WELLINGTON, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited a charter school in Wellington on Monday where he addressed his support of pay raises for teachers.

“We did $800 million for teacher pay initiatives and this is something that will go a long way, not only to continue to support strong average minimum salaries across the state but also to support increased salaries for veteran teachers and so you’re going to have more money into this kitty for both of those than we’ve ever had in modern Florida history,” he said.

DeSantis said Florida is way ahead of the curve on teachers’ pay.

“What we’ve been able to do over the last three years is do about $2 billion dollars for increase teacher compensation over a variety of initiatives,” DeSantis said. “People understand you are not going to be a billionaire doing this, but you need to be able to make ends meet,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also discussed that this will be the last school year that Florida’s students will be taking the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) and that schools will be moving to progress monitoring with individual learning plans.

DeSantis said the FSA will be replaced with a progress monitoring system called the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T.). He says the new progress monitoring will take hours instead of days, calling for 75% less testing and allowing more time for learning.

“We’re taking advantage of new technology, innovation that has happened in this space over the last many years. We’re listening to teachers, parents, and students on the most effective way to do it,” DeSantis said.