For eight years, South Florida school districts have relied on voter-approved property taxes to sustain teacher pay, school safety, and mental health resources. The region’s voters have obliged in approving it every four years.
It’s up for renewal again on Nov. 3. But education leaders in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties fear voters might confuse their property tax renewal supplement with Amendment 3, a controversial ballot measure that would reduce property taxes used for public services.
In an environment where voters are struggling with soaring gas prices, high grocery prices and steep housing and rent costs, South Florida school superintendents are making the argument that approving the local referendums helps provide a strong financial cushion to hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and parents.
State law mandates referendum renewals every four years. The supplement comes from a referendum originally passed by voters in 2018 and approved again in 2022 with a large majority.
The tax in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties levies a one-mill ad valorem property, or the assessed fair market value of the property. One mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of taxable property value, which could be $300 per $300,000, for example. All three districts are among the largest in the nation by student enrollment.
If voters don’t pass it, school district leaders say it will carry stark consequences across all three districts.
Each district has created voter information campaigns: Broward County Public Schools launched “Secure the Next Generation”, Miami-Dade County Public Schools has the “Secure Our Future” political action committee and Palm Beach County School District has “Strong Schools, Strong Communities.”
Here's the impact on South Florida school districts:
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Miami-Dade County Superintendent Rafael Villalobos told reporters at a press conference in September that district will lose high-quality teachers if voters reject the referendum. It would be “detrimental,” he said.
“You won't be able to attract more teachers just because of the cost of living in Miami-Dade County — and that is something that this community cannot afford to have happen,” Villalobos said.
District officials estimate it the school system could lose $500 million. The budget for the third biggest school district in the country is $7.4 billion. That could send teacher salaries plummeting from $73,030 down to $57,814 — about $15,000 annually.
As the cost of living in South Florida has skyrocketed, the difference would sink MDCPS below Broward and Palm Beach teacher salaries, according to a district spokesperson, “potentially creating a severe teacher retention and recruitment deficit.”
The question appears on the Miami-Dade ballot as "School Board Referendum":
Referendum Renewal of Existing Ad Valorem Levy for Teachers, Instructional Personnel, Student Safety and Security
Shall the School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida, maintain the existing one (1) mill ad valorem tax levy exclusively for school operational purposes at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, including public charter schools, to continue improving compensation for teachers and instructional personnel and to improve student safety and school security with oversight by a Citizen Advisory Committee beginning July 1, 2027, and ending June 30, 2031?
Broward County Public Schools
Broward County Public Schools would be stripped of approximately $358 million annually, beginning in the 2027-28 school year. The School Board set a budget of $4.7 billion for the school year.
Nearly 50% of that money is dedicated to compensation supplements for teachers and other eligible staff. It also supports 224 mental health professionals and nearly 400 school safety personnel.
Approximately 13,400 teachers currently receive supplements through the referendum, according to the superintendent.
At a press conference in September, Broward County superintendent Howard Hepburn said the one millage rate translate into a cost of $418 a year for homeowners and $230 a year for condo owners.
Faced with less money because of declining enrollment, the School Board of Broward County passed a 2026-27 budget that didn’t promise raises for teachers. The majority of board members said the budget shortfall is too dire to include new raises into the budget.
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Nearly $2 million supports the wearable panic-buttons staff wear on their person in case of emergencies requiring immediate response.
You can look up a sample ballot through the Broward County Supervisor of Elections here. You need your name and date of birth. The school referendum appears after the county ballot questions.
Ballot question: To enhance school safety and mental health services, recruit and retain highly qualified teachers and essential employees, improve student achievement, and support critical school operations, shall the School Board of Broward County continue to levy a one-mill ad valorem property tax from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2030, to fund school safety personnel, mental health services, increased compensation for teachers, and school-based support staff for public and charter schools?
Palm Beach
The referendum generated $361.4 million in revenue for Beach County schools in fiscal year 2026.
Superintendent Mike Burke has warned that about 900 teachers in schools choice programs would lose their jobs and teacher pay would drop $8,000 annually.
“If this were not to pass,” Palm Beach Superintendent Mike Burke said, it’s “like a doomsday scenario. It would be devastating. It would be catastrophic.”
The referendum in the Palm Beaches also supports arts programs.
Katie Judge teaches third grade at Palm Beach Public Elementary School. She said the increase in resources for students over the past eight years has made worlds of difference.
“School safety is enhanced incredibly. The mental health professionals that we have, the behavioral health professionals that we have here on every single campus help the classroom teachers help children deal with their emotions,” Judge said. “So we have positively seen how those positions help us in the classroom be able to maintain the instructional momentum.”
Charter schools also get a share of the referendum dollars because they’re publicly funded, even though they’re not run by the district; $42.1 million from the referendum went to charter schools.
