Allen -
This vote was changed from YEA to NAY. The yea vote was cast accidently. This amendment incorrectly ties the seperate issues of national average pay with our Florida Constitutional provision of collective barganing for school district personnel. I am a strong supporter of teachers and school personnel being able to set their wages and benefits according to the unique circumstances of their district. Different measures of compensation are typical in the diversity of districts across Florida. Factors such as cost of living, quality of life, school support sytems, working conditions all affect the bottomline of just compensation.
In a seperate matter, Florida should strive at a minimum to achieve the national average in teacher pay for all of our teachers. This will make Florida the best state for recruiting the best teachers when competing nationally to be the best school system for our children and workforce.
Our goal of having the national average as our pay scale floor should in no way distract from the seperate issue of teachers, school support personnel and elected school district officials being able to set the compensation which best suits there district workforce.