Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) held a press briefing on Monday to discuss pay increases for teachers.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Everybody knows Stanley Cup finals that are underway and
00:08You know, it's amazing how Florida has kind of become a hockey state when I was growing up we didn't have hockey
00:15Nobody I never I didn't even know I didn't know anybody that ever played hockey
00:19And now we have two of the best franchises in the NFL Tampa on the Florida Panthers
00:25And so with this Stanley Cup, I just want to let everybody know I actually have a bet
00:32with the premier of Alberta
00:35Danielle Smith, so if the Oilers win, then I've got to send
00:41Florida rum up to Alberta
00:43But if but if the Panthers win, then she's got to send some nice Canadian whiskey down to Florida
00:50so we're gonna do that and
00:55I also said, you know what? I feel good about how the
00:59Cup is gonna proceed. So if somehow the Oilers win not only send the rum
01:04I'll also throw in a key lime pie to boot. So that's what we'll do now and then
01:10Not only that which is exciting, of course down here, but for our state we have after this weekend
01:17Two of our universities made it to the college baseball World Series in Omaha, which is not easy to do
01:25so we have both Florida State and
01:28University of Florida
01:30Both swept they're super regional. I'll tell you what
01:34I don't know if you guys had a chance to watch
01:36Both game twos for Florida State versus UConn and then yesterday Clemson University of Florida were extra innings
01:44Very I mean, Florida State. I mean massive home runs, Florida did well, but you know yesterday in the game
01:52You had this the umpiring. I mean one of the Clemson guys got thrown out
01:56I think was a it was a big mistake
01:58They threw the coaches out and it's like, you know, I maybe that wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome
02:03But it's like there was 45 minutes of that game that was on a delay
02:09Because they're doing replay to decide if they're gonna throw somebody out of the game
02:13It used to be if you throw someone out you throw someone out and then you get back going
02:18So hopefully Omaha is not like where we have these big breaks
02:22Where they're sitting there doing all this because it really made the game drag on and I don't think it was fair really to either
02:29Florida or Clemson yesterday nevertheless
02:32We are as of right now the only state that has two teams in the College World Series now NC State
02:39Who do they play Georgia?
02:40Today I was talking to some of you guys
02:42So, I think they play Georgia Georgia wins they go fancy state that go but North Carolina is in so fancy state
02:49they'll be the only they'll join Florida, but other than that, we may be the only team and
02:55Florida State in Florida in separate parts of the bracket so conceivably they could meet for the national championship
03:01For for college baseball, which would be really exciting for the state and I know when we get to football season
03:08I know the you's gonna start winning again
03:10I think that people have assured me of that
03:12So I'm looking forward to seeing a football glory return here to South South, Florida
03:17And you know, I think we have some good good things to look forward to in other parts of the state as well
03:21But that's not what exciting is all that is. That's not why we're here
03:25What we're here is even more exciting talking about what we're going to be able to deliver in this year's budget
03:32To increase for many years in a row now
03:36Teacher salaries throughout the state of Florida and when we do that, it's not only for school teachers in school districts
03:43It also applies to our public school teachers who are teaching in public charter schools
03:49And I know that's something that's been very important down here in Miami-Dade County
03:54So so we're excited about that. But before I do
03:57Get into exactly what we're going to be doing in the budget. It is important to just point out
04:03Florida for two years in a row has ranked number one overall in education by US News and World Report
04:17And part of the reason I think is because when kovat hit you had a decision to make are you going to approach this
04:25Rationally, are you going to put the interests of students first?
04:29or
04:30Are you going to follow the direction of very partisan school unions and try to just lock kids out of school and say tough?
