>>Coming up on NewsNight Governor DeSantis budgets more than $1,000,000,00 for teacher pay raises, but union criticize the state over shortages and salarie for veteran teachers.

This week' News in Depth starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort and welcome to NewsNight where we take a deep dive into the stories and issue that matter to central Florida and how they shape our community.

Let's start tonight with the thorny issue of teacher pay.

Governor DeSantis Wednesday signed the state's budget for the coming year starting July 1st.

It includes a $240 per student boost in school spending.

On Monday, he announced the state would spend another one and a quarter billion dollars on teacher pay raises.

He made that announcement while hailing his administration's move amid a staffing shortage in public schools and a near bottom placed ranking for Florida on overall teacher pay, according to the National Education Association.

DeSantis also lashed out at teachers unions that he blames for some of the travails facing the state's schools, accusing them of pursuing a political agenda.

>>We had school unions throughout the state that, as we have provided more money for teacher salaries, what we've said is it's a categorical amount of money only can go to teacher increasing teacher salaries because what happens is they say, oh, teachers need more money, increase education spending, and then they spend it on bureaucracy and other things.

So we said and the legislature said only to raise salaries.

Well with some of the school unions did, even though that money was available every year, July 1st, when the new budget takes effect, they would withhold the money to raise salaries for their own teachers they're supposed to represent and try to use that as leverage to get other concessions.

And I'm just thinking to myself, the money's already been provided.

You should have been workin to get that money out the door and get it in the pockets of the peopl that you purport to represent.

But it shows tha they put their political agenda ahead of not only the students, which of course they do, but even the teachers that they purport to serve.

>>Governor DeSantis there.

U.S. News and World Report has ranked Florida number one in the nation for education for the eighth year in a row.

But the governor's attack on unions drew a swift response from the Florida Education Association's Andrew Spar, who accuses the state of diverting dollars from public to private schools.

>>Florida is facing the worst teacher and staff shortage we have ever seen leading the nation in the number of teacher and staff vacancie we have in our public schools.

I also want to remind you that we have been calling on the legislature and the governor to increas funding for our public schools by two and a half billion dollars for the next seven years so that we can move from the basement in this nation in funding for our schools to top ten.

>>Andrew Spar.

Well, those are the points of view from the Governor and the union.

So let's get into the issue in depth.

Now joining me in the studio this week, anchor at Spectrum News 13, Greg Angel.

Thanks so much for comin in.

Greg.

>>Always a pleasure.

>>Appreciate it.

Karla Ray, investigative reporter and anchor over at WFTV Channel 9.

Thanks for being here, Karla.

>>Thank you for having me.

>>Skyler Swisher is a reporter at the Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks for coming back to the program as well.

Skyler, Good to see you today.

>>Thanks for having me on.

>>Thank you, everybody, for being here.

Greg, let me start with you on this one.

I mean, how does this new tranche of money for for teacher salaries compare to previous steps taken by the DeSantis administration?

>>So $1.25 billion.

The governor setting asid in this new budget he signed, it goes into effec July 1st, $1.25 billion for the specific purpos of increasing teacher wages.

Now, what the governor will tell you is it's $200 million more than last year.

And the governor will also tell you that in his time in office, he has been able to increase starting pay for teachers from $40,000 a year to $48,000 a year.

Big gap for teachers.

But then, as we heard from some of the teacher associations, part of their criticism still of the funding is they say it's not enough.

It's also leaving veteran teachers behind because veteran teachers aren't earning an equal fare they say, based on experience.

>>Yeah, I want to talk about that, that pay compression issue in a moment.

But Karla, I mean, the governor spent a lot of time this week attacking the unions.

The unions themselves have a litany of complaints about his administration's record.

It does seem to be that the both sides in this are kind of blaming each other for the same problems, the shortage and low pay.

>>Right.

And they also use some of the same examples of why the unions will blam the governor for restrictions that teacher have been put under, making it more difficul to recruit teachers to our state because they claim that teachers are scared to teach certain curriculum in the schools.

The governor will turn around and say that the unions are exaggerating this.

They're blowing things out of proportion as far as what books are or not allowed in schools and the challenges that those books have been facing.

So it has become very political.

>>Yeah, the teachers unions really saying that those culture war issues have have kind of been a problem for trying to bring in new recruits to the state.

Skyler, I mean, how does this clash with the teacher's union kind of jive with the overall relationship that the Defense Administration has with unions in the state?

>>Yes.

So this has been a very contentious relationship and there being clashes over, you know, school vouchers, reopening schools during COVID 19.

And there was also legislation that was passed that essentially makes it easie to decertify a teacher's union if their due-paying member fall below 60%.

One thing that's kind of worth noting in terms of the politics here is we haven't exactly seen th same sort of rhetoric directed at police unions and firefighter unions which support the governor and Republicans.

>>Let's break down the two points of contention a little more, Greg.

I mean, the unions say the culture wars, as I mentioned before, of recent years, have kind of discouraged teachers from coming to the state.

The governor, though, has said that improvements in starting salaries that you referred to have been usefu in kind of bringing new talent to the state.

I mean, what does the shortage actually look like?

>>Well, again, to answer the question, it depends on who you ask.

So there's been some independent studies that show vacancies in Florida are about 5,000.

Teachers Union will say it's more than 7,000.

And Florida Department of Education says, no, that's not the case.

Their last release said they were about 4,700 vacancies in Florida and again Florida Department of Education taking issue with some of the data and how it's counted by by other groups.

I think it's also important to note that, again, you talk about politics.

That's what teachers talk about.

And they also talk about pay, pay and politics, those are the two issues why so many people are leaving the classroom.

And the state has tried to look at ways to get more people into the classroom.

They waive certain certification requirements.

They even set up a special program to get veterans, military veterans into the classroom.

They try to get them to serve in other ways, but they've not seen much success that has not moved the needle at all.

And so when you try to find passionate people who want to be in the classroom, a lot of it does seem, at least as you talk to the unions pay and politic and as much as you may discount the unions, the issue is those are the people who are actually in the classroom.

>>Important to point out, of course, that it's not just Florida that's facing this teacher shortage issue.

It's something of a nationwide issue.

I want to talk a little bit about that pay compressio issue that Greg just mentioned, that gap between new teacher pay and the pay that everyone else gets.

NewsNight got reaction this week from Vanessa Skipper of th Brevard Federation of Teachers.

>>We are excited that the average beginning teache pay in Florida is so high.

Unfortunately, the average pa for all of the other educators has not risen like new teacher pay.

We are 50th in the nation for teacher pay, and one of the reasons for that, I think, is because such an extreme focus was put on beginning teachers and that created huge wage compression issue.

So people could come to Florida, they could start their teaching career in Florida, maybe work five years, get their master's degree, get some experience under their belt, and then move to a state who values their teachers and values experience.

>>Vanessa Skipper from th Brevard Federation of Teachers.

Karla, I mean, the unions essentially say there's just not enough money around to address this pay compression issue.

It does seem to be a key point of contention for them.

>>Right.

And the average teache pay in Florida is low compared to the national average.

It's about $54,000 a year, which is higher than th starting salary for a teacher.

But it is about $16,000 less per year than the national average.

>>Not a huge yeah, not a huge difference.

And teachers saying, you know, as we just heard from Vanessa Skipper, this is just simply not recognizing the experience that a lot of teachers have.

Certainly an issue we're going to keep watching on the program.

It's a fascinating one for sure.

You can find the state's announcement on teacher pay raises as well as the National Education Association state rankings for teacher pay on our website all at wucf.org/newsnight.

Okay.

Next tonight an agreement on plans to expand Disney World takes effect this week.

The Florida Tourism Oversight District gave the green light to Disney's plan to invest $17 billion, developing more than 17,000 acres of land owned by the company.

It's a 15 year agreement that took effect this week and would allow for the construction of a fifth theme park, although Disney has no indicated if it will build one.

It all follows several years of political and legal tensions between Disney and the state during the culture wars of recent years over control of the special district responsible for roads and other governmen services covering Disney World and last minute development agreements between Disne and the old Reedy Creek board.

Political watchers say relations have improved considerably.

>>They've changed the board and it's held up in court.

And now Disney' going along with it.

Disney did get in return less threatening director, less threatening board members, more conciliatory words from the governor instead of the governor saying we're going to build a prison or a competing theme park nex to your existing Disney World.

We are going to support you in expansion because this is great for Florida business.

>>Aubrey Jewett from UCF.

Okay, Skyler, you've covered this a lot.

