Pinellas voters could decide on tax increase for teacher pay in November

LARGO, Fla. - Another Tampa Bay community took a step toward asking voters to raise taxes to support teacher pay Tuesday, as a national study ranked Florida near the bottom nationally in average educator salaries.

The Pinellas County School Board unanimously agreed to move forward with a plan that could see a referendum placed on the November ballot to add a half-millage to property taxes. Pinellas has devoted a half-millage to teacher pay for two years. The additional revenue would be used for school support staff.

"Surrounding districts have now upped their game and they all have or will have a [millage] soon," said Beth Rawlins, with Citizens for Pinellas Schools. "The only difference to this proposal is that we are now adding the support staff. It's very expensive to live here and we need help to give our bus drivers, school nurses, school resource officers, security personnel, teacher classroom aides. It's important that they have the funding that they need, too."

RELATED: Florida teachers are second lowest paid in America: NEA

The decision comes on the heels of a report from the National Education Association that ranked Florida 50th in average teacher pay, even though starting salaries for teachers ranked 16th.

Andrew Spar, President of the NEA-affiliated Florida Education Association, said families should be alarmed.

"That is pretty alarming," said Spar. "The idea that we're 16th at the start, 50th in average pay, really underscores how dramatically impacted our teachers with experience in the State of Florida."

READ: Teacher Appreciation Week 2024 brings freebies and deals for educators

The Florida Department of Education pushed back, calling the report a lie. The department said the state has invested $4 billion in teacher raises since Governor DeSantis took office. "This was accomplished despite constant obstruction from organizations like the FEA. As a result, Florida has increased our teacher starting salary from $40,000 to $48,000."

"The bogus NEA report does not consider a variety of factors, such as cost of living and state income tax," a spokesperson continued in a statement. "We also have no way to verify that the union is accurately collecting and reporting teacher salaries and not artificially inflating the data with benefits and other forms of compensation."

The Florida DOE spokesperson went on to criticize teacher unions for stalling contract negotiations.

READ: Florida ranked No. 10 state, No. 1 in education and economy by U.S. News & World Report

Spar, however, fired back, saying, "for the Commissioner of Education to say, 'shame on the teachers for not being submissive and just giving in to whatever the State of Florida or school district wants to do,' should be an embarrassment to the State of Florida."

Several public education advocates believe the report is accurate and point to the districts turning to local communities for funding that they believe should be coming from the state. In addition to Pinellas, Hillsborough Schools, for example, is also asking voters to increase property taxes to fund teacher salaries.

Rob Kriete, President of Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, said more attention needs to be given to veteran teacher wages.

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"[Teachers] come in for a few years, it's a challenging and difficult job, and then they're moving on. We're not getting career teachers and career educators," said Kriete, who this week began negotiating the next contract with the school district. "I've been in the district as a teacher for well over 25 years. I don't recall having a contract done before we went back to school. And that's our goal this year."

The school board will discuss the millage referendum proposal at its next meeting, scheduled for May 14.

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