WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday unveiled his 2023 budget proposal, which includes a record $26 billion for K-12 education.
About $1 billion is expected to go directly to teacher pay, but critics said it's not enough to move Florida out of the bottom three in the country for average teacher pay.
Meanwhile, thousands of teaching jobs remain vacant across the state.
The minimum base salary for Florida teachers right now is close to $48,000. Some of our local lawmakers want that to jump to $65,000 and believe it's a necessary and realistic goal.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Education
"Right now, teachers are not just teachers. They are therapists. They are being parents. And right now, they are being shortchanged. They are underpaid and overworked," said State Rep. Jervonte Edmonds, D-West Palm Beach.
Edmonds is gearing up for his first legislative session, already filing the "Save Our Teachers Act" to increase minimum teacher pay by more than $10,000.
"I don't know if we want to call this a state of emergency with inflation, gas, food going up and rent. But this is the time, more than ever, we need to invest in our infrastructure and make sure our public school foundations don't crumble," Edmonds said.
According to the Florida Department of Education's most recent data, Edmonds' proposal would put the starting pay even higher that the current average teacher pay in the state, which is a little more than $51,000.
"If we are going to raise the starting salary to $65,000, then we need to increase the salaries across the board at a commensurate level to make it fair," said Palm Beach Central High School teacher Scott Houchins.
Houchins supports raising teacher pay, but doesn't want his experience to get left behind in the process.
"$65,000 is a higher base salary than my base salary now, so it would kind of be a slap in the face for those veteran teachers, especially those of us who have been teaching 20 to 25 years, if we didn't look at that," Houchins said.
Edmonds said the goal is to lift up everyone in the classroom.
"This bill does not leave out our experienced teachers, which is a blessing," Edmonds said. "It will allow them to get all the bonuses and incentives they had once before. So it's really going to allow them to get a huge increase and not be on the same totem pole as someone who just walked in."
DeSantis recently announced his education platform, which includes $1 billon dollars to trickle down to school districts for teacher pay.
But Edmonds said it's not enough.
"We're really moving pennies. And when you include taxes, it's really not an increase," Edmonds said. "I've seen [DeSantis] do amazing things for our first responders, our law enforcement, and it's time we reward those who are caring for our children, and that's our teachers."
State Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, has filed a companion bill in the Senate. The legislative session begins in early March.
For more information about teacher salaries in the School District of Palm Beach County, click here.