Education union lists teacher raises as top 2025 legislative priority

Teacher salaries in Florida still lag far behind those in other comparably sized states, and the state’s largest teachers union believes there’s no time like the coming Session to shore up that deficiency.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) put raises and expanded health care benefits for public school teachers atop its list of 2025 priorities.

Other goals include helping qualified, experienced teachers earn multiyear contracts, enhance the Florida Retirement System without adding to employer costs, protecting the “academic freedom” of teachers and students, and prioritizing teacher-led assessments over state-mandated tests.

“By ensuring that resources are available, the Florida Legislature can demonstrate its commitment to providing every child with the education they deserve, regardless of race, income or ZIP code,” FEA personnel wrote.

The average teacher pay in Florida during the 2022-23 term was $53,098 — the second-lowest among all 50 states and the District of Columbia and $16,459 lower than the nationwide average, according to the National Education Association. Only West Virginia, with an average teacher salary of $52,870, was worse.

One way to address the issue, which has contributed to an estimated 5,000 instructor vacancies in Florida currently, is to increase per-student funding through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP), the FEA said.

State records show funding this year rose to $8,959 per full-time equivalent student. That’s the highest it’s ever been, but is still less than a $1,000 increase since the 2020-21 school year.

The FEA plans to pursue a $1,000 increase in a single year.

Rep. Alex Rizois behind a parallel effort with aims that could intersect with the FEA’s.

The Hialeah Republican told Florida Politics this month that he is working on a proposal aimed at altering the FEFP’s formula for determining how much funding school districts receive.

Legislation that state lawmakers passed in recent years, including a sweeping expansion to Florida’s school voucher program in 2023 that Rizo supported, changed the formula. Before, Florida’s most populous county of Miami-Dade was at or near the top in funding. It’s now close to the bottom.

“I’d like to look at that, because I certainly don’t think that’s equitable,” Rizo said, adding that including a “cost-of-living index” to the program’s formula might rectify the issue.

FEA lobbyists will also try to sway lawmakers next year to fully fund the state’s Public Education Capital Outlay, which covers the cost of ridding schools of mold and lead exposure and providing buildings with proper ventilation and air conditioning.

Fee waivers are another goal. The FEA will seek or support legislation allowing teachers to forgo paying fees for certification renewals, add-on certifications and certification tests for teachers and those in teacher-preparation programs.

The state union’s most recent policy push follows several Sessions in which the GOP-dominated Legislature has made Florida progressively less hospitable to collective bargaining on behalf of public employees.

That includes legislation passed in 2023 requiring teachers, nurses and some other public sector workers to write checks to pay their union dues rather than have it drawn directly from their paychecks.

The measure, which lawmakers updated this year to exempt some emergency and transit workers, also mandated that if a union didn’t have at least 60% membership in a given district, it had to reapply for certification.

“(Anti-public) education politicians have tried to silence our collective voice,” FEA personnel wrote.

“But those politicians who oppose the rights of teachers and staff to have a union are finding out their plan to attack us is failing. Already, more than 100,000 educators have made the switch from payroll deduction to another form of dues payment.”

The 2025 Legislative Session commences March 4 and runs through May 2.