Leon Classroom Teachers Association

06/08/2026

📢 Parents, Grandparents, and Community Members — We Need Your Voice!

What do you want to see in our schools?

More individual attention for students? Better communication between families and teachers? Safer learning environments? More support for student behavior and mental health? Smaller class sizes?

The truth is that the conditions educators work in are the conditions students learn in.

As teachers prepare proposals for the next agreement with Leon County Schools, we're asking families to help identify the learning conditions that matter most to you and your child. Your feedback will help shape recommendations to improve student success, strengthen family-school partnerships, and ensure every child has access to the support they deserve.

🎓 Great schools don't happen by accident.
🤝 They happen when families, educators, and communities work together.

Take a few moments to complete our Parent Learning Conditions Survey and tell us what matters most to your family.

💬 What is one thing you would change about your child's school experience if you could?

Click this link to provide your feedback. https://forms.gle/YRJptyCWHMmEHC4j8

THANK YOU for being a part of our shared success.

06/02/2026

Lawmakers finalized the 2026-27 budget, and the numbers tell an important story.
➡️ $201 million was allocated for teacher salaries statewide, but nearly half of Florida’s teachers could be excluded because the funding is tied to TSIA criteria that prioritize classroom teachers with 10 years of Florida teaching experience.
➡️ The Base Student Allocation (BSA) increased by just 1.58%—about $85 per student.
➡️ Florida’s voucher program received $4.5 billion without significant new transparency or accountability measures, despite concerns raised by Florida’s Auditor General regarding oversight challenges.

Now let’s look at what those numbers mean in practice.

📈 Inflation continues to increase the cost of doing business.
📈 Health insurance costs continue to rise. In Leon County alone, the current contract allows for up to an 8% increase in employee health insurance premiums next year.
📈 Utilities, transportation, maintenance, technology, and contracted services all cost more than they did just a few years ago.
📈 Teacher shortages continue to put pressure on districts to recruit and retain qualified educators.

When district costs are increasing faster than state funding, districts are forced to make difficult choices:
😡 Delay raises
😩 Reduce services
👎Leave vacancies unfilled
🙂‍↔️ Shift resources from one priority to another
😠 Ask local communities to invest more through local revenue sources

This is why educators continue to advocate for meaningful investment in public education at the state level.

👉 The reality is simple: If the cost of operating schools rises by 4%, 5%, 6%, or more each year, but recurring state funding only rises by 1.58%, the gap doesn’t disappear - it gets pushed onto local districts, local taxpayers, employees, and ultimately students.

There is some positive news from our advocacy though!

Through advocacy from educators, families, and communities across Florida, the Legislature increased:
✅ Teacher salary funding from $100 million to $201 million.
✅ The BSA increase from roughly $50 to $85 per student.
✅ Support for districts experiencing declining enrollment.

Those improvements matter.

🤔 But they also highlight an important question: If Florida is regularly ranked among the lowest states in the nation for education funding and teacher pay, what level of investment is actually required to recruit and retain the educators our students deserve?

That conversation continues as we move to the bargaining table on June 25 (1-3 PM).

Stay tuned. Stay engaged. Show up.

Because budgets are more than numbers. - they are a statement of priorities.

And participation matters.

06/02/2026

🇺🇸 It feels like there was a time when we were more united. Not because we agreed on everything. We never did. But because we understood that strong communities required investment in one another. We supported our neighbors. We invested in the next generation. We operated from a simple principle: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is why the current debate over property taxes raises some important questions.

There is no doubt affordability is a real issue in Florida. Families are struggling with housing costs, insurance premiums, healthcare expenses, and everyday necessities.

🍎 But what is causing those costs to rise?
🍏 And if affordability is the problem, are we addressing the causes of the problem or the symptoms?

Property taxes help fund schools, parks, libraries, infrastructure, public safety, and other services that communities share.

🍎 If those taxes are reduced or eliminated, what replaces them?
🍏 If nothing replaces them, what services change?
🍎 If something does replace them, who ultimately pays the cost?

In many ways, these questions are a reminder of the debate over public education.

🍏 When a school struggles, is the better solution to improve the school, or to create alternatives to it?
🍎 And what happens to the children, families, and communities that remain?
🍏 At what point do we stop asking, "How do I get out?" and start asking, "How do we make it better?"
🍎 Are we strengthening the institutions that connect us, or gradually withdrawing from them?
🍏 Are we thinking about the next election cycle, or the next generation?
🍎 Are we becoming a collection of individuals pursuing separate interests, or a community willing to invest in a future that benefits all of us?

👉 Real solutions rarely come from slogans, shortcuts, or quick fixes.
They usually come from discipline, accountability, and the willingness to address root causes rather than symptoms.

🤔 Perhaps the most important question is this: What kind of Florida do we want all of our children and grandchildren to inherit?

The answer to that question should guide every decision we make today.

06/01/2026

As Leon County Schools builds its budget, there's a question worth asking:
🤔 What comes first?

If the quality of the individual in the classroom is the single most important school-based factor affecting student outcomes, shouldn't recruiting and retaining great teachers be one of the first priorities considered when building a budget?

Yes, schools have real obligations: safety, transportation, ESE services, compliance requirements, rising insurance costs, and unfunded mandates. Those realities matter.

But budgets are values documents.

When resources are limited, the question isn't simply where to cut.

It's what we choose to prioritize.

If people are our greatest asset, then investing in the people who educate our children every day should be one of the first conversations, not the last.

Efficiency isn't just about spending less. It's about spending in alignment with your priorities.

What comes first?

05/29/2026

We’re going to leave this here for its theme.

Leadership isn’t about fear, manipulation, or demanding loyalty. It’s about building trust, treating people with dignity, and helping others become more than they thought possible.

The best leaders don’t ask people to follow them. They inspire people to walk alongside them.

We appreciate the leaders who choose to do it the right way, even when it’s harder.

05/28/2026

🤔 A question worth asking is:
Why would the answer to one group of professionals being underpaid be that everyone else should accept being underpaid too?

That logic doesn’t improve conditions for private school teachers, public school teachers, families, or students. 🚨 It just normalizes lower expectations across the board.

If a community says education matters, then keeping experienced, effective educators in classrooms has value. The market already reflects that reality everywhere else. Businesses compete for talent because quality people impact outcomes. Schools are no different.

There’s also a deeper issue underneath that argument:
👉 Should teacher pay be based on the importance of the work… or on how much sacrifice society thinks educators should tolerate?

Because those are two very different philosophies.

And when people begin defending low wages for essential professions by comparing them to other underpaid professions, it can become less about solving problems and more about rationalizing them. 😳

A better question might be:
✅ If both private and public school teachers are struggling financially, what does that say about how society values the people responsible for developing the next generation?

05/26/2026

05/26/2026

DOE PD today: “Teachers are the #1 factor at school impacting student learning and academic success.”

Also DOE leadership under the direction of the Governor and legislative priorities:
👉 Overwork them.
👉 Underpay them.
👉 Micromanage them.
👉 Drive them out of the profession.

Make it make sense. 🤔

05/26/2026

Memorial Day reminds us that freedom and dignity were never free. Someone sacrificed so the next generation could have more opportunity, security, and hope than they had themselves.

That is also the heart of unionism at its best.
Why do we fight?
Why do we organize?
Why do we stand together?

Because working people, children, families, veterans, and communities deserve dignity, respect, safe conditions, opportunity, and a future worth believing in.

At the end of the day, every generation chooses a side.
Do we stand for division, fear, and people struggling alone?
Or do we stand for community, shared responsibility, and lifting each other up?

That choice is always in front of us.
Which side are you on?

05/21/2026

Yesterday, LCTA attended the quarterly healthcare review meeting as part of our role on the Benefits Committee.

Here’s what we learned:
- Pharmacy costs are now the #1 driver of healthcare spending (~38% of total costs)
- ER utilization remains high, with many visits classified as avoidable
- GLP-1 medications and specialty drugs are driving major increases in costs
- High-cost claims continue to rise
- CHP reported millions in “cost avoidance” through urgent care usage

We are now requesting information on prescription rebate dollars and PBM fees. We look forward to sharing the data they provide us with our members.

Healthcare affects every educator, employee, retiree, and family who relies on these benefits. If prescription costs are the largest financial pressure point in the system, then employees deserve honest answers about the money connected to those costs.

LCTA will continue to ask questions and advocate for our dedicated educators