Vote DEM 3
Reasons to vote DEM
3 Schools / Education
Thanks to the 30+ years of the REP party rule, Florida ranks last, 50th in the nation, for the average teacher salary, sitting at the bottom of the United States alongside Mississippi.
Teacher Salary Comparison, 2026
| Metric | Florida Average | National Average | Florida Rank | Extremes |
| Overall Average Salary | $56,663 | $74,495 | 50th out of 51 | Highest: California ($103,552) Lowest: Mississippi ($54,975) |
| Average Starting Salary | $49,435 | N/A | 19th | Florida ranks 19th for beginners due to legislative minimums. |
| Cost-of-Living Adjusted | $56,663 | N/A | 50th | When adjusted for high inflation and local prices, the ranking remains near the bottom. |
Buying Power Is Dropping: Despite incremental state funding increases, the rising cost of living means that Florida teacher salaries adjusted for inflation have actually decreased by over 12% over the last decade.
Per-Pupil Spending: Hand-in-hand with low salaries, Florida is behind the nation in general education funding, ranking 41st out of 51 in per-pupil spending.
FL Teacher Retirement
Thanks to the 30+ years of the REP party, Florida teacher pensions are not adjusted for inflation/COLA (Cost of Living).
How Teacher Pension COLA Compare Nationally
| COLA Framework Type | Prevalence Across States | Where Florida Fits |
| Automatic Fixed Rate | Common | Many states offer a guaranteed annual compounding increase (typically 2% to 3%) to protect against baseline inflation. |
| Inflation-Linked (CPI) | Most Common | The majority of states tie pension adjustments directly to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), usually capping the annual increase at 3%. |
| Ad Hoc / Discretionary | Moderate | States like Texas or Oklahoma do not guarantee COLA but pass temporary legislative bills to issue one-time bumps when inflation spikes. |
| Suspended or 0% COLA | Rare (Outlier) | Florida sits here for all post-2011 service. It joins a small group of states (like New Jersey and Rhode Island) that severely restricted or froze COLAs to plug state pension debt. |
THIS IS A DISGRACE FOR ONE OF THE WEALTHIEST STATES IN THE USA
The Funding Disconnect
If education gets more than a quarter of the entire state budget, why are teacher salaries so low? It comes down to how the Florida REP party structures its education system:
- The Voucher Drain: Around $4.5 billion to $5 billion of the public education fund is utilized to pay for private school vouchers via programs like the Family Empowerment Scholarship. This siphons a massive portion of state tax dollars away from traditional public school teacher payrolls.
- Low Funding Effort Relative to Wealth: Data compiled by Education Data Initiative highlights that Florida K-12 funding represents just 2.16% of total taxpayer income, the lowest effort nationwide
- State vs. Local Mix: In most states, the state government covers the majority of school costs. In Florida, the state relies heavily on local property taxes (Required Local Effort). The actual state contribution per student is only $5,700, compared to a national average state contribution of $9,700. So, with the current drive by the FL Republican government to abolish property tax for Homestead housing, guess what is first in line to be negatively affected? Education spending!
Ultimately, adding a annualized $500M to $800M amortized pension cost to address a COLA wouldn’t break a state with a $15.4B debt profile. However, it would require a significant political shift to how Florida’s $31.5 billion education allotment is prioritized.
The DEM party will fix this broken system to make sure our teachers and schools are funded on par with the rest of the USA.