HIALEAH, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in South Florida on Monday.
The governor made an appearance at the City of Hialeah Educational Academy at 10 a.m.
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He was joined by Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nunez and Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz.
DeSantis announced a commitment to increasing teacher salary funding by $1.25 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
“Today I’m able to announce that on top of everything we’ve already done, we will have this year in our teacher pay categorical $1.25 billion dollars for teacher salary increases,” said DeSantis.
DeSantis also used the event as an opportunity to attack teachers’ unions, specifically “United Teachers of Dade” for pushing what he claims is a partisan agenda.
His comments come two weeks after the same union held a press conference before the State Board of Education’s meeting last month in Miami.
Highlighting a report from the National Education Association ranking the average teacher salary in Florida as next-to-last in the country, ahead of only West Virginia.
“Teachers are putting in the sweat equity and we are delivering every single day, but guess whose not delivering, it is the State Board of Education,” said Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of United Teachers of Dade. “It is politicians in the state of Florida. Politicians who have hyper-politicized our classrooms.”
Local 10 News’ Trent Kelly asked the governor about that study, and whether it motivated his announcement, but he quickly dismissed it.
“National Education Association is a very partisan teachers union, they will generate things that will be positive for union states,” said DeSantis.
You can watch a live stream of the event below: