A push by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, to curb school board member salaries failed on a 1-2 vote in the Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee on Thursday.
Senators Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, and Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, voted against the measure.
The original bill (SB 2172) would have capped school board member salaries at $100 per meeting.
An amendment to the bill Thursday would have capped school board member salaries at no more than the salary of members of the House and Senate. Currently, House and Senate members earn about $30,000 a year. According to the bill analysis, school board member salaries range from $22,300 to $39,000 a year.
But that amendment didn’t quell criticism of the bill.
Benacquisto questioned why school board members were being targeted and not county commissioners, or other elected officials.
“What I would prefer to do is really look at all of the elected officials in the state,” Benacquisto said. “County commissioners make a heck of a lot of money for the work they do. If we are going to scale back, let’s look at everyone and the way they serve and the time they put in.”
