First-year teachers across the district could lose their jobs next school year as Sarasota County Schools plans to cut 180 instructional staff positions in response to funding shortfalls.
The staff reductions come as the state diverts millions of dollars to school vouchers for families to pay private school tuition, inflation outpaces state funding for public education, and special COVID-19 earmarked funds dry up.
In Sarasota, a county with an aging population, public student enrollment has also flatlined in recent years, meaning less money for schools.
The cuts mirror those at school districts across Florida, which have slashed programming and even closed schools amid mounting budget pressures. In Sarasota, an A-rated school district in a property-rich region that enjoys enthusiastic community support, the roughly 6% reduction in instructional staff has come as a shock.
“We’ve had lulls before,” said Rex Ingerick, president of Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association, the union representing teachers in the district. “We’ve had times where we’ve had some teachers unassigned, but not this level — not this many people.”
Among teachers, those in their first year with the district would be the first to be laid off, according to the union. Another 79 classified staff positions, such as custodians, food service workers and IT professionals, are also slated to be cut.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools in 2020, leaving educators scrambling to implement remote and hybrid schooling, the federal government unleashed millions in new funding. Sarasota County Schools brought in $115 million in special pandemic relief from 2020 through 2022, which the district spent on 182 new positions to help with literacy, early learning and information technology, among others, according to the district.
During the same period, property values skyrocketed in Sarasota as buyers flocked to the region — giving district coffers a boost in funding that has since slowed as the market cools.
During a school board meeting last month, Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Terry Connor said the surge of local and federal funding “gave this perception … that we were doing great … The fact is, it was all headed towards an inflection point that we’re faced with today.”
Vouchers drain millions from district coffers
The plunge in federal support comes as the state spends less money on public school districts — instead sending more to private schools through vouchers.
The legislature determines funding for public schools