Registered voters in Palm Beach County can find their sample ballots here. You will need to type in your name and date of birth to see your sample ballot.
Ballot question: Shall the School District of Palm Beach County have continued authority to levy 1.00 mills of ad valorem millage for operational needs of public schools dedicated to funding school safety; school police; mental health services; arts, music, physical education, career and choice program teachers; and improved teacher pay beginning July 1, 2027 and automatically ending June 30, 2031, with oversight of all funds by an independent committee of citizens and experts?
How did districts get here?
The state has long underfunded school districts, creating obstacles to meet student needs. Various current school board members across the region said as much during the budget-making season: As long as state funding isn’t meaningfully bumped, school boards will increasingly find themselves in tight budgets with no room to allocate money for programs’ growth and will have only just enough to fill the necessary buckets to meet legal operational thresholds or risk being taken over by the state.
Florida places among the bottom 10 states for how much they spend per student, according to the latest report by the National Education Association.
For the school year that ended in 2025, Florida spent — on average — $13,487 per student. The nationwide average is $17,619 . New York spends the most per student at an average of nearly $32,000.
The dramatic decline in enrollment in South Florida school districts has meant less state funding.
“Outside of the legislative process, a referendum is the School Board’s only option to continue generating these funds,” reads the Broward website to inform voters about the property tax renewal.
It would be devastating. It would be catastrophic.Mike Burke, Palm Beach County Superintendent
The referendum generates more now than it did in 2018 when voters approved it. From 2018 to 2022, the referendum generated about $232 million a year for four years in Miami-Dade County. It now stands to generate more than half a billion dollars — more than double what it once did.
“ In Miami-Dade County, I've seen [the referendum] actually be better received now than, say, at this point four years ago,” said Robert Schmidt, whose firm conducted a poll in February on likely voters’ opinion on local public education. The poll was commissioned by the Partnership for Miami.
“Every survey is a snapshot in time and we don't predict a final outcome, we just evaluate where a voter is, but I can say, comparatively, the millage is shown to be in a modestly better position than it was four years ago,” Schmidt told WLRN.
The survey of 500 likely voters found 66% would support the referendum. However, “56% believe the district should find savings in operations rather than rely on tax increases,” the findings read.
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“ There are voters that say, ‘Well, we still want the district to find savings.’ There is a belief that there's money to be saved and voters intuitively believe that and we can't ignore that,” Schmidt said. “But the support of the millage shows that it's a worthy cause to support if they're telling us that, but also saying, ‘Yeah, I'm willing to continue my tax rate.’"
It’s a show of support public education in Florida could benefit from as billionaires and state lawmakers pave ways for private education to boom, even if it seemingly comes at the cost of a weakened public school system.
Treading carefully to inform communities
With such a consequential item on the ballot, district leaders and educators are making rounds in their respective arenas to inform voters of the measure.
However, they are limited by state law, which bars public officials from taking stances on ballot measures and attempting to persuade constituents.
The law does, however, allow officials to share potential implications to the governing body “in an accurate, fair, and impartial manner” and “[post] factual information on a government website or in printed materials; [host] and providing information at a public forum…”
Rebecca Thompson represents District 2 on the Broward County School Board. She regularly posts district updates on social media to keep families in the loop. In September, she posted a video on Instagram with Chief of Staff and Communications John Sullivan. It was a question-and-answer style video for the tax levy renewal.
“We’re here to educate — not advocate — for the Secure the Next Generation referendum,” Thompson says at the start of the video. Hepburn, Broward Schools superintendent, has parroted the same catch phrase.
In Miami-Dade, School Board member Danny Espino said he backs the referendum because it allows Miami-Dade residents directly help local public schools "and that's why I'm asking the voters of District 5 and all Miami-Dade County to once again join me in supporting this referendum for investing in our future.”
Palm Beach County superintendent Burke told WLRN last month that informing voters about the referendum is different now than it was in 2018.
“I don't tell people how to vote,” Palm Beach County superintendent Burke told WLRN. “I just try to explain our needs and what the referendum will provide.”
“We're no longer allowed to send things home with students. In the old days, I could've put a flyer and said, ‘Hey, take this home to your parents.’ We don't do that. We can't communicate in that method anymore,” he said.
This time around, Burke’s focus is on being in the room with people and engaging in conversation.
Most of the time it seems districts are at odds with teacher unions, but when it comes to this supplemental property tax, all hands are on deck together.
Ana Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers’ Union, told WLRN she thinks the district and board members could be doing more to raise awareness about the ballot question. But she says she is confident it has overwhelming support among voters.
“ I think at the end of the day, families care about the school environment and they want their teachers to not have to work two and three jobs,” Fusco said.
