Broward teachers urge veto to education bill

Broward teachers added their voices to those calling on Gov. Rick Scott to veto an education bill they say favors charter schools.

Several teachers in the Broward Teachers Union criticized the bill during a job fair Monday designed to attract people to work at Broward schools. The district needs to hire about 1,100 to 1,200 teachers for the next academic year, said Susan Rockelman, director of Broward County schools talent acquisition.

The bill would exacerbate the district’s struggle to hire and retain high-quality teachers, educators said.

“They’re recruiting here to ‘teach by the beach,’ ” said Kenny Minchew, a teacher at West Pine Middle in Sunrise. “If they don’t raise salaries, they’re going to be sleeping on the beach.”

Most Broward teachers will receive at least a 4 percent raise or higher, but Superintendent Robert Runcie has said he can only do so much with limited state funding.

Florida allots $7,200 per student. The national average is more than $11,000, Runcie said.

If Scott signs the $419 million bill, Florida would have the lowest funding for traditional public schools since the start of the Great Recession in 2007-08, according to the teachers union.

“In my school, there are teachers moving to North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina … when I ask why they are leaving, they say I can’t afford to stay here,” said Liliana Ruido, a teacher at Sea Castle Elementary in Miramar.

The bill would grant $140 million to charter schools to open in neighborhoods where the traditional public school received Ds or Fs three years in a row. In addition, charters would be able to take property taxes designated for public school maintenance and construction.

The 278-page bill passed 73 to 36 in the House but narrowly in the Senate — 20 to 18.

Palm Beach County and Broward County school officials urged Scott not to sign the bill earlier this month. Scott is facing pressure from across the state and is waiting for the Legislature to send it to him.

In addition to steering millions of dollars to charter schools, the bill would expand a controversial bonus program and a scholarship program that students with disabilities can use to attend private schools.

It also includes many other provisions, including requiring that traditional schools give recess to elementary students

House Speaker Richard Corcoran said the “schools of hope” program — which encourages charters to enter challenging areas — would help students who have been left to “languish in chronically under-performing schools.”

He and other House leaders say those campaigning against the bill are interested in preserving the status quo, not providing reforms that will help students, respond to parent concerns and offer good teachers extra money. They also said the budget is an increase from last year and provides bonuses to all good teachers.

Leslie Mitchell, who teaches kids with disabilities at Fairway Elementary, said diverting funds from traditional schools is discriminatory against the kids who charter schools don’t take.

Unlike district schools, charters do not have to accept all students.

The bill would offer opportunities for educators to get pay boosts. It would expand the Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program, which rewards highly effective teachers for their old ACT or SAT scores. The revisions lower the score requirements in 2021, allow “best and brightest” teachers to earn $6,000 bonuses this year and allow principals to earn bonuses of $4,000 or $5,000.

But longtime Broward teacher Joan King said that discriminates against people who may not have taken the tests or may not have access to their test scores, such as if they took them a long time ago.

Even some who can get the bonus aren’t pleased. Leslie Fox, a 25-year-old Coral Cove Elementary teacher, said she’d rather have a dependable salary increase instead of a bonus that she is not guaranteed for years to come.

“I have to depend on my parents still. I can’t travel or do things for myself because I put a lot of my funds back into my classroom,” Fox said. “I’ve put in so much work and so much effort and then other people and all my friends who didn’t go to school can afford to live at [their own] home and I cannot.”