Many teachers invest a lot of money in their students.
They pay for classroom supplies and spend hours outside of school planning lessons.
One teacher in Duval County who did not want to be identified says she has to work a second job to support herself.
That financial struggle is why governor Ron DeSantis wants to make Florida number two in the country for teacher salaries.
His budget proposes raising the minimum teaching salary up to $47,500 a year for all full-time teachers.
This teacher has been working as an educator for 16 years and makes $41,000, not counting her second job she works.
She’s skeptical about how many teachers the proposed pay raise could help.
She says she loves teaching.
“When there’s a need in the classroom, the teachers always rise to that, and it almost always comes out of a teacher’s pocket,” she said.
This woman wanted to speak to First Coast News to share what teachers like herself go through, paying to stock their classrooms and put food on their own table.
“Personally, I’ve had to file bankruptcy recently, I also picked up a second job in order to just pay my rent,” she said.
Governor Ron DeSantis’ budget proposes using $600 million to raise the minimum salary for teachers from around $37,000 to over $47,000 per year.
State senator Audrey Gibson says there are still question marks surrounding the raise.
“It’s still a work in progress because there’s nothing definitive on where the funding is coming from,” Gibson said.
According to Gibson, the raise would apply to teachers at or below the $47,500 level.
While other teachers would only get bonuses.
Teachers like the woman we spoke to like the idea of more money, but she thinks more could be done.
“We want teacher’s voices to be heard,” the woman said.
The Governor’s press office tells First Coast News the increase of $1 billion for the Florida Education Finance Program comes from $792 million in additional state funding and $245 million in local funding.
We asked if the governor’s pay increase would apply to all teachers or just new hires, the press office says the pay raise applies to all full-time teachers including union members.
The press office says for teachers already making more than $47,500, they are eligible for financial incentives through the Governor's proposed Florida Classroom Teacher Bonus program.