What the Bill Does
- HB 865 returns local control to decisions about salary schedules which will allow your union to negotiate for fair salaries for all employees and to fix the issues of salary compression that have been resulted from state mandates regarding salaries and raises.
- Includes all instructional personnel, not just classroom teachers, in the teacher salary allocation funds.
- Removes current requirement for a “grandfathered” and a “performance” salary schedule in favor of a single salary schedule for all instructional personnel.
- By eliminating the performance salary schedule, the bill removes current requirement stipulating highly effective teachers raises must be greater than effective teachers.
- Repeals the current restrictions on salary restrictions for advanced degrees put in place in 2011.
- Districts would have the ability to negotiate salary enhancements for advanced degrees whether or not the advance degree is in a teacher’s area of certification.
What’s Next
HB 865 is in the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee but has yet to placed on an agenda.
Companion Bill
Vote History
n/a
Our Position
We support this bill in its current form.
Talking Points
- School communities need much more than just teachers in order to ensure all students get the best education possible. By expanding the teacher salary allocation to include all instructional personnel, SB 865 recognizes the hard work of educators, not just classroom teachers.
- The current laws regarding advanced degrees punish those who’ve sought to further their education and keep Florida from being an able to recruit teachers. Repealing that section of law can help to ensure that each student has the qualified, certified teacher they deserve.
- The current system is designed to be unfair and inequitable. This bill removes much of the unfairness and inequity around educator salaries from state law.
- Each of Florida’s 67 counties have unique needs and circumstances and should be allowed to take those circumstances into account when negotiating employee salaries. The micromanagement of educator salaries from Tallahassee must come to an end.
- Since the performance pay requirements of SB 736 were implemented in 2011, Florida’s educators have fallen from 28thin nation to 46th in terms of average teacher salary. To solve the problem Tallahassee created with years of big government overreach, it is time to for the state to restore local control to school district and local unions to negotiate salaries.
Video Updates
n/a