What a difference a year makes, right?

When it comes to relations between Disney and the state.

Do you agree with Aubrey Jewett's assessment there?

>>Oh, absolutely.

I mean, we talked to one industry analyst who said it was a huge kiss and make up.

I mean, it's been a huge reversal.

>>What do we know about this plan in particular that got the final green light from the from the new board this week?

It's $17 billion.

What do we know about what's in it?

>>We know a lo and we know a little about it.

Here's the thing.

You know, Disney is obviously feeling the pressures.

They've got Universal right u the road doing mass expansion.

And the thing to keep in mind with this too, Disney is 40 some odd square miles.

They've always said a third has been developed with the parks and resorts, a third future development and a third of that property set aside for conservation.

So this particular project we're looking at about 17,000 acres.

That's about 27 square miles.

You know, there's pipeline infrastructure, things like that.

But we're years away from from Disney ever saying that theme park.

>>But it does look like for many people that watch the tourism business, that that's probably the way things are going.

>>Yeah.

I mean, any time you're talking billions of dollars, I mean, there's an $8 billion commitment for the first ten years, up to $17 billion over 20 years.

That's big time money.

And as was mentioned when your competitor is adding an entire new theme park, tha puts pressure on you to expand and to try to keep up.

>>And it was just back in March that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District got a new administrator.

Right, Karla, I mean, remind us about Stephanie Kopelousos' background.

>>Right.

So she is well known to Governor Ron DeSantis.

She was the former director and senior advisor of legislative affairs for the governor, and she's also the Clay County manager for eight years and former secretar of transportation in the state.

So she has a lot of infrastructure experience, a lot of experience overseeing boards and different personalities and budgets.

And I think it was a compromise for both sides.

To Skyler's point, this was a soft landing for both Disney and DeSantis.

>>Really fascinating timing for those of us that watch Disney.

I do want to pivot a little bit to talk about Stephanie Kopelousos' predecessor Glenn Gilzean.

You wrote this week, Skyler, that he's continued to receive payments from that district even though he's now the Orange County supervisor of elections appointed by the governor, of course.

Tell us more about that and what you've hear from the board about it.

>>Yes.

So when he left, there were some questions because he was making $400,000 a year as the administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

He took a job for $205,000 as the election supervisor, was appointed by DeSantis.

So the question, you know, obviously comes up, well, why would you take a job where you're going to get such a big pay down?

>>A bump down, yeah.

>>Well, we asked this question a lot.

We kept asking, well, what exactly is happening with him at the district?

Finally, we got a consulting agreement that he signed in March, and it runs from April through the end of the year, and it pays him $20,000 a month.

It also specifies that this is a part time arrangement.

It's not to interfere with his full time job as the election supervisor.

>>Why does the board say it needs that?

>>Yes I talked to the board chairman and he said that, look, when you have a transition like this, it's complex that we needed his insight.

I mean, Gilzean was in the job for less than a year.

>>He wasn't there long.

Yeah.

>>And he also said that this was something they've done with previous administrators.

John Classy.

He had a kind of a similar arrangement where he stayed on as a special adviser.

So that was his explanation when I kind of posed those questions to the board chairman.

>>Interesting.

I mean, Gilzean tol Spectrum News 13 back in March that, quote It is not fair to the taxpayers over in the district for me to be in two different areas at the same time.

That seems to be what has been going on.

I mean, what do you make about Skyler's reporting?

>>You know, I think at the point when I was asking him that question after he had just been announced as one county supervisor of elections and and asking him, because at that point he was holding both jobs.

And so when I asked him, what is the plan?

What is the transition plan?

And he made it very clear at that point that he was departing CFTOD, Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and going to focus wholly and solely on the role of Orange County supervisor of elections.

So it's a little hard to tell.

But, you know, some of the responses in that conversation, I think he also left the door open to a number of different possibilities, including running for Orang County supervisor of elections.

So we'll see what happens come November.

Right.

But it is an interesting development that Skyler was able to uncover.

>>But the question from his critics has been how well can he continue to do the job?

And there have been questions about how he's performing his job, right, as supervisor.

WFTV reported on one o those concerns just this week.

>>Yeah, we've actually had two boards now come out with concerns, board members, rather, of both the Orange County Commission concerned about deadlines for getting the rural boundary question potentially on the ballot.

You know, concerns that his office was going to move up that deadline to as soon as this week when it's typically more like mid-August before thos questions have to be answered.

And also since that report that aired on Monday, we've now heard from the school board as well, school board member saying that they were concerned that the sales tax referendum was not going to make it in time and that he had put it under a legal review.

That's something that he and his office have denied.

But several school board members have come forwar saying that their understanding is that it is under legal review.

>>And it's kind of interesting, too, because you think of other folks, you know, take Orland Mayor Buddy Dyer, for example.

As mayor of Orlando, he sits on, I believe, 16 different boards.

And, of course, the obligation-- >>The Orange County mayor as well.

>>But, you know, board the board.

And it will be interesting to see as as a lot of folks kind of say, no, we want our supervisor of elections to b solely focused on this one job.

Will Gilzean also look at some of the remarks of Bill Cowles, who left the office, who said, look, I'm leaving this office, my staff, they can run themselves.

They've got hundreds of years of combined election experience.

So it'll be interesting.

Will they kind of make that kind of argument where I'm staffed with professionals so I can do both?

It'll be interesting to see how this develops and what he does.

>>Such a pivotal time as well.

This year in this election year for the supervisor-- >>Is it a busy election year?

>>Election office is no doubt.

Well, meanwhile, we always want to hear your thoughts on the news of the week.

Be sure to visit us on social media we're at WUCFTV, on Facebook and Instagram.

We also have a new handle on X as well.

You'll find us there.

NewsNightWUCF.

Okay.

Next tonight, human trafficking in Florida.

A new law will come into effect in our state next month, which includes human trafficking awareness signage in certain places where it's likely to happen.

And new age requirements for performers at adult entertainment establishments.

It also includes a Florida specific human trafficking hotline.

There's already a long standing national hotline operated by a nonprofit called Polaris on behalf of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

But Florida's Attorney General, Ashley Moody, has been highly critical of that service for only reporting 30% of its calls to law enforcements.

>>The National Huma Trafficking Hotline is run by an organization that ha been taken over by a Columbia, Stanford educated self-described social justice warrior who believes it is no longer necessary for the national human Trafficking hotline to report cases directl to law enforcement in Florida.

And so when we see organizations that have abandoned their original mission, a hotline that was propped up to help law enforcement rescue survivors no longer doing that.

When you see them pushing a radical agenda, an agenda that is proven not to work in city after city and state after state all around our nation, when the goal is to not help law enforcement accomplish their mission but to obstruct law enforcement in accomplishing their mission.

They should be called out and they should be defund added.

And states need to do what they must to take back that responsibility.

>>Ashley Moody there.

Well NewsNight spoke with the leader of Polaris, Catherine Chen.

She says that 70% of calls to the national hotline are made up of victims who do not want law enforcement involved.

>>We advocate for a single national hotline for one very specific reason, and that's because they can memorize one single number and use it anywhere that they happen to be.

And we can connect them to a full range of services.

But I also think it's really important for folks to know that the newly announced hotline, while we welcome any partnership of course, the newly announced hotline is actually a an existing law enforcement hotline.

And so the announcement, I think, is really about making sure that folks know they can call that number.

Also if they're reporting human trafficking, calling law enforcement on a trafficking situation is a resource that has to be available, but it's not a given kind of immediate automatic thing that victims and survivors are necessarily going to want law enforcement involved.

We've so far this year referred nearly 70 situations of human trafficking to Florida law enforcement.

And so there's a you know, a very regular drumbeat for us of referring situations.

And I think, unfortunately, the the attorney general's press release just didn't didn't address those things.

>>Catherine Chen there from Polaris.

Okay, Karla, you've covered the human trafficking issue in Florida.

I mean, what do you make of this back and forth that we just heard from the attorney general, Ashley Moody, on one side, Catherine Chen from Polaris on the other side about th involvement of law enforcement.

>>I think we're really missing a very important voice in this conversation, and that is those with lived experience survivors.

I've interviewed survivor about this very topic, and they have told me that if the National Huma Trafficking Hotline was going to refer everything to law enforcement, they would not have called.

And these are these are women with lived experience who say that they don't want that type of hotline.

There's a difference between a hotline and a tip line.

And tip lines are for law enforcement to receive tip like crime line, very important tip line in our community that would be more appropriate.

