Broward teachers get no raises and must pay for insurance amid budget strains

Education admin June 9, 2026 0 Comments

Broward teachers get no raises and must pay for insurance amid budget strains

Broward County Public School teachers will not receive raises this year from the school district and will have to start paying for certain health insurance plans, according to the new contract between the teachers union and the school district approved at Tuesday’s meeting.

Board members said they regretted not securing raises for teachers and blamed a lack of state funding and the school district’s dire financial situation. School board members said teachers will receive a minimum 4 percent raise next year, which amounts to about $60 million.

“It’s unfortunate that we find ourselves in the place that we’re in,” said board member Debra Hixon. “I just want to remind everyone… we, as a board, directed the superintendent to start the budget next year with a four percent increase at minimum for every employee in the district. We appreciate the patience through this year because it’s been difficult, and we’ve had to make a lot of difficult decisions.”

The board also approved salary schedules and similar insurance plans for other union and non-union employees at Tuesday’s meeting. While no employees received pay raises from the district, teachers did receive an average .55 percent pay increase from the state’s Teacher Salary Increase Allocation, a recurring state fund meant to boost teacher pay, for the 2025/26 school year, a BCPS spokesperson said.

After years of dwindling student enrollment, the Broward school district is facing an $80 million budget shortfall. To save money, the school board closed six schools as part of its “Redefining Our Schools” initiative, the district’s multi-phase plan to close, consolidate and repurpose underenrolled schools. Last month, the board cut 1,000 job positions to save $54 million. It plans to cut 2,000 more jobs over the next two years.

“School districts are not built to absorb those kinds of changes. There have been cost reductions, there have been position reductions, there have been travel freezes, hiring freezes,” said school board member Allen Zeman. “Buckle up, buttercup, because next year we got to find $80 million before we find the $60 million that Ms. Hixon would like, and all of us I think would support identifying, for pay raises.”

Starting in December, all district employees will have to contribute through payroll deductions for two of the three health insurance plans the district offers. One of the plans remains free.

All three bargaining units that are part of the Broward Teachers Union voted to ratify the 2025-26 tentative agreement, union president Anna Fusco wrote in a May 12 letter to the district. While the education support professionals and technical support professionals units approved the agreement by at least 70 percent, 57 percent of the education professionals unit voted in favor of the agreement.

Fusco expressed frustration with the lack of raises and changes to insurance while speaking at the meeting. She said teachers’ insurance is not the source of the school district’s financial problems.

“Not one more school should close down next year, especially how it was taken care of. You didn’t sell them off, you’re just ‘redefining,’ literally,” Fusco said, referring to the schools the board voted to closed in January. “So I don’t know how much money that literally saved, but I call BS that you’re putting it on the backs of every employee to say that they have to pay into their insurance.”