Senator Stephen Wise, R – Jacksonville, has introduced SB 7234, a bill that aims to end salaries for school board members.
Sen. Wise believes that members of school boards should not receive salaries because they are not full time jobs.
Under the proposed legislation school board members would receive a stipend of $100 per meeting, which would be capped at $2,400 a year. Members currently receive anywhere from $22,000 a year to almost $40,000 depending on the county’s population.
Try telling that to an educator and see what type of response you get.
Orange County school board member Kathleen Gordon, who also sits on the board for the National School Boards Association Black Caucus, says that school board members work year round, unlike some elected officials.
“If you plan to cut our salaries then you have to cut every elected official and not just school board members,” said Kat Gordon. Kat, as she’s affectingly known, further underscored her point by saying if school board members are considered elected officials to serve the public, then all elected officials should have the same salary rules.
Kat went on to say that, if the bill eventually passes it will not deter her from running again because she’s working on behalf of the children of Florida and not for the money. While Mrs. Gordon believes this fight is just beginning, she said that her boss does not reside in Tallahassee.
“I know somebody more powerful than all of them and that’s the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost,” Gordon said.
SB 7234 would save $10 million annually according to Sen. Wise, which would help ease some of the financial pressure off of local school budgets.
But Dr. Wayne Blanton, the executive director of the Florida School Board Association, says that slashing school board member salaries would diminish the existence of minorities on school boards and school boards would eventually give way to special interests.
Also, many school board members use their salaries as their only source of income. Ending salaries for them would put more than a few board members on the street as a part of the unemployed. Many school board members also reinvest a portion of their salary back into their school districts because they are so under funded.
This is just the latest round of bad news to emerge from Tallahassee regarding education. The state Legislature has already passed a teacher merit pay bill that ends tenure for newly hired teachers and will effectively slash pay for them by 5% as well. Now state Republicans are, in essence, asking school board members to work for free.
State teachers are already working without a pay or cost of living increase and when the state cannot compete for top talent because educators are unable to make a decent living, our children are the ones who suffer the most.
-JH