The hotline is for resources and it needs to be a safe line that that survivors and victims can call.

And it's their decision if they wan law enforcement to be involved.

And if you talk to law enforcement to about this, I know Ashley Mood is representing law enforcement and her statements that she's making.

But local law enforcement that I have interviewed about this the NBI, the sheriff's offices, this is not where they derive their tips about human trafficking.

They're not relying on these hotlines.

They're out working the community, trying to eradicate these crimes.

So it's not really a major tool for law enforcement, and it historically has not been.

>>That's an interesting point.

Greg, the attorney general did seem to have a lot of complaints about that national hotline and the way it's run.

>>Yeah.

And again, maybe just coming down to politics again, because the argument that she's making is it appears instead of the hotline Polaris filtering and kind of creatin this clearinghouse of the tips and informatio that their preference is to hav all of the information directly sen unfiltered to law enforcement.

And to Karla's point, too, you also need cooperation of victims.

Prosecutors will tell you if you don't have a victim who is cooperating in a case, it's very difficult for law enforcement to to build a case, pursue the case, make the arrests.

And so it's important that there's also that that positive experience in the sense of of if if a victim is going to law enforcement, that they are getting the care and the attention that they're comfortable with, that they are seeking.

Because ultimately, at the end of the day, you can also destroy potential cases and prosecutions.

>>Not only cases, but it can put these these men and women's lives at risk by reaching ou to law enforcement in that way.

>>From a political point of view, Skyler, what do you make of the attorney general's comments that I mean, she was pretty critical of that national hotline.

>>We've certainly heard from those advocacy groups.

But when this wen before the legislature, it wasn't reall a controversial topic.

I mean, it got pretty muc unanimous support.

State Rep Ana Eskamani wa interviewed on public radio.

She voted for it.

She was saying she hopes tha these hotlines don't conflict.

But it's worth noting when you have a busy slate of legislation, you know, sometimes it's hard to get into the the mechanics and the inner workings of a hotline.

>>Interesting.

Interesting that it was an area of bipartisan agreement in the legislature that few and far between for sure.

Let's hear a voice in support of the new Florida hotline.

Now, Tomas Lars, the founder and president of United Abolitionists, he says it could help victims by sending a message.

>>I welcome the new hotlin because we need both.

We need to hel those survivors.

That's our number one priority.

And united abolitionists that are looking for hel maybe want to be confidential, their privacy rights, all of that to protect that.

But we also need to get those bad actors and send that message strong messag that they're not welcome here.

>>Thomas Lars there from United Abolitionists.

Okay, Karla, let's just finish up by taking a step back.

I mean, Florida ranks third in the nation.

We hear this all the time for call to the to the national hotline.

What is i that makes Florida a magnet for for human trafficking and for any of these efforts that you and I as well have talked about over the years?

Are they making an appreciable difference?

>>Well, some would argue that the reason we have more calls to the national human trafficking hotline is because more people are aware of this problem in Florida.

And so that could be seen actually as a good thing in some ways.

But Florida historically has been a hotbed for human trafficking simply because of our numbe one industry, which is tourism.

You know, this is a transient population that moves in and out.

>>A lot of people using hotels.

>>Hotels.

Major, major hub for this.

And we have seen some improvements.

To that end, hotels in Florida are now required to train their staff to notice human trafficking and to report it, which is a major, major step and something that took a few years in the legislature to actually get passed.

We also have legislatio in place that's going you know, the rules are being drafted right now and being implemented for human trafficking, safe houses to have a set of standards so that it's not like the Wild West when survivors come out that there is actual regulatory oversight for those facilities.

>>And we're seeing in this new legislation here the requirement for signage in in places like roadside service plazas and in hotels and things like that.

>>All of that tends to lead to an increase in those calls to the human trafficking hotline.

So it's not necessarily a bad thing that we rank third in the nation.

Just because other states don't have high reporting numbers doesn't mean it's not-- >>Doesn't mean it's not a problem.

No doubt about that.

Well, before we go, a reminder to be sure to check out more NewsNight content on the website, wucf.org/newsnight and also on the WUCF YouTube channel at WUCF TV.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Greg Angel Spectrum News 13.

Karla Ray, WFTV Channel 9.

Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks so much for coming in, guys.

Really good conversation today.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

From all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.