K-12 policy initiative that got ink in the Friday press release about his proposed budget and legislative priorities was "Truth in Classroom Spending," a moniker for new legislation (HB 883 and SB 1978) that beefs up the 65 percent solution to 70 percent.

The measure "promotes transparency and fiscal accountability in education," the governor's office says. It would leave the task of defining in-the-classroom expenditures to the Department of Education, and require schools to provide that information to parents.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter