Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Sunday, January 11, 2015

$50K Minimum Wage for Florida Teachers??

That is what Florida State Senator Darren Soto wants.  From first Coast News:




"The bill filed by State Sen. Darren Soto (D), whose district covers Kissimmee, would prevent school districts from setting a minimum salary lower than $50,000 a year, though it would leave negotiating base pay with teachers unions up to each district.
Plus, it would require the state Department of Education to raise teachers' salaries each following year, based on inflation from the previous year."
Everyone wants teachers to be paid better, we can all agree on that.  The problem with this proposal is the universal fact that even though we have lots of needs and wants-- we can still only spend our money once, as Andreas Schleicher points out.  
Florida has staked out the priority of "small class sizes"  and that's where the money is being spent. To do that and also what Soto wants would strip the local districts of control, while simultaneously blowing up state and local budgets like a hot air dirigible.  I also find the language dictating that these teachers must be union members to be unsavory.  Why must they be union members?

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