As election season heats up, educators and community leaders in Broward and Miami-Dade counties are asking voters to once again support public school teachers by renewing referendums in each county that help school staffers afford to live and work in South Florida.
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They call them slightly different names. “Secure the Next Generation” in Broward and “Secure Our Future” in Miami-Dade, but they do essentially the same thing: They provide salary supplements to teachers. Each school district kicked off its efforts to inform the public about the referendums Tuesday in separate events.
“Florida is 50th in the nation in funding for teacher salaries. If the referendum is not renewed, the district would lose approximately $358 million a year,” said Broward school board chair Sarah Leonardi at a news conference.
“Can you imagine if we didn’t have this supplemental pay to make our teachers competitive enough to stay in Miami-Dade County Public Schools?” asked Miami-Dade superintendent Rafael Villalobos at a news conference in Doral.
“So if this was not to pass, teachers have choices, and we would lose top quality educators here in Broward County,” said Broward superintendent Howard Hepburn.
Each school district is hoping voters renew the nearly identical referendums, which supplement school staff salaries, pay for mental health counselors and more school security and safety measures.
“The reality is clear, Florida ranks near the bottom nationally in education funding,” said United Teachers of Dade president Antonio White. “In Miami-Dade, this referendum is not a luxury or an extra, it is actually the heartbeat that keeps this school district running.”
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“It’s been supported before; it’s not new. We do depend on it,” said Broward Teachers Union president Anna Fusco.
Each district wants voters to know renewing the referendums is not a new tax.
“Property owners in Broward County are already paying this rate today; the referendum would continue the same one-mil rate for four more years,” Hepburn said.
The Miami-Dade referendum has the same one-mil rate, meaning the tax on a home worth $300 million would be $300, as an example. It’s also about maintaining each district’s A-grade status.
“It starts with investing in our children. It starts in education. Education is the key component to all things that are successful in a community,” Villalobos said.
The cost of living in South Florida is, by all metrics, extremely high. With base salaries for public school teachers starting at about $52,000, voters seem to understand why the supplements, which average around $10,000 to $12,000 per teacher, are crucial. They overwhelmingly passed the original referendums in 2018, renewed them by large margins in both counties in 2022, and they are on the ballot again on Nov. 3.
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