Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s largest teachers’ union see the beginning of the school year differently, with the state’s chief executive painting a pretty picture.
At the same time, the Florida Education Association (FEA) argues there aren’t enough teachers in classrooms due to budget cuts.
During a Monday appearance at Melbourne’s Front Street Civic Center, DeSantis noted that the most recent state budget brings “about $150 million additional to our teachers’ salary increases,” pushing the total to $1.38 billion.
And he believes that the state “could do even more going forward there.”
“There’s obviously more we’re going to be doing coming up next year when the legislature reconvenes to continue showing our commitment to education,” DeSantis said.
Meanwhile, though the FEA agrees that more can be done, it breaks with DeSantis’ rosy read and points out vacancies documented late last month by the Florida Department of Education.
Though the official count is down more than 17%, the union urges interpretive caution and says the numbers are deceiving.
“While the data shows fewer vacancies at the start of this school year, the decline in vacancies is driven by extensive budget cuts which have led to districts cutting thousands of positions, reducing critical programs and offerings for students and educators alike, and leaning on larger class sizes and uncertified educators,” said FEA President Andrew Spar on Monday.
While the FEA acknowledges that instructional vacancies are down, the people filling the openings may not be as trained or qualified as outsiders might think.
“More than half of educators hired in Florida are issued temporary certificates without even beginning a teacher preparation program. In 2023 only 4,327 teachers completed a teacher preparation program including all pathways. From out-of-state, 3,695 certificates were issued, but a total of 15,920 certificates were issued. That leaves nearly 8,000 teachers without teacher training working in our classrooms,” the FEA notes.
Spar says that “thousands of students will start the new school year without a permanent, certified educator in their classrooms, without enough bus drivers who will get them to and from school safely, without paraprofessionals, maintenance and lunch workers, and so many others who make the difference in the lives of our children.”
“Educators and communities are forced to do more with less funding and fewer resources, and the ones who pay the price are our students,” he notes, “reading and math scores are down, SAT scores are decreasing, teachers in Florida rank #50 in the nation in average salary.”
During his remarks Monday, the Governor suggested that Florida students are not paying the price, and that educational outcomes are improving due to a key change.
“I think if you look at some of the reforms we did, like the progress monitoring, that’s been viewed … pretty universally as a positive step forward,” DeSantis said. “You’ve got to measure whether people are whether the students are learning or not, (you’ve) got to measure whether schools are performing.”
However, what’s clear, if it wasn’t already, is that the Governor and the union see education in radically different ways.
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