Unlocking Florida’s Future: DeSantis’ Education Budget Boosts Teacher Pay While Keeping College Tuition Affordable

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Unlocking Florida’s Future: DeSantis’ Education Budget Boosts Teacher Pay While Keeping College Tuition Affordable

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has unveiled a new budget plan that allocates nearly $30 billion to K-12 education. This proposal includes a $222 increase in funding for each student for the upcoming school year.

DeSantis announced his budget on Sunday, ahead of the legislative session in Tallahassee. He suggested that the state should spend $3 billion less next year compared to this year.

The plan features a $1.3 billion boost for the Florida Education Finance Program, which funds K-12 education. This raises the total for the next fiscal year to $29.7 billion, an increase from the $28.4 billion allocated for 2024-2025.

Around 358,000 students are expected to participate in the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, which helps cover private school tuition. Currently, over 3.2 million students are enrolled in schools across Florida.

This year, the state invested $3.9 billion in school choice scholarships, including $2.8 billion from the Florida Education Finance Program and other funds from tax credit scholarships. The per-student funding would rise to $9,205 under the new proposal, up from $8,959.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) believes even more funding is necessary. They recommend increasing the budget by $1,000 per student to provide a top-notch public education and improve teacher salaries from their current 50th place ranking nationwide.

DeSantis also proposed an increase of $246.7 million for teacher salaries, with a total of $1.5 billion available for raises. Last year, the FEA argued that the budget increase of $1.25 billion was insufficient for rewarding existing teachers. However, the FEA did not comment on the current budget proposal before this article was published.

DeSantis emphasized that funding for teacher salaries is important to keep bureaucratic costs low.

Other Education Funding

The proposed budget allocates $3.9 billion for the State University System, which is $200 million less than this year’s total of $4.1 billion. It maintains the budget for Florida’s College System at $1.7 billion.

True to his previous policies, DeSantis did not suggest any tuition increases. He also plans to fully fund $632 million in Bright Futures Scholarships, allowing high-achieving students to attend state universities with little or no financial burden.

Florida currently offers the lowest in-state tuition for public colleges in the U.S. DeSantis noted that the educational opportunities available at such affordable prices are hard to find anywhere else in the country.

In his budget proposal, there is also a plan to transfer the Ringling Museum from Florida State University to New College of Florida, along with its collection and buildings.

Additionally, DeSantis has set aside $465.8 million for the voluntary pre-kindergarten program. This funding includes $30.1 million for high-performing providers and $4.1 million for the Summer Bridge Program aimed at helping underperforming students.

The Florida Board of Education introduced a rating system for pre-K providers earlier this year to enhance the quality of early childhood education.



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