Florida’s charter schools have a major competitive edge of their district-run counterparts. With a few exceptions, their teachers aren’t unionized. That means they aren’t tied to step-and-lane salary schedules that treat all teachers the same, based on post-graduate degrees and years of experience.
Daniel Woodring, an attorney who represents charters and works on other school choice issues, said charter schools should take advantage of that flexibility.
Schools sometimes struggle to keep high-caliber teachers because they flee to other fields with bigger paychecks. High performers may get frustrated because, no matter how well they do, they can only expect a pay bump of a few hundred dollars each year, or maybe a few thousand if they’re lucky.
In charter schools, Woodring said, it doesn’t have to be that way.
“If you have a fourth-year teacher who’s a phenomenal teacher, you can negotiate what you have to do to keep that teacher,” he told a group of charter school educators gathered in Daytona Beach.A few years ago, Woodring launched a website that published teacher value-added scores. He wanted to create a hunting ground where charter schools could poach job candidates who significantly raised student test scores in reading or math.
Charter schools, he said, have the flexibility to pay those teachers what they deserve.
“That’s one of the few real advantages you have,” he said during a legal briefing for charter school leaders. “Make sure you use that.”
Many charter schools have yet to take full advantage of this flexibility.
Somerset Academy charter schools in Jefferson County have rightly gotten attention for massive salary increases after they took over persistently struggling district schools. The Tallahassee Democrat published figures showing a Jefferson teacher can now make about $7,000 more than a teacher in neighboring Leon County with the same experience. But they still use the same step-based pay structure.
The same has largely been true in unionized charter schools that could, at least in theory, have negotiated more innovative salary arrangements.
Recently, some Florida lawmakers have suggested path-breaking pay approaches might help elevate the teaching profession. But real changes would likely have to come from people who run the schools and do the hiring.
