The Florida government is failing our kids and our teachers

Yes, 14th in the country in K-12 while last in pay.
Meaning we are getting the most we can out of our teachers without overpaying them.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education

 

I did not know pay defined success. And while you can argue that we need to find a way to increase the average pay. And I would have no problem with that. We are quite high in starting pay for teachers. The state is doing just fine. In fact great when it comes to education.

 

And do you provide health insurance and paid vacation? How about retirement and disability? I bet most bartenders don't get any benefits. Just health insurance is worth a lot of income.

 

Sorry, I read this originally as you were making a joke.
Were you serious?

 

Shouldnt the 14th best work receive the 14th best pay?

 

Teachers don’t get disability insurance unless they self pay.

 

Think of all the cash tips you can not report to the IRS though

 

All very true, however, in practice, charter schools can choose who they want to accept and who they don't. That's one big issue I have with Charters. They get state money through the local school district but don't have to play by the same rules as the public schools. If you can choose to not accept the lower performing kids, of course your scores are going to be higher. Same with public schools in good neighborhoods versus ones in poor neighborhoods. It's not rocket surgery.
Having said that, not all charter schools are cut from the same cloth. There are some that cater to a certain demographic which would include the underserved population but all of those "Academy" types are run like a business for the purpose of making money off the state.

 

I recall an article from a few years back with findings that FL has major issues as students progress through the grades.

Florida’s education system is vastly underperforming | Column

Can only speculate as to the causes (there are likely multiple causes), but not sure kids “peaking” in 4th grade (in terms of comparative rankings), then collapsing by 8th grade, then basically not even wanting to study what is happening by the time they arrive at 12th grade is indicative of a healthy educational system (let alone whatever metrics would have it 14th). Actually, such “learning rate” issues would line up much more with what we’d expect from a system that has chronic shortages and pays its teachers the least.

 

I didn't go through the chart in the OP but I would be willing to bet on strong correlation between the following. 1. States with the highest pay also have the highest cost of living (housing, food, gas etc.)
2. States with the highest pay are ones that are either not growing in population or are maintaining. States that are growing will have new influxes of students requiring more teachers and budgets haven't caught up so the same money gets split amongst more teachers resulting in lower pay.

Florida should definitely be paying their teachers more though. Last is not a good place to be. Let Mississippi be last, they're used to it in many other categories.

 

US news ranks our k-12 as #14 (#1 in higher education, hopefully Desantis doesn’t spoil that with his woke political stunts). But is that k-12 success guaranteed going forward? It’s usually the best employees (teachers) who leave first with horrible pay. And Florida currently ranks towards the bottom in teacher to student ratio.

 

Glad to learn republicans are now for paying wages that don't have anything to do with ability and results.

 

Funny you find that most surveys have Florida as one of the best states for teachers.

Here are the best and worst states for teachers – The Hill

Best States for Teachers 2024

 

One theory is that the people paving the way for sucking money out of the public system and pumping it into the private system want to do away with public schools completely. The observed facts do fit this hypothesis.

 

Yes we are crushing it. Low cost of living overall. Solid starting pay. Good benefits. Clearly we are getting a lot right. But we find one average and act like all is wrong in Florida lol.

 

There is a poster in this thread (many may have blocked) who once argued govt employees should work for free because they are public servants. I guess huge emphasis on the servant part.

 

I taught in Alachua county and for the Florida Virtual School. Our kids attended schools in Alachua and St Johns counties.

 

Florida at #5 for best state for teachers!!
Lots of libbie states on the naughty list.
Sad that libbies like to tell lies about Florida but it seems Florida is kicking ass.

 

My oldest has taken French 1 and 2 via virtual already. Will
Take 3 over the summer. All on her own accord as an extra class. Started doing dual lingo with French for some reason a few years ago lol.

 

And even if rules and regulations are set up that require a charter to use a lottery system rather than cherry pick the best and brightest, they can easily process out students who cost them more in time or money. It takes a little longer, but the end result is the same. Charters that outperform public schools rarely look like the public schools they are being compared to.