Every kid in District 90 deserves a school that works. Here's the good news, backed by numbers you can check: in Palm Beach County, our schools mostly do. The job of your next state representative is to protect that — and to fix the one problem the data says is getting worse. As always on this site, every figure below is sourced. Check my math.
Start with what's working, because a lot is.
An engineer's first rule: when a system is performing, don't break it. Anyone running for this seat should say plainly that Palm Beach County schools are succeeding, and that success has to be defended in the state budget every single year.
Now the number that should worry every parent: as of August 2026, the Florida Education Association counted 556 unfilled school positions in Palm Beach County — 276 teachers and 280 support staff — against roughly 3,157 advertised instructional vacancies statewide, hundreds more statewide than at the same point last year. (FEA figures reported by WLRN, Aug. 2026. To be fair to both sides: these are union counts of advertised openings, and the Florida Department of Education reported a 17.7% statewide vacancy reduction for 2025-26 a year earlier. The union and the state count differently; I'll show you both numbers rather than pick the convenient one.)
Why can't we fill classrooms? Look at the pay math:
A methodology note, because it matters: both figures come from the National Education Association's annual state rankings, compiled by the national teachers' union. The Florida Department of Education uses a different yardstick — the statewide minimum salary, which it puts at $49,444 in 2023-24, up roughly $9,400 since 2020, backed by about $6 billion in state teacher-pay investment. The two sides aren't really contradicting each other: the state's numbers are about the bottom of the pay scale, the NEA's are about the middle of it.
Read those two lines together and the diagnosis writes itself: Florida is competitive at hiring teachers and terrible at keeping them. The state funded starting salaries and let experienced-teacher pay compress — so a 15-year veteran can earn barely more than a first-year hire. That's not a slogan problem; it's a pay-structure problem, and pay structures can be fixed.
Palm Beach County actually pays better than the state — about $69,300 on average — but our teachers still spent roughly a year in negotiations — bargaining opened in spring 2025, the union declared impasse in November, a mediator recommended 3.5%, and the school board finally voted 6-1 to adopt that raise in May 2026, retroactive to July 2025. (WLRN, May 2026) In a district where the median owner-occupied home is valued around $370,400 (U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-year estimate, District 90), teacher retention is an affordability problem. It belongs in this campaign.
The Legislature writes the education budget. This year's, signed June 2026, includes a record $30 billion for public schools (FEFP), record per-student funding of $9,338 (up $150), and $1.56 billion allocated for teacher salary increases — $200 million more than the year before. (Governor's office, June 2026) Honesty requires the counterpoint: the state teachers' union argues those increases trail inflation and that per-student funding is below 2019 levels in real terms. (FEA) Both claims are on the table; the fight that matters is who's in the room when next year's numbers are written. Here's what I'd push for from inside the budget-writing majority:
1. Fix the retention math, not just the recruiting math. Florida already ranks ~19th in starting pay. The state's own $1.56 billion salary allocation should be steered — with district flexibility — toward the experienced-teacher compression that drives our 556 vacancies. The 2026 reforms already include an expedited process for teacher salary increases (SB 1296) and extra pay for high performers in struggling schools (HB 1279); I'd build on both. Keeping a good teacher is cheaper than replacing one — any engineer who's managed a team knows that.
2. Bring the trade and tech dollars home. Not every path runs through a four-year degree, and Tallahassee just funded the alternative: $732 million for workforce education statewide this year, including $473.5 million for career and technical education and $20 million for the Governor's Pathways to Career Opportunities grant program, which funds apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships. (Governor's office, June 2026) Boynton Beach is already home to SouthTech Academy, a career-focused charter school, and the district runs career academies, industry certifications, and dual enrollment in fields like welding. As a working engineer, I'll fight to land those dollars in District 90 classrooms — certifications, apprenticeships, and job pipelines with CareerSource Palm Beach.
3. Keep classrooms focused. The 2025 bell-to-bell cellphone law for elementary and middle schools passed 85-14 — about as bipartisan as Tallahassee gets. (HB 1105) I'd support it, watch the data from the high-school pilot, and back extending what the evidence supports. Phones down, grades up — and measure it.
4. Guard the funding, openly. The homestead-exemption property-tax amendment on your November ballot (HJR 1-F, which raises the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028) applies only to the non-school portion of your tax bill — school funding stays untouched. I'm voting yes on tax relief and defending an A-rated district's budget; the amendment is written so we don't have to choose. And I'll apply the same standard to school spending I apply to this website: every dollar traceable, every claim checkable, full transparency for parents on curriculum and budgets alike.
I'm not going to invent a schools crisis — the graduation numbers don't support one, and this campaign doesn't say things the numbers don't support. What the numbers do support is this: an A-rated district, a record graduation rate, and a teacher-retention problem that a year at the bargaining table didn't solve. Florida's education budget is written by a House majority that currently holds 83 of the chamber's 120 seats, against 34 Democrats, with three seats vacant (official House member roster, August 2026). District 90 can send a voice to the sidelines, or an engineer to the room where the FEFP is written — someone who'll defend what's working, fix the pay math that isn't, and post every number where you can check it.
That's the offer. Hold me to it.
Every figure on this page is sourced. Find an error? Send me the source and I will fix it.
Updated: 2026-09-04