Education was a prominent subject in Governor Rick Scott’s State of the State address Tuesday. He promoted his $18.8 billion dollar budget for schools. But Florida’s biggest teacher’s union has other priorities.
If it were up to Andy Ford, there would be even more money going in to Florida’s public schools.
"What’s proposed from the governor doesn’t get us back to the '07-'08 school year—which was our high level before the economy went down", said Ford.
Ford is president of the Florida Education Association—the umbrella organization for Florida teachers’ unions. Florida ranks 47th for teacher salaries. And state schools have shed thousands of support staff jobs since 2007.
The FEA will also be lobbying hard to keep its retirement plan. It’s against a proposal this session that would put new education hires in a 401k or cash balance plan instead of the guaranteed state pension plan. Additionally, Ford said his organization still supports Florida’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards. He just wishes the rollout would slow down.
"There hasn’t been sufficient time put in place to move from one system to the other", said Ford. "We also don’t have the resources to be able to make the transition. And we’re just moving too quickly, we need to slow it down a little."
The FEA has opposed tying teacher pay to whatever new test will replace the FCAT next year. That new test has yet to be selected.