Joe Henderson: Gov. DeSantis found a way to get teachers their raises

Gov. Ron DeSantis will make an important announcement Monday morning from the Capitol. Image via Getty.

This is one time I’m happy to be wrong.

With state revenue sagging because of you-know-what, I didn’t believe Gov. Ron DeSantis could find a way in the budget to save the teacher raises.

But he did.

DeSantis signed HB 641, which provides $500 million and is designed to raise the minimum starting salary for teachers to $47,500. It’s up to each school district to figure out how to do that from the allocation they receive from the state, but the bill’s intent is that they should get as close as possible.

The bill initially stoked some resentment from veteran teachers who labored for years under the old standard. In Hillsborough County, for instance, the minimum starting pay since 2014 was $38,200. Last October, that increased to $40,000, still well below what DeSantis wanted.

But the package the Governor signed includes $100 million earmarked for veteran teachers, which should help.

This was desperately needed.

Last year, Florida fell to 46^th in the nation in teacher pay according to the National Education Association, but that ranking will sharply increase. It affects about 100,000 public and charter school teachers. And by the way, it’s simply the right thing to do.

“Florida’s teachers have the power to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of students every day. No profession in our state is more deserving of this investment that will reward teachers for their hard work and attract more of Florida’s brightest young minds to make teaching their career,” former Gov. Jeb Bush said in a statement.

“Gov. DeSantis kept his promise to educators in the face of unprecedented challenges. This bold investment will pay off for generations.”

For years, the Legislature treated Florida’s teachers like human piñatas. Tallahassee’s fixation on charter schools, vouchers, and standardized testing eroded morale and drove many teachers out of the classroom for good.

In a Facebook post last year that drew national attention, teacher Lake County Jonathan Carroll announced teaching “has become a toxic profession” and he was quitting.

The salary bump won’t make those issues go away. Add COVID-19 into the mix and navigating the upcoming school year gets trickier.

It’s no wonder there aren’t enough teachers to go around. Thousands of positions go unfilled each year. Worse, colleges report a steep decline in the number of students training to enter teaching.

This is a step toward reversing that trend because higher starting pay may convince some younger people to consider teaching. And it sends a signal that finally Tallahassee recognizes the value of the state’s K-12 teachers.

“It was not something that a lot of people thought necessarily could get done,” DeSantis said at the bill-signing ceremony. “We really thought it was important to do that.”

I was in the group that didn’t believe he could get it done, and I was wrong.

Thank goodness for that.