Governor Rick Scott says he'll propose an across-the-board teacher pay raise to the Legislature. Scott on Wednesday said the raise would apply only to full-time teachers – not other school staff – and would cost $480 million.
He said he hasn't given up on performance-based pay for teachers, but first they deserve a raise.
"Look at the quality of our education system. Look at how hard they're working. Look at the test scores. They're doing a very good job", said Scott. "Now, I believe in merit pay, I believe in measurement, I believe in accountability. And we're going to continue to work on that. But right now, the right thing to do is an across-the-board pay raise for all of our full-time teachers."
Republican legislative leaders were cautious. Senator Bill Galvano of Bradenton said he's open to the raise, but wants to see how it fits into a total budget first.