04:38Luck for six months nine months a year year and a half and in Florida
04:43We we said, you know what kids need to be back in school
04:45And so we were the I think we had the highest percentage 99 to 100 percent
04:51in person education in
04:542020-2021 school year and yet some other states that had half the kids had no access to in-person education
05:00So that was really important. We had a lot of opposition to that
05:04I know the the school union in Florida sued us because they wanted to lock kids out of school
05:11I know there were demonstrations here in Miami
05:15With the the school union here trying to say all the kids were gonna die. That was wrong
05:21What they were doing that was politics and putting ideology and their own
05:26Interests ahead of the interests of students. So happily we won that battle
05:31we made sure that kids were able to get an education and I think the rest really is history because had we done what the
05:39Had the had the school unions won that fight. We would not be number one in education in this country
05:45There's just no way that that would be the case. So that was really really a focal point
05:50for us now
05:52One of the things I noticed in that fight was, you know
05:56You had some of these entrenched interests that were pushing to say kids should not go to school
06:01But most of the teachers themselves wanted the kids to be able to come back in class
06:06I mean, I remember we went to a school that dealt with a lot of students that had unique abilities
06:12They could not do it on zoom
06:15They needed to be in there working and so a lot of these teachers did that and this think about it
06:20If you dedicate your life to this
06:22Do you want somebody to say you're non-essential because that's effectively what it is to say kids that need to be in school
06:28No, most of the teachers understood that they needed to do so
06:32That's part of the reason we've worked really hard to deliver the salary increases that we've been doing
06:38For the the last many many years and so since 2019 to the present
06:44We've had by far the biggest increase in teacher
06:48compensation that has ever happened in the history of the state of Florida and that's something that the
06:53Legislature has worked with us on and we're very happy that that's the that that's the case
06:57We've done a lot to be able to to help teachers even apart from salary
07:03We've extended the length of temporary teaching certificates from three to five years. We've also eliminated
07:11unnecessary bureaucratic
07:13requirements for
07:14Certification, you know some of these things can turned into like a guild where you kind of go through this just to go through it
07:20But there's no actual
07:22Reason for some of this stuff to be there
07:24So we've tried to cut through that pave the pathway for good people to be able to do good things in the classroom
07:32And just think about it if you can't hire
07:35somebody that retires from running like a fortune 500 company to teach business at a high school because they don't have proper
07:43Certification something is wrong with that. And so we've worked hard to address it address that we've also
07:49established as part of our push to
07:52enhance focus on American civics in the Constitution
07:56We enacted the civics literacy literacy excellence initiative, which gives teachers
08:04$3,000 if they complete a first-of-its-kind
08:07Civics training and they earn the newly created
08:11Civic seal of excellence endorsement to add to their teaching credentials
08:16And so this is a course we got some of the best scholars from around the country to offer instruction
08:22about
08:23What are the foundations of America? What are the ideas that went into our Constitution?
08:29It really it provides great emphasis on
08:33Core things involving Western civilization, which you think everybody would know
08:39But that's a lost art in many of our universities. I'd say the vast majority of our universities
08:45Are not only embracing they're not embracing the Western tradition
08:49They're actively seeking to sabotage the Western tradition now in Florida our state university system
08:55We are embracing the classics. We're embracing the West
09:03We
09:05Am we're embracing these ideas that really make a difference and has made this country what it is. So there goes so we had
09:1319,000 teachers go through that program
09:16It's received incredible marks and it's something that we really have to do
09:21We put an emphasis on civics the legislature's work does we can say all students need to know this and all that
09:26You got to take a course in high school all this stuff and we've done that
09:30But if the teachers aren't well versed in the basics
09:33Then it's not going to work and the reality is you know
09:36Most universities you go to even if you're seeking out this type of stuff the options aren't great
09:43There's every fad leftist cause will have a have a course assigned and even a major but not necessarily this
09:50So so we've recognized that and I think we've really filled the void in a really really significant way
09:56We've also understood that not everyone comes to the teaching profession
10:01traveling the same road
10:03We now have 13 different pathways in Florida
10:07Where individuals can work to become a teacher in our schools?
10:12One of which is tailor-made for military veterans who have honorably served our country
10:18We value the unique experience that veterans bring and we give qualified
10:23Veterans a few extra years to earn their full certificate while getting additional classroom
10:31experience and so far we have
10:33Almost a hundred Florida veterans that have taken advantage of this pathway when we establish this pathway a couple years ago
10:41There was the head of a school union
10:43I think on the west coast of Florida that said something the effect of you know, oh, you know you serve in Kabul
10:49What does that have to do? How does that help kids, you know learn?
10:53I actually think it could help a lot kids to learn because I think these are important experiences
10:58I think that serving your country as a noble cause and I think that what people develop in terms of leadership
11:04And in terms of character really matters and and and all that is forged in in these battlefields abroad
11:11And you know, you hope that people don't have to go do it
11:13But when they do it, they are bringing back very valuable experience now last year
11:18We signed HB 1035 which established a teacher's Bill of Rights here in the state of Florida now
11:26One of the things that the bill did was said with cell phones
11:31You can
11:33Students should not have cell phones in the classroom
11:35They can check them at the front of the class and actually some schools say no cell phones period
11:41But at a minimum
11:43You sit in class and you learn and you can't have everybody on their phones all the time
11:48And so I remember when we did that it's just kind of typical people to go
11:52You know, they were trying to attack us now the school districts that have really embraced this
11:58They've never done better in terms of what's happened with the classroom experience the students even admit
12:05It's better the teachers admitted better and the parents like it better
12:10So that has been huge to make sure that you have order in the classroom and think about it
12:15What does it say who's gonna want to go through?
12:18Education preparing trying to become a teacher then you get in the classroom and everyone's just texting the whole time
12:24What what does that serve?
