MIAMI.- Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, announced that he will invest $1.25 billion to raise the salaries of the state’s teachers in the 2024-25 academic year.
The good news this Monday, June 10, took place at a press conference at the City of Hialeah Educational Academy (COHEA) campus, in which Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Núñez and Education Commissioner Manny Díaz participated.
DeSantis pointed out that with the new salary increase, Florida will become the state that pays its teachers the most among the southeastern states of the country.
“Since 2020, we have invested more than $3 billion in teacher pay initiatives. “Right now, the minimum income for educators is $48,000 annually.”
The governor indicated that with these 1.25 billion dollars, the State’s investment in salaries in recent years rises to 4.6 billion dollars.
“These funds can only be used to increase teachers’ salaries,” he stressed and took advantage of the platform to criticize the president of the Dade Teachers Union, who “receives about $300,000 in salary.”
The governor announced that the education budget item will be very robust this year and said he is proud that Florida is the first state in education in the nation.
“Florida is education,” Núñez said, “because we have a governor who has prioritized education, who invests in our teachers and protects the rights of parents.”
According to Núñez, “Florida parents know what is best for our children and we do not want a bureaucrat to infest them with the ideological virus.”
“We made sure to eliminate DEI programs (the so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs that seek a cultural and ideological change in society) and gender ideology from the educational curriculum.”
The lieutenant governor also criticized the work of the teachers’ unions and maintained that they promote their political agenda, with issues that have nothing to do with education. “They try to promote their political ideology in the classrooms. Something we will never allow.”
For his part, Commissioner Díaz referred to the educational options that Florida parents have for their children. “In the state of Florida we believe in teachers and giving parents choices.”
Regarding the unions, Díaz said that it is important that the money be used to raise the salaries of teachers and insisted: “We are here to educate, not to indoctrinate.”
Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo described the announcement as spectacular.
“Understanding the goings-on between politics and unions, putting money directly to teachers is impressive,” Bovo said.
“All the investment that has been made in education is being felt. Parents are choosing where they want to take their children and the State is reacting. “I think this is how the government should work.”
“We have been seeing for a long time that teachers unions are biased,” Bovo said. “It was shown with COVID, in how they reacted. The interest of the students, of the students, was being seen less and less. “The father’s voice was fading.”
“Part of the parents’ complaint is that they want schools to teach their children the basics and for politics to be a domestic issue.”
“In addition, the mayor stated, “one of the teachers’ complaints is the obligation to belong to unions, to pay the union. It turns out that we are hearing that the president of the Union earns $300,000. A teacher does not earn that in a class,” concluded the mayor of Hialeah.
Karla Hernández Mats, president of the Dade teachers union, last May declared in an interview with Mega that Florida was the 50th state in terms of salaries for its teachers and said that many educators are leaving the State due to the high cost of education. life.
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