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Education

Miami-Dade Starting Teacher Salary Could Jump to $47.5K, Matching Governor's Proposal

Provided by Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Wearing masks and replacing the ceremonial handshake with a distanced elbow bump, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintent Alberto Carvalho and United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats reach a tentative agreement on pay increases.

The starting teacher salary in Miami-Dade County Public Schools would jump to $47,500 for the 2020-21 school year, and eligible teachers would get a 2.5 percent stipend, under a tentative agreement reached Tuesday afternoon with the district’s teachers’ union.

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The new starting salary, up from $41,000, would match a proposal from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Currently employed teachers who make less than the new starting salary would get an increase to meet it.

Based on DeSantis' suggestion, state legislators earlier this year passed HB 641 requiring a starting teacher salary of $47,500 or "the maximum amount achievable" based on state funding. The proposed 2020-21 state budget includes similar language and $500 million in funding. Both pieces of legislation have been presented to DeSantis, and he has not yet acted on them.
 
In Miami-Dade, the new stipend would be in addition to increases teachers are getting as the result of the 2018 property-tax increase referendum.

The overall increase for teachers would be between 2 percent and 4.3 percent. The changes would apply retroactively to the 2019-20 school year for teachers who are returning later this summer.

Miami-Dade teachers sounded off on social media, arguing that a stipend was unacceptable because it is not a recurring bump to their salaries.

School district staff who are not eligible to receive increases from the referendum funding would get 3 percent increases.

The agreement must be ratified by the union’s membership and approved by the school board before it goes into effect. The union is planning a telephone town hall for members on June 22.

The school district is expecting significant drops in revenue due to the economic impacts of COVID-19.

Read the tentative agreement here:

Jessica Bakeman is Director of Enterprise Journalism at WLRN News, and she is the former senior news editor and education reporter. Her 2021 project "Class of COVID-19" won a national Edward R. Murrow Award.
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