[beach43ofus]

#1 in overall Education and #1 in parental choice in Education:

https://www.fldoe.org/newsroom/lates...2D12%20metrics.

#1 in higher education, and #10 in K-12:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...on-and-economy


These high rankings despite Florida having to take in so many immigrants in that don't speak, read, or write English.

These high ranking despite not paying in the top 10 either...but FLA Teachers rank FLA #5 for job satisfaction.

FLA ranks 23rd in overall cost of living, which helps offset the below avg. Teacher pay.

note: Gov DeSantis just increased starting Teacher pay from $40k to $48k , a 20% increase, which may not be reflected in these links.

[Corrie22]

I think this is very interesting.....and flies in the face of the narrative

”Also announced today, Florida ranked #1 in the Parent Power Index by the Center for Education Reform. The assessment focuses on alternative pathways and educational choices that parents and students have access to beyond traditional public schools.”

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

I think this is very interesting.....and flies in the face of the narrative

”Also announced today, Florida ranked #1 in the Parent Power Index by the Center for Education Reform. The assessment focuses on alternative pathways and educational choices that parents and students have access to beyond traditional public schools.”

FLA proves you don't have to overspend on Teacher's comp, to get good results. Our cost-per-pupil ranks 44th, yet FLA's ranked #1 overall.

FLA just does ed better, more effectively & efficiently. And, Teacher job satisfaction ranks 5th...FLA Teachers are happier.

FLA doesn't have grossly underfunded Teacher's pensions either, like many States up North. See page 27 in link below to see FLA's in the middle, but MA, NJ, CT, PA, IL, CA, RI are at, or near, the bottom:

https://bellwether.org/wp-content/up...-v11.12.21.pdf

If I was a retired Teacher from one of those States, I'd be Those States are going to need to jack taxes even more, or stiff retired Teachers in the future. Most of those State area already heavily taxed.

[kidyankee764]

One thing that drives inflated education budgets in the Northeast is the territorial nature of each small community feeling they have to have a full school district, each school fully stocked with highly paid administrators even with a student body of only a few hundred. One local middle school in a small town in Connecticut had a population of a few hundred students, yet for some reason needed to have three administrators each making north of $150k. Rinse and repeat for each town you drive through.

This wasteful spending and these insane education budgets, some of which are 90% of a small town’s entire budget, is largely demanded by the fierce teacher’s unions. And that’s only one example of liberal spending of taxpayer dollars that ultimately drove us to get the heck out, and relocate to Florida.

All that being said, schoolteachers in Florida are vastly underpaid for the jobs they’re required to do. Desantis is actively working to rectify that, but he’s got a long road ahead of him.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

One thing that drives inflated education budgets in the Northeast is the territorial nature of each small community feeling they have to have a full school district, each school fully stocked with highly paid administrators even with a student body of only a few hundred. One local middle school in a small town in Connecticut had a population of a few hundred students, yet for some reason needed to have three administrators each making north of $150k. Rinse and repeat for each town you drive through.

This wasteful spending and these insane education budgets, some of which are 90% of a small town’s entire budget, is largely demanded by the fierce teacher’s unions. And that’s only one example of liberal spending of taxpayer dollars that ultimately drove us to get the heck out, and relocate to Florida.

All that being said, schoolteachers in Florida are vastly underpaid for the jobs they’re required to do. Desantis is actively working to rectify that, but he’s got a long road ahead of him.

Florida Teacher job satisfaction ranks 5th nationally in 2 polls I've read, and posted links to recently.

Florida Teachers are happier than Teachers up North who live in high cost of living areas, & do not have the amount of school system and parental support they have here...according to surveys.

So far as the small town jurisdiction for schools driving up costs, it also does the same for Police & Firefighters.

I know a retired Police Chief from a small town up East, who received full pension at 25 yrs. He started at 23, so at 48 he was fully vested, & making $90k/yr. in yr 1 of retirement, w/ shared cost healthcare until 65. They just sold their near new home here in SW FLA for $1.3M. He's now a school resource worker at the local High School. Smart man, & the type you want protecting school kids, but geez...how can that small community afford to pay those bene's?

I know people in the same State who lost their home during the great recession, because they couldn't afford to pay $30k/yr in property taxes.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Florida Teacher job satisfaction ranks 5th nationally in 2 polls I've read, and posted links to recently.

Florida Teachers are happier than Teachers up North who live in high cost of living areas, & do not have the amount of school system and parental support they have here...according to surveys.

I’d be curious to see these surveys.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

One thing that drives inflated education budgets in the Northeast is the territorial nature of each small community feeling they have to have a full school district, each school fully stocked with highly paid administrators even with a student body of only a few hundred. One local middle school in a small town in Connecticut had a population of a few hundred students, yet for some reason needed to have three administrators each making north of $150k. Rinse and repeat for each town you drive through.

This wasteful spending and these insane education budgets, some of which are 90% of a small town’s entire budget, is largely demanded by the fierce teacher’s unions. And that’s only one example of liberal spending of taxpayer dollars that ultimately drove us to get the heck out, and relocate to Florida.

All that being said, schoolteachers in Florida are vastly underpaid for the jobs they’re required to do. Desantis is actively working to rectify that, but he’s got a long road ahead of him.

I'm from Missouri and some of the urban areas have their own school district. A lot of that was due to segregation though cities formed their own districts in the 50s. Heck some of the rural areas of southern MO didn't desegregated until the late 60s!

[Rabflmom]

Just think how good our public education would be if they gave back the billion + of the approximate 2.5 billion alloted to education in the state to the public schools instead of to the voucher program. Most vouchers are snagged by families who were able to pay for their private educations before the voucher program and now they are using the vouchers. That money could instead be helping kids in the schools who got F grades to go to a better school or to improve the F schools.

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by Rabflmom

Just think how good our public education would be if they gave back the billion + of the approximate 2.5 billion alloted to education in the state to the public schools instead of to the voucher program. Most vouchers are snagged by families who were able to pay for their private educations before the voucher program and now they are using the vouchers. That money could instead be helping kids in the schools who got F grades to go to a better school or to improve the F schools.

Even with the increase in -starting- salary (the increase isn't applied to all teachers), Florida still ranks as the lowest-paid for teachers. 50th place, down from 48th last year. The bar is very low for teachers in the Florida public schools, so it's no wonder they have higher satisfaction. When you hire unqualified people to teach your kids, they'll take the pay and thank you for the central air conditioning in the school.

[RayHammer]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

One thing that drives inflated education budgets in the Northeast is the territorial nature of each small community feeling they have to have a full school district, each school fully stocked with highly paid administrators even with a student body of only a few hundred. One local middle school in a small town in Connecticut had a population of a few hundred students, yet for some reason needed to have three administrators each making north of $150k. Rinse and repeat for each town you drive through.

This wasteful spending and these insane education budgets, some of which are 90% of a small town’s entire budget, is largely demanded by the fierce teacher’s unions. And that’s only one example of liberal spending of taxpayer dollars that ultimately drove us to get the heck out, and relocate to Florida.

All that being said, schoolteachers in Florida are vastly underpaid for the jobs they’re required to do. Desantis is actively working to rectify that, but he’s got a long road ahead of him.

Remember always that teacher pay should be taken with a grain of salt. They only work about 2/3rds what the average American works, and so teacher pay should always be increased by around 50% to get an equivalent rate.

A teacher making 50k actually makes 75k equivalent were they to actually work full time. A teacher's salary of 70k is actually about 105k were they to make the same base rate throughout a full work year.

Oh, and they also get great benefits at almost no cost and tremendous job security.