Central Florida educators: Stand up for kids and with us on contract negotiations | Opinion

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/opinion/2025/06/08/florida-educators-we-fight-for-kids-futures-stand-with-us-opinion/84032869007/

Across the Central Florida region, we can all agree on one thing: Every child in our state deserves access to a world class, free public education. As educators, it’s our job to provide this education while inspiring our students to learn, supporting their growth and ensuring they receive the very best of us.

Providing that kind of education doesn’t happen in a vacuum and doesn’t happen with educators alone. It happens when we have communities that support children and parents, schools that are funded and resourced and classrooms that are filled with highly trained educational professionals. Our teaching environments are your child’s learning environments. And as we look to the future, it’s clear that our state has a lot of work to do.

As presidents of teacher and staff unions representing more than 71,000 educators across Central Florida, we stand in solidarity as we each individually begin to enter contract negotiations for the 2025-2026 school year. What’s at stake is bigger than a paycheck. It’s about what the future of our public schools looks like — and whether we can continue to attract and retain the educators our students deserve.

For the second year in a row, Florida ranks 50th in the nation for average teacher pay. And instead of fixing that, Tallahassee is fighting over a budget that doesn't protect our public schools and students or invest in educators. They are starving our public schools while sending taxpayer dollars to private schools. Little by little state leaders have chosen to expand an unregulated voucher scheme that diverts taxpayer dollars into private institutions with little accountability or oversight.

Nearly 70% of new voucher recipients were already enrolled in private schools. Meanwhile, our public schools — the heart of every community — are left underfunded and under-supported. Lawmakers must acknowledge the reality that public schools are receiving less funding now because the state is now paying for students who have been enrolled in private school all along and all at the expense of your neighborhood schools.

Districts must ask hard questions on priorities

Families across Florida need Tallahassee to do better when it comes to supporting public schools and our students. But we also need our local leaders to do better.

Our local school boards must take responsibility for how they choose to spend the resources they do have. Many have expanded administrative ranks while cutting frontline staff. They’ve imposed layers of micromanagement that drive teachers out of the profession while failing to address calls for improved working conditions. 

They must make the choice to prioritize our students by investing in teacher and education support professional salaries, benefits, and working conditions. Look at the budgets. They fund what they value and prioritize. Teachers and education support professionals shouldn’t have to work second and third jobs in order to pay their bills or provide for their own families. They shouldn’t have to take in roommates to afford their rent. Teachers in Florida earn just 78% of what professionals with similar education earn. Our districts need to take a hard look at their budgets and ask themselves: what — and who — are we really prioritizing?

Our public schools are what hold our neighborhoods together, what gives kids a shot at a better life, what keeps our communities strong. Public schools welcome everyone — every student, every dream, every need — and ensure that students can succeed. There are no tuition gatekeepers, no entrance exams, no discriminatory restrictions. Public education matters- and for every parent and guardian, educator and community members public education is more than just a talking point in a campaign. Year after year, Tallahassee makes promises that they don’t keep. They say they support public schools and educators but continue to underfund our public schools and divert money away from them.

This is why we stand in solidarity across Central Florida as we enter contract negotiations to fight for better working and learning conditions. Advocating for our students is central to our work.

'Educators deserve to live with dignity'

Without collective bargaining and strong unions, our schools would have even fewer protections, fewer resources, and fewer reasons for teachers to stay. We fight for smaller class sizes because students deserve more individual attention. We fight for safer schools because every child deserves to learn without fear. We fight for fair pay because educators deserve to live with dignity — not live paycheck to paycheck.

So as we all head into bargaining soon, we’re asking our communities to stand with us.

• Stand with us as we demand that Tallahassee properly fund public schools. Florida shouldn’t be 50th in the nation for average teacher pay. We should be in the top 10.

• Stand with us as we call on our local school boards to invest in the educators who are the backbone of every child’s future.

• Stand with us as we demand accountability from every leader who claims to care about education but doesn’t match it with their actions.

We love our students. We love our schools. And we know our communities love them too. Stand with your educators, your public schools, and our students who deserve the very best. Stand up for the future of Central Florida.

Anthony Colucci, Brevard Teachers Union; Clinton McCracken, Orange County Classroom Teachers Association; Ron Pollard, Orange Education Support Professionals Association; Stephanie Yocum, Polk Education Association; Thomas Bugos, III, Seminole Education Association; Elizabeth Albert, Volusia United Educators; Janet Moody, Osceola County Education Association; Kathy Smith, Lake County Education Association; Rob Kriete, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association; and Lee Bryant, Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association.