Gov. Scott will seek pay raise for Florida teachers

With Florida anticipating its first budget surplus in five years, Gov. Rick Scott will seek an across-the-board pay raise for public school teachers in the budget he will send to the Legislature next week.

A source close to the governor says Scott will unveil the proposal on Wednesday when he visits a middle school in suburban Orlando -- in the crux of the state's politically vital I-4 corridor. The amount of the pay hike has not been disclosed.

Scott began his term as governor two years ago on the outs with many teachers and their union, the Florida Education Association (FEA), which strongly backed Scott's Democratic opponent, Alex Sink. But Scott -- who's seeking re-election in 2014 -- has held highly-publicized meetings with teachers around the state, invited FEA President Andy Ford to the Governor's Mansion and called for $250 debit cards for all teachers to help cover the costs of out-of-pocket classroom expenses. 

Scott will formally release his 2013-2014 budget recommendations next week in Tallahassee. The teacher pay raise is expected to be in addition to whatever Scott will seek in funding for the state's K-12 public schools.

-- Steve Bousquet

Comments

[Kraut1701]

Now here's a man thinking about his re-election. You got him being conciliatory on Obamacare, meeting with the Black Caucus, calling for an extension of early voting days and now this.

[Max Salfinger]

Gov. Scott is such a loser!

[Kim Abery-Lyman]

Is this so-called pay raise above and beyond the 3% he already stole from teachers? Forgive me if I'm not grateful to a man who steals your money, disallows collective bargaining and then wants to praise himself for giving a little bit of it back. Who will fall for this?

[Jim McKnight]

The governor ran on 7 things and he is doing all 7. Check the record #4 was improve education!!! By the way unemployment is at it' lowest point in 5 years, 200,000 plus private sector jobs created, the size of state government is smaller and the funding for proposed teacher raises will come from budget surplus!!