Florida Senate - 2015                                     SB 280
       
       
        
       By Senator Soto
       
       
       
       
       
       14-00251-15                                            2015280__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to teacher salaries; creating s.
    3         1012.052, F.S.; providing a short title; requiring the
    4         Legislature to fund the Florida Education Finance
    5         Program at a level that ensures a guaranteed minimum
    6         annual starting salary for instructional personnel;
    7         specifying a statewide minimum salary for all
    8         instructional personnel for the 2015-2016 fiscal year;
    9         requiring the Department of Education to annually
   10         adjust the minimum starting salary; providing a
   11         formula for calculating such adjustment; requiring
   12         district school boards to adjust the minimum starting
   13         salary determined by the department by applying the
   14         district cost differential; providing that such
   15         adjustment may not reduce starting salaries below the
   16         statewide minimum; providing an effective date.
   17          
   18  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   19  
   20         Section 1. Section 1012.052, Florida Statutes, is created
   21  to read:
   22         1012.052 Instructional personnel salary.—
   23         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Teacher Fair
   24  Pay Act.”
   25         (2) In order to attract and retain instructional personnel,
   26  the Legislature shall fund the Florida Education Finance Program
   27  in a manner that ensures that collectively bargained salary
   28  schedules for instructional personnel are funded at a level that
   29  guarantees a minimum annual starting salary, while maintaining
   30  adequate funding for all other education program areas and
   31  personnel.
   32         (a) For the 2015-2016 fiscal year, the statewide minimum
   33  salary for all instructional personnel is $50,000. By November 1
   34  of each fiscal year thereafter, the Department of Education
   35  shall calculate an adjusted minimum starting salary for the
   36  upcoming fiscal year by increasing the minimum then in force by
   37  the rate of inflation for the 12 months before September 1. In
   38  making this calculation, the department shall use the Consumer
   39  Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, not
   40  seasonally adjusted, for the South Region or a successor index
   41  as calculated by the United States Department of Labor.
   42         (b) Each district school board shall adjust the statewide
   43  minimum starting salary calculated by the department by applying
   44  the district cost differential as provided in s. 1011.62(2).
   45  However, application of the district cost differential may not
   46  decrease the minimum starting salary in that district below the
   47  statewide minimum.
   48         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015.