As schools across the state grapple with staffing shortages in positions such as bus drivers and food servers, senators are considering setting a minimum wage for school workers at $15 an hour.
The Flagler County school district did so in November.
Senate Education Appropriations Chairman Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, announced the proposal during a review of an initial budget recommendation for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. Broxson said the proposal would provide “for an expectation that all school districts will ensure that every employee is paid at a minimum wage of at least $15 per hour beginning in” the 2022-2023 school year.
The money to raise wages would be included in the Florida Education Finance Program, the main funding formula for public schools, according to Broxson. Overall, the education budget recommendation would provide $24.1 billion for public schools, a $1.4 billion increase over the current year. The proposed increase goes beyond what Gov. Ron DeSantis requested.
In a budget proposal rolled out in December, DeSantis recommended funding the system at $23.9 billion. The initial Senate recommendation will go to the Appropriations Committee. Lawmakers also are pursuing bills (HB 1017 and SB 1576) to address the scarcity of school staff. Those bills would require school districts to identify “critical employment shortages” of educational support staff and fund incentives to help recruit workers.
–News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive
Deirdre Rutledge says
Yes! Finally! Most people don’t have a clue as to how hard every school employee works, everyone deserves to make a living wage.
People that have been willing to work so hard, for so little, will get more, closer to what they actually deserve, but still not enough.
Many people that work for the schools are part time, they don’t always have benefits, they pay a lot of money for their medical insurance, and they don’t have much money to take home at the end of the day after taxes.
So happy to hear that Flagler County Schools has made a positive decision in their favor, it’s too bad staffing shortages have been the force to facilitate appreciation for the people that work so hard to make every child’s life better.
They’re essential to everything that needs to happen in the schools and we’re lucky to have them.
A.j says
Repubs, trying to help the little man, don’t sound like Repubs. Something is wrong. Voting year trying to get the little man vote,just saying.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
The Republican party was created to stop the expansion of slavery. Better to reward a man for a days labor than to pay him to stay home and get into trouble.
Mark says
Yep, just looking for cheap Votes as usual per the GOP playbook.