12:26So that was something that's really really significant and I'm glad that we did it and I think other states have also followed suit
12:33We've also
12:34Empowered in that bill and in the teacher's Bill of Rights
12:37We've empowered teachers to preserve safety and order in their classrooms
12:42By creating a presumption in law that they will not be liable if they act to protect students
12:47What happens is sometimes you have massive discipline problems
12:51but then if the teacher does something to ensure discipline then all of a sudden it's the teachers fault and the
12:58Disruptive student is somehow becomes a victim. No, that's not going to fly
13:03Every student has a right to learn in a safe and orderly classroom and every teacher has a right to provide instruction
13:11With a safe and orderly classroom and we've helped deliver
13:15Support for that
13:17We've also given Florida teachers an avenue to report if they've been directed to break the law by their administrators or school board
13:24So for example, this Florida legislature can pass statutes
13:29Governor can sign and execute those statutes and we have some school did not very many but we have some
13:36Around the state who think that you know, the laws are basically
13:41Recommendations and they can just simply do what they want to do. Well, that's not the way it works
13:45And so they're telling a teacher that the teacher should disregard state law
13:51Then the teacher is going to be able
13:53To report that and we're going to be able to take corrective action
13:57And if you're somebody who's an elected superintendent if you're an elected member of school board somewhere and you are doing that
14:05Affirmatively trying to sabotage state law that is absolutely grounds for suspension from office under the governor's
14:14constitutional executive authority and we've wielded that against
14:17Prosecutors who have not been willing to enforce the law and we absolutely will wield it
14:23If you have school officials who are disregarding the law
14:28We've also established in that bill the heroes in the classroom bonus program
14:32This provides a sign-on bonus to retired first responders and veterans who become full-time classroom teachers
14:39We also established the teacher apprenticeship program as an alternative pathway for individuals to enter the teaching profession
14:47This is just my instinct
14:49but I bet you most people would agree if you had a choice to
14:54Have somebody be an apprentice to a teacher and learn in the classroom
15:00Versus going to some school of degree or other credentials
15:03To provide dual enrollment coursework to high school students
15:07We really believe that high school students should have opportunities to earn college credit
15:13Now part of that could be you do the Cambridge test
15:16You do the advanced placement you do international baccalaureate
15:20But some of it and this may even be the most effective you just do dual enrollment
15:25So you can do a high school here in Miami and you can do Miami Dade College and you can earn credit right there
15:31I think we have students that do do a year or two worth of credit in high school
15:36And then they go and are able to move forward
15:38So, you know used to be students would want to do
15:42You know kind of four and a half years in college get that extra football season in but you know
15:47We haven't won national championships very recently, which we used to all the time
15:51I mean in the 80s and 90s
15:53But but now it's you can get these these credentials and you can or get the college credit
15:58You can graduate college in like two years a four-year college in the state of Florida if you take advantage of all this
16:05So we want more teachers to be able to be instructors there
16:09So that's a pretty robust teachers bill of rights and we're very very happy that we did that
16:14we also signed SB 256 which ushered in a new era of
16:19accountability for
16:20highly partisan wayward
16:22School unions here in Florida and what this bill did was it said no
16:28Automatic deductions in the paycheck if you want to join
16:33The union here in Dade County, you know, you can write a check and you can do that
16:38But we as the state are not going to facilitate those deductions part of it is just that just provides maximum choice
16:46Without coercion, but part of it's a recognition that these school unions have become
16:53Ultra-partisan they've been trying to impose left-wing ideology and thing is it's like wait a minute. Are you
17:01Representing teachers to get better pay and benefits
17:04Are you trying to push a political agenda? And unfortunately so much of it has been about pushing a political agenda
17:11so this
17:13this bill really has provided
17:16Huge amounts of accountability and it's given a lifeline to so many people in the school systems who didn't feel
17:23Represented by a union that's pursuing a political agenda and don't make no mistake
17:29We had school unions throughout the state that as we have provided more money for teacher salaries
17:36What we said is it's a categorical amount of money only can go to teacher
17:40Increasing teacher salaries because what happens is they say oh teachers need more money you increase education spending and then they spend it on
17:47Bureaucracy and other things so we said and the legislature said only to raise salaries
17:53Well with some of the school unions did even though that money it was available every year July 1st when the new budget takes effect
18:00They would withhold the money to raise salaries for their own teachers
18:05They're supposed to represent and try to use that as leverage to get other
18:10Concessions and I'm just thinking to myself the money's already been provided
18:14You should have been working to get that money out the door and get it in the pockets of the people that you purport to
18:20Represent, but it shows that they put their political agenda
18:25Ahead of not only the students which of course they do but even the teachers that they purport to serve
18:32so I know that there's a
18:35decertification
18:36Battle here in Miami-Dade
18:38And and all I can say is that old Union in Miami-Dade fought tooth and nail
18:45To kick it to keep kids locked out of school
18:47They did not want kids in person during kovat and they've worked really hard to push a political agenda
18:54Which is not what we need in our schools and we about education not indoctrination
19:00so that is going to be unfolding in the next couple months, but I think that
19:05Empowering the teachers to make that decision free of coercion was the right thing to do
19:11And if you're not providing the services, why should someone give money out of their paycheck?
19:17Just to do that and you don't need them to raise pay
19:21We're raising pay in spite of of those unions not because of them with what we've done in the Florida legislature
19:28So keep that in mind
19:30So you are going to have an election this summer with United Teachers of Dade
19:34So they are going to be able to choose an alternative Union or to not have any Union at all as they want you
19:41And that will happen very very shortly
19:44Shortly, but make no mistake about it
19:47We are putting our money where our mouth is in the state of Florida. Not just investing in teachers
19:55Investing in universities and making it so this is attainable for people. I would point out that our
20:02in-state tuition for our public universities
20:05Is lower than just about any private K through 12 schools nowadays. It's about
20:11$6,300 a year for tuition
20:14Where are you going to be able to beat that and the good students who have the bright futures?
20:19They have no tuition or 75% off tuition depending on where you're at
20:24So nobody has made it more affordable than the state of Florida and that's because we've we've invested
20:30Prudently now in terms of teacher pay so the budget
20:35We're going through kind of the last last stages of that
20:39You know some of these legislators that may have you know different projects
20:43this is going to be probably the week that all that all comes to a head and so we
20:48We haven't made we haven't made final decisions on every little line item in the budget, but we have
20:55approved I would say probably 90% of the budget at this point and
20:59One of the things that we've approved are the major investments in education and the major investments in raising
21:07teacher pay and in part of what we've done is
21:11We've provided bonuses
21:13we've provided increased money for salaries, but we've said okay, how are we going to get the most bang out of the buck and
21:20What we what we saw was when I took out office
21:24The average minimum salary throughout the state of Florida
21:28Was was was just a shade under $40,000 and so we're like all right
21:33You know this is even before by inflation like how are people going to go through college and then want to go in?
21:39Not that money is everything because people that want to serve know you're not going to make as much as a teacher as you would
21:46If you were you know in a business executive
21:49And I think people make that decision because they care about what they're doing
21:52But we're like we've got to get that that average minimum salary up
21:56So we said that we were going to get the average minimum salary up from just under
22:0040,000 to over
22:0347,000 that would make us number one in the southeast and of course places that have higher costs of living like Dade
22:09You know they would be higher
22:11Collier other parts, and then we have rural areas that well
22:16$47,000 is probably twice as much in some of our rural areas as it would take you in Miami
22:21That's just the reality because the costs are costs are lower so since 2020
22:27We've invested over 3 billion in teacher pay initiatives, so we've not only accomplished that goal
22:33But we now have the average minimum teacher salary is over
22:39$48,000 so that's up from about
22:41$39,000 five years ago
22:43And in many districts where the cost of living is higher
22:47Teachers can start out higher than that state average because we understand
22:51There's a lot a lot of difference between South Florida, and maybe say North Central, Florida, but that has been
22:58really significant movement
23:00In a positive direction with that, so I'm glad we were able to do that and then we've also done
23:07other
23:08teacher
23:09Increases when kovat hit we appreciated teachers being in the classroom
23:14And so we did thousand dollar bonuses for all public school
23:18Charter school teachers and principals in the entire state of Florida, which not many other
23:24States were doing that today though. I'm able to announce that on top of everything. We've already done
23:31We will have this year in our teacher pay
23:34categorical
23:361.25 billion dollars for teacher salary increases
23:41This is an increase of close to a quarter of a billion dollars in funding over the previous year's teacher
23:49Categorical and that brings our total investment in teacher pay increases
23:54to
23:564.6 billion dollars since 2020
24:07And that's where we want the money to go this
24:11Categorical can only be used to increase salaries for teachers now
24:16Notice the United Teachers of Dade president makes almost
24:21$300,000 in total compensation
24:23You know that that is one model. I don't want any of this money. I want to go into teachers
24:30I don't want it going to the head of the teacher union. I want it to go to the teacher
24:35So
24:44It's going to be a strong budget for education
24:47This is the most we've ever done in Florida history in terms of a teacher categorical
24:53We're proud that we're able to do that
24:55You've also seen the the major expansion and choice in this state and we've got
25:02400,000 students in charter schools now
25:04We've got 400,000 on private scholarship
25:07And then we've got a lot of programs within school districts that give parents choice
25:12To send their kids in different schools across the district. And so that's all been part of a winning formula
25:18We're proud to rank number one in education. We're not going to take our foot off the gas pedal one bit