About Governor DeSantis’s teacher pay plan – Part 2
Bottom Line: Already the average teacher earns about 33% more than the average Floridian working full-time while working less during the year. Now, that doesn’t necessary mean that it’s not justified but it should be part of this conversation. After all, while many in media are quick to suggest that teachers always are deserving of more money without consideration to their constituents – who pays for this? We do.
$26 billion, that’s the total spend on Florida public education during the 2017-2018 school year according to the Florida Department of Education. That comes out to an average expense of $4,102 per household. That means your family is already shelling out more than $4k for public education annually, whether you will ever use the school system or not. With the proposed increase for starting teacher salaries it'll cost the state $603 million more in year one. Should this proposal pass, without any additional increases, it’ll cost your family another $95 per year taking your total layout to over $4,200 per year to support Florida’s public education system. This is real money coming out of your pocket through your property taxes, sales taxes and income taxes. And what do we get for it?
Florida’s public education system ranks 27th nationally. I’d like to know specifically how taking Florida’s starting salary to 2nd nationally will result in significantly improved outcomes. Maybe it will, but we should be presented with a plan of how this will happen. In the real world this is how expense increases work. You create a plan demonstrating how the increased compensation will result in improved outcomes.
I don’t think 27th in education outcomes is deserving of a 26% raise without further detail. I don’t think it’s acceptable that the average grade school graduate is financially illiterate. I don’t think it’s appropriate that 92% of teachers’ unions money used for political causes goes to Democrats. Here’s what that amounts to from where I sit...$4,200 we must pay per year for schools many of us never used and never will, that produce a below average education. And they kicker is this, they use our tax dollars to support political causes that run counter to my personal beliefs and, in my opinion, undermine what’s best for Florida and the country. I’d like information to address those concerns rather than the usual “underpaid heroes” rhetoric that doesn’t meaningfully play into anything other than platitudes. Platitudes don’t pay taxes and produce better results. Intentional planning and hard work and great execution does.