Though he’s still reviewing the overall budget Florida lawmakers sent to his desk, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’ll approve a line-item to spend $800 million next year on raising teacher salaries. “You can take this one to the bank,” the Republican governor said during his second news conference on the subject on March 21. “That will be in the budget that gets signed into law here in the not-too-distant future.” In 2020, the average starting salary for a teacher in Florida was $40,000, making the state 26th in the nation in pay for educators, according to the Office of the Governor. The new minimum amount for teachers’ pay will put Florida in ninth place. Across the country, only 12 percent of school districts have minimum teacher salaries of $40,000 or higher, DeSantis said. In Florida, 90 percent had already reached that minimum level of pay. During their just-finished legislative session, …