State Board pushes for teacher pay hikes

By Ryan Dailey Florida News Service

Members of the State Board of Education are considering how to put “pressure” on local teachers-union leaders and school-board members amid delays in planned salary increases for teachers in some districts.

The state board Wednesday discussed efforts to distribute money approved by the Legislature, including $800 million earmarked in this year’s state budget for raising teacher salaries. That money is part of an effort to raise minimum teacher pay to $47,500.

Adam Miller, a senior chancellor with the state Department of Education, said the department has “fully approved” salary-distribution plans for 69 school districts, which include county districts and other types of districts. But he pointed to a handful of districts that are either at impasse in negotiations with unions or are in negotiations.

The Hillsborough, St. Johns and Seminole county districts are at impasse, Miller said Meanwhile, the Gadsden County district is negotiating with the teachers’ union. Gadsden Superintendent of Schools Elijah Key, Jr., said those negotiations are “being held up” by union leaders.

State board member Ryan Petty floated the idea of bringing local union officials before the board because “at a minimum, we’d be hearing both sides of the story.”

“They’re putting the raises that these teachers deserve at risk. So, I’d like to see us bring the leaders of these unions forward. If they believe their case, they can certainly try to make that in a public forum, and certainly in front of this board,” Petty said.

Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association union, pointed to a complicated process of raising teacher pay.

“We urge the State Board of Education to stand with educators as we call on the Legislature to simplify the process of getting teachers their raises,” Spar said in a statement to The News Service of Florida. “Lawmakers could eliminate some of the 20 laws that currently dictate how teachers are paid, and they can allocate sufficient funds to ensure that educators of all levels of experience are paid fairly.”

Spar added that teachers in Florida are “on average some of the lowest paid in the nation.”

“Teachers with years in the classroom face an ‘experience penalty’ that can leave them making about the same as new teachers,” Spar said.

Lawmakers this year are likely to continue allocating money to raise teacher pay. DeSantis has recommended that lawmakers set aside $1 billion in next fiscal year’s budget to bolster educators’ salaries.

State board member Esther Byrd suggested Wednesday that the board turn its focus to districts where salary money hasn’t been distributed. Byrd said that “too often” local school-board members

“are just way too cozy with the unions.”

“We’re going to have to put some pressure back on the people who answer to, ‘we the people,’ to ‘we the parents’ in this situation,” Byrd said. “And that’s the school board members.” after the Florida Supreme Court could weigh in on the definition of riot.

The state board is slated to meet again April 19 in the Capitol.

While such moves are unusual, the federal appeals court at times sends cases to the Florida Supreme Court to help sort out the wording of state laws—a move known as certifying a question

In passing the 2021 measure, the Legislature changed a law that barred riots. The revamped law says that a “person commits a riot if he or she willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more persons, acting with a common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct, resulting in injury to another person, damage to property or imminent danger of injury to another person or damage to property.”

The appeals court said plaintiffs, for example, have argued that the law does not define what it means to participate in a violent public disturbance.

“According to the plaintiffs, every person present could be arrested and charged with rioting because each willfully participated in the protest, which became a violent disturbance—even those who did not engage in any violence or disorderly conduct themselves,” the appeals court said. “The plaintiffs express concern that protesters could be charged with rioting if they remained on the scene after violence erupted and continued to protest, assisted those who were injured or filmed the events.”

But in the brief Monday, attorneys for DeSantis disputed such arguments.

“Other conduct may well fall within the ambit of the statute—for example, supplying weapons at the site of a disorderly protest. But protesting wholly nonviolently does not violate the statute simply because the peaceful protester may know that others at the same protest have turned to violence,” the brief said.

Groups challenging the law have not filed their initial briefs at the Supreme Court.