Florida lawmakers to consider a return to multi-year teacher contracts
Tampa Bay Times | Jeffrey S. Solochek | December 2, 2025
The Florida Senate is poised to take another shot at overhauling unpopular changes made to teacher contracts nearly 15 years ago.
The Senate Education PreK-12 Committee has scheduled a review of legislation that would allow teachers to secure contracts up to three years, if they have not received a needs improvement or unsatisfactory evaluation in the past three years.
If a teacher on a multi-year contract were to then get a poor review, the teacher would be returned to an annual term. The proposal is one of several ideas included in the Senate’s latest “administrative efficiency” bill, now in its third iteration.
Again sponsored by Education PreK-12 chairperson Sen. Corey Simon, the bill also would double the length of professional certificates for certain teachers. Those who receive evaluations of highly effective for the first four years of their five-year certification period would be eligible for a 10-year certificate when then renew.
An applicant who receives a mix of effective and highly effective ratings for the first nine years would be able to get a 10-year certification upon renewal.
In 2023-24, the most recent available data, the state reported that 72.8% of teachers were rated highly effective, and 26.2% were rated effective.
Teacher union leaders have long argued that the need to annually renew contracts for educators who have proven their value is demoralizing and unnecessary. Lawmakers eliminated multi-year contracts in 2011, despite proposals to maintain job security for effective teachers as the current bill seeks to accomplish. Then-Gov. Charlie Crist rejected a similar bill a year earlier amid massive teacher protests.
The Senate passed an “administrative efficiency” measure early in the 2025 session, only to see it die in the House, which does not have a companion bill at this point. The debate is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 9.
