DeSantis proposes $1K bonuses
‘Heroic work’ of teachers and principals could be paid with federal COVID-19 funds
Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed Wednesday that public school teachers and principals earn $1,000 bonuses this year, paid for with federal COVID-19 funds.
The bonuses would be on top of teacher salary increases he also wants the Florida Legislature to fund during its current session this spring.
The governor, who insisted schools open in August, said holding in-person classes has helped students, parents and communities, and the educators who made that happen deserve a monetary reward. Teachers and principals “have put student success first throughout the course of the coronavirus pandemic,” he added.
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, joining DeSantis at a press conference at Palm Harbor High School, said that for the 2021211 school year, the state would stop its financial support of the online programs districts created this year for children whose parents did not want them on campus because of the pandemic.
That likely means options such as LaunchEd in Orange County, Lake Live in Lake County and Seminole Connect in Seminole County would not be available starting in August. Statewide, about 30% of Florida’s nearly 2.8 million public school students are now in those remote programs, which allow students to take part in traditional classes via computer.
Parents could still choose the traditional online options offered as part of the Florida Virtual School, however.
The $216 million teacher bonus plan would be on top of the governor’s proposed $3,000 bonuses for teachers who have completed civics training.
If approved by the Legislature, the bonuses would go out to about 3,600 principals and 180,000 teachers at K-12 public schools in
Florida. They would be paid out of the ESSER Fund, part of the Education Stabilization Fund in the federal CARES Act passed last year.
Corcoran said bonuses would be a recognition of the “heroic work” teachers and principals have done to keep students learning despite the challenges of COVID-19.
He also said the goal for the upcoming school year is “to get everyone back in the classroom.”
For this school year, the state insisted public schools open “brick and mortar” campuses but also paid for “innovative” online options that allowed students to take part in those classes by logging in from home.
Historically, online options run by the state’s virtual school were paid less per student than traditional schools because they did not require campuses. The district’s “innovative” models, however, got the same per-pupil funding as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. But Corcoran said that funding level will stop for the coming school year.
“We’ve always, even pre-pandemic, we’ve always funded online. So we would just go back to the traditional funding levels for face to face and online,” he said.
For many school districts that likely will mean their current options will be too
expensive to continue.
A spokesman for Orange County Public Schools said it knows the current options are funded only through the summer, based on the emergency orders Corcoran has signed previously. “Without an extension by a subsequent emergency order, the LaunchEd@Home model will no longer be available. We await any additional information from the Governor or Commissioner,”
the spokesman said in an email.
Lake County Schools already has a survey on its website telling parents that it has “hopes of returning to a more normal school year in the fall,” and that it will offer only its traditional “face-toface” option in school buildings or a full-time option with the Lake County Virtual School, a franchise of FLVS.
The FLVS options, around
for about two decades, do not provide live classes but instead online lessons students do more at their own pace and on their own schedule.
The 42-year-old governor also said he would get his coronavirus vaccination this week, having recently qualified after he lowered the age of eligibility to 40.
Asked about whether he would be getting the shot soon, DeSantis said, “I
became eligible on Monday. I haven’t had it yet, but I’m planning on doing it this week.”
But, he added, he wasn’t sure if he would get the shot on camera.
“If you guys want a gun show, maybe we could do it, but probably better off not,” he joked about rolling up his sleeve. “We’re looking forward to doing it.”
DeSantis said he would follow former President
Trump’s lead in getting his vaccination off-camera if he decides not to publicize it.
Many public officials have gotten their shots on camera to promote the vaccines to their constituents, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, President Biden and all the living former presidents except for Trump.
Trump reportedly was vaccinated in January but did not make it public. Trump’s inoculation was finally revealed by Axios in early March, shortly after he finally told supporters at CPAC in Orlando, “Everybody, go get your shot.”
DeSantis also said he would issue an order banning “vaccination passports” in Florida and urged the Legislature to formalize it. It was unclear how such a ban might be compatible with potential vaccination passport requirements that could be mandated by nationwide industries.
On Monday, vaccine eligibility will drop to age to 18 and above, as well as 16- and 17-year-olds with parental approval.
“It’ll probably be a little bit of a rush,” DeSantis said.
But, he added, “it will probably start to be pretty soft as we get into the middle of April . ... So I think the message for folks, certainly the vulnerable folks ... is this something that’s available and safe. I think it’s been very effective.”