DeSantis said Thursday he’s proposing $550 million, an increase of $50 million from this year, in the 2021-2022 state budget “to continue raising the minimum K-12 teacher salary to the goal of getting the average minimum salary statewide to be $47,500.”
The governor said the budget also would include salary increases for “other eligible teachers and instruction personnel.”
DeSantis said his proposed budget “builds off that success” of increasing teacher minimum salaries. But teacher advocates expressed concern that, like last year, his proposal largely might abandon the most experienced teachers.
“We think it is great that he is putting priority toward educators’ salaries,” said Vanessa Skipper, vice president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. “But we hope that the money will be more balanced and that veteran teachers will see an increase to their pay as well.”