DeSantis doubles down on his terrible teacher pay proposal. Also tells union he doesn’t care what they think or want

I would say by and large DeSantis’s proposal to raise beginning teacher pay to 47,500 landed with a thud, but instead of listening to and working with teachers, he has doubled down.

From the Florida Phoenix,

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he hopes the 2020 legislative session, which begins in January, will open a “year of the teacher” in Florida, centered on his proposal to raise first-year teacher pay to $47,500 per year.

That would be one of the highest figures in the country for starting pay, national data show.

But DeSantis will be at odds with the Florida Education Association, which is pushing far broader pay reforms for public school teachers and staff.

The governor on Tuesday dismissed the statewide teacher union’s call for across-the-board pay raises – which would go beyond his own call for higher pay for first-year teachers – as politically motivated.

“Let’s not pretend there’s not politics involved with this,” DeSantis said when asked about the union initiative.

“It’s just the fact of the matter. I’m a Republican. They’re not. What I’m doing is never going to be enough. My job is not to do what the union wants – it’s what I think is best for education and particularly for individual teachers,” DeSantis said.

He made the remarks Tuesday during the Associated Press’s annual Legislative Planning Session. The AP invites top state leaders to address reporters about what they hope to accomplish. DeSantis was the first to speak this year, outlining an agenda that includes higher environmental spending, disaster relief, and health care initiatives.

https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2019/10/29/gov-desantis-focuses-on-boosting-starting-teacher-pay-dismisses-across-the-board-raises-as-politically-motivated/

Um, it’s not politically motivated to want all teachers including vet who have seen their salaries go backwards for the last decade, it is decency motivated something the stunt governor is obviously unfamiliar with.

Do what’s best for individual teachers? You mean accept those 75k teachers who wouldn’t see a dime.

The governor’s proposal is a bad joke that shouldn’t see the light of day.

Maybe however this will wake the union up to the fact he doesn’t care what they think or want. Not one bit and the union will now realize it's fight or die.

I will tell you this. If the union does not fight and a bill goes through giving first year teachers a big raise and vets nothing, I will give myself a raise and quit. The union better wake up.