Gov. DeSantis commits to $200 million increase to help raise teacher salaries

Final decisions on the budget will be made this week, he said.

By The News Service of Florida
| 9:25 a.m. June 11, 2024

Gov. Ron DeSantis. File photo by Jonathan Simmons

State Government

As he makes final decisions about the state budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, June 10, touted a $200 million increase to help raise teacher salaries.

Lawmakers included the teacher-pay money in a $117.46 billion budget they passed in March. DeSantis has line-item veto power and indicated Monday that final decisions on spending are being made this week. The budget will take effect July 1.

“The budget, we’re going through kind of the last stages of that,” DeSantis said during an appearance at a Hialeah charter school. “Some of these legislators that may have different projects, this is going to probably be the week that that all comes to a head. We haven’t made final decisions on every little line item in the budget, but we have approved, I would say, probably 90 percent of the budget at this point.”

Lawmakers in recent years have gradually increased money to raise teacher pay. In all, the budget includes about $1.25 billion for the Teacher Salary Increase Allocation.