ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida lawmakers and education leaders say they hope an additional $200 million in the budget for teacher pay during the 2024-2025 school year will help attract quality teachers to Florida.
But National Education Association data shows the salaries of new teachers is not much less than the average salary of teachers in the state overall.
NEA data shows Florida ranks 16th in the country in average starting teacher pay, with the average starting teacher pay per year at $47,178. But that same data shows Florida ranks 50th in the nation in average teacher salaries overall, with an average of $53,098.
Stacey Green spent some of her summer break from the classroom doing teacher training, which she says adds some extra pay to her yearly salary. She says every bit helps when her regular salary isn’t as much as she would like it to be.
Green says her annual pay has grown very little during the 26 years she’s worked as a teacher in Seminole County.
The Florida Department of Education says in the last six years, average starting teacher pay in Florida has increased from about $40,000 to nearly $50,000. But Green says after all of her years of experience in the classroom, most of them at the same school, she’s not making much more than what new teachers are starting at.
“It’s just disheartening to know that beginning teachers are coming in at very close to what you make — 26 years in,” Green said.
Despite her financial setbacks, Green — who teaches special needs students — says she often looks for new tools for her classroom.
“I just want to give something new and make it more interesting,” she said.
Green says she doesn’t let her level of compensation affect the level of education her students get.
“You don’t have that energy to keep going sometimes when you don’t feel like you’re getting compensated for that,” said Green. “I do — I keep going because I love the kids. The kids are No. 1. I can’t let the pay hurt the kids because it’s not their fault — they didn’t do anything.”
Green says her compensation has consequences for her family. After what’s usually a long day in the classroom, she comes home and gets dinner ready while her husband works a few more hours at his job.
“He works long hours to be able to bring in the income to pay most of our bills,” said Green. “I usually come home and cook dinner and have it kind of ready and just try to get everything ready.”
Green said her family is doing OK financially, but says what she makes as an educator doesn’t nearly keep up with costs-of-living increases. And that makes things tighter in her family’s budget.
“Once everything increases and you think, ‘OK, my pay is not quite increasing enough to help compensate for that,’” said Green.