By Karla Perez
Children spend more time at school than anywhere else. Other than parents, teachers are – arguably – the most influential adults in a child’s life. Yet, despite the awesome responsibility that comes with educating, coaching and caring for the world’s future leaders, Florida’s teachers make well below the national average.
Standardized testing and the common core has changed, not only what students learn and how they are assessed, but also how teachers’ own success and efficacy is measured. It is no surprise, then, that in an environment that becomes more demanding, and more stressful after the recent school shootings, fifty percent of all teachers leave the profession within the first five years, according to the National Education Association.
Even in the face of those pressures – changing tests, standards and school grading formulas – Miami Dade County Public Schools continued to succeed. For the first time ever, MDCPS is an A-rated school district and students continue making learning gains.
As a result, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the Miami-Dade School Board added referendum 362 to the November ballot, asking voters to increase property taxes by 75 cents per $1,000 to increase teachers’ pay.
Right now, Florida is the 4th lowest in the country when it comes to teachers’ salaries. Having an already low-income yearly, it becomes especially harder for those that teach in Miami to thrive, since it’s one of the United States’ least affordable places for educators to live in–even if they have multiple jobs.
“I cannot fix all of Florida,” Superintendent Carvalho said to parents, teachers, students and community members packed into MLEC’s auditorium on September 20th. “But we can certainly fix that condition in Miami Dade.”
“How in the world can we attract the very best [teachers] and pay the very best with these conditions?” said Carvalho at the meeting.
Superintendent Carvalho has crisscrossed the county — holding town hall meetings, appearing on news, radio and TV news — appealing to voters for their support.
The proposed tax increase would also allow the district to employ enough police officers to meet a new state mandate for one cop on every campus without the necessity of relying on local law enforcement, Carvalho said. The district is now complying with the post-Parkland law through partnerships with municipal police forces, but some of those agreements are only valid for one year; he argued the referendum will provide a longer-term solution.
If voters approve the referendum, MDCPS would raise about $232 million annually for four years to increase salaries for teachers and counselors. Proponents of the bill argue that Florida’s Legislature has underfunded school districts, especially large urban ones like Miami-Dade, that receive less money per student than other school districts that do not face the same challenges. The average per-student increase in this year’s budget as $101 per child, but in Miami-Dade, it was only $65. enhancements, following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Districts were left with hardly any additional funding for educational purposes.
But, some argue that the state should adequately fund public education throughout the state.
“What bothers me personally about the referendum is: why does the district have to do this? Why isn’t education so important to the state of Florida that they find the need to fund their teachers,” Peter Melton, a teacher and United Teachers of Dade Steward at MLEC.
Opponents feel that if the state has mandated that schools put extra security and counselors in pace, and if they want to work to prepare students for a global workforce, then it is up to state legislators to provide schools and school districts with the money to do that.
“Philosophically, do I think that the state should provide adequate funding for public education? Yes,” said Helena Castro, MLEC’s activities director. “But, they haven’t. So, we go the only avenue that we have available, which is to address that gap locally.”
It is also true that the cost of living in South Florida is far higher than in other parts of the state. So, to attract and retain the best teachers, MDCPS wants to offer competitive pay.
“Our teachers have stepped up,” said Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of United Teachers of Dade, the local union, in reference to MDCPS’s A rating and students’ learning gains. “But they can’t live in our communities. They can’t make ends meet.”
It is expensive to live in Miami. In fact, data says that is it is one of the nation’s least affordable cities, based on the cost of rent, mortgage and transportation.
“What should the reward be for those who deliver these results? At least adequate compensation that keeps pace with the economic realities of our community,” Carvalho said. “We cannot allow Miami-Dade to become like many other districts in the country, struggling to hire teachers because they can’t afford to live in those communities.”
Others are concerned that the language is vague enough that the money will be used for things other than school security and teacher salaries.
Carvalho and members of the school board have not yet decided exactly what percentage of the money will go to teachers and cops, respectively. But they have committed to spending a 90 percent on teachers. Carvalho said even the lowest level would be enough to bring teacher salaries from below the national average to above it. And, he said, the 10 to 20 percent that’s leftover would be sufficient for hiring the additional police necessary — or contributing additional money toward the compensation of police officers effectively on loan from local agencies, he said.
“My concern is that [the district] will say ‘well you know what? Teachers just got a 20% raise, so we can raise insurance cost by 20%,’ and teachers will be right back where they were. That terrifies me, and that’s not in the referendum,” said Melton.
Carvalho said if the referendum passes, the district will ask voters to approve the increase again in four years, after it expires, adding pressure to get this referendum right.
“It is the moral imperative of our time,” he said, “ensuring that our children are safe and that educators can continue to do their work day after day.”
