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One thing that clearly emerged out of the haze of the local elections last week in Miami-Dade County is that the community appreciates its public school educators and staff. That reality was evidenced in the overwhelming support for Referendum #210 that renewed the 2018 Miami-Dade County School teacher pay increase and funding of school safety.
The “Yes” vote on this year’s referendum was the rare bipartisan point of agreement that surfaced from the 2022 midterm elections, with a resounding 65% of the electorate voting to renew the original referendum from 2018.
The two primary advocates of the successful referendum were United Teachers Of Dade (UTD) and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). UTD led the way investing $750,000 into an outreach campaign informing voters in Miami-Dade County about the initiative and encouraging them to vote. United Teachers of Dade members volunteered over 3,000 hours of their personal time to reach out to voters one-on-one. The UTD “leave no stone unturned campaign” sent over 2.7 million texts, ran digital ads viewed by voters over 6.6 million times and mailed over 1 million flyers to voters throughout the county.
Championed by Superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres and several school board members, M-DCPS held several town hall meetings across the county and communicated directly with parents about the importance of preserving our A+ rated school district. Dr. Dotres helped raise an additional funds that were used for paid communications on local media outlets.
As UTD President Karla Hernandez-Mats put it “All of our efforts at UTD were geared towards ensuring that every voter in Miami-Dade County realized the importance of voting YES on Referendum #210, which will keep our children safe, help teachers earn a fair wage and retain our A+ teachers in the face of a massive teacher shortage.”
The referendum did draw opposition. Among the detractors were the
Miami-Dade County Republican Party, led by Rene Garcia, who encouraged members to vote against the proposal. There were two recently elected Miami-Dade County School Board members who campaigned against the referendum during their own campaigns alongside smaller fringe groups who are frequent disruptors at school board meetings.
The results of the Referendum #210 campaign speak for themselves, with over two thirds of the county electorate voting “YES” to support M-DCPS teachers and staff. The long-term ripple effects are that Miami-Dade County teachers will now be able to better afford to live in the county where they teach, while the students will be able to retain the successful teachers who instruct them and lead them to the next level of excellence in their academic and professional paths.
This will help ensure that M-DCPS remains an “A+” rated school district nationally as we step into the role of now the third largest public school district in the country.
