Florida Budget Fails to Deliver for Students and Educators

The majority of Florida’s families send their students to their neighborhood public schools. Florida’s voters overwhelmingly believe that every community should have a strong public school. Yet, the final budget numbers are out, and once again, it fails to deliver the bold investment needed to create the world-class public education students in Florida need and deserve.

The budget does little to address Florida’s critical teacher and staff shortage, fails to provide funds to lift Florida from 50th in the nation for average teacher pay, does not fully address the tangle of laws that create salary compression, which has negatively impacted experienced teachers and educators, and provides no significant investment in mental health support and services for students.

Further, the budget once again places for-profit charter school companies above neighborhood public schools by expanding the “Schools of Hope” program and allowing them to “co-locate with another school in a public school facility. The school district must permit any School of Hope to use all or part of underused, vacant, or surplus school district facilities, and receive facility-related services, pursuant to State Board of Education rule.”

“As the legislative session comes to a close, we are disappointed that the final budget again falls short of meeting the full needs of Florida’s students and educators,” said Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association. “Lawmakers had meaningful opportunities to strengthen public education, but many of those opportunities were missed. Too often, short-term politics overshadow long-term progress. Our students, educators, and communities deserve a strong commitment to fully funded public schools—and we will continue to advocate for the resources and support they need to succeed.”

Key highlights from the Legislature’s education budget include:

• The Legislature has proposed allotting $5,372.60 to Base Student Allocation funding. This is a 0.78% increase, or roughly $41.62 per student compared to last year. It fails to keep up with inflation. 
• $101 million has been allotted for teacher salaries, which would work out to roughly $20 more per paycheck per teacher. This does nothing to move Florida from #50 in the nation for average salary to the top ten.
• Thanks to engagement from parents, community, and educators across the state, programs like Dual Enrollment, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE), and Career & Technical Education (CTE) will maintain current funding levels. However, these programs have been shifted out of the FEFP’s weighted formula and into a separate categorical allocation, reducing transparency and potentially restricting district flexibility in how those funds are used.