WINTER PARK, Fla. — With the school year right around the corner, questions surrounding budget cuts and teacher salaries continue to loom.
On Wednesday, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas sent out a letter to all school districts calling out teachers’ unions across the state as one of the reasons why teachers haven’t been able to get their raises quicker.
Kamoutsas posted on X with a two-page letter to all school districts in the state.
He shared that Florida has invested more than $5.68 billion dollars in teacher pay since 2020 but goes on to say that local teachers’ unions are delaying salary increases through unnecessary and prolonged contract negotiations.
Kamoutsas also called for teachers and staff to contact their union reps and directed school districts to distribute this letter to all whom it applies.
But some teachers here in Central Florida do not agree with this claim.
“It’s a distraction and completely false,” said Seminole County teacher Bobby Agagnina.
Agagnina has been a teacher at Lake Howell High School for 16 years and loves working with his students to help them reach their goals.
But he calls the status of teacher salaries abysmal.
“Yes, they have stated the beginning teacher salary needs to be at a certain dollar level, and they have funded that, great,” Agagnina shared. “Nobody is saying that’s a problem, but what they haven’t done is then freed up additional funding for the teachers that have been here 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years.”
The Florida Education Association agrees with Agagnina, providing a statement that in part, says that educators are not to blame for slow rollouts and are in fact victims who want to make sure students have the best education.
The FEA goes on to say that while the $5.68 billion dollars is great, the Florida Department of Education’s records show that the real number is closer to $1.3 billion dollars with this year’s allocation equating $101 million dollars statewide. It’s a 1% increase from last year and about $20 more per paycheck for each teacher.
The FEA and Agagnina both share that unions are urgently working to get deals done for teachers, but they feel teacher’s pay has become political. And if the trend continues, teacher shortages will not be solved.
“So, I think if we remove that element out and the grandstanding and the political theatre and actually know teachers, students, staff, we’re all on the same team,” Agagnina explained. “We all want what’s best for our students. So trust us, support us and pay us.”
But not everybody shares Aganina’s view. The Florida Coaches Coalition posted to social media in support of the education commissioner’s mission, saying: “Thank you for standing up for teachers and coaches. This is real leadership in action!”
Spectrum News 13 reached out to several school districts about Kamoutsas’ letter and received a response from Orange County Public Schools sharing that they received the Education Commissioner’s letter and they plan to distribute it to their instructional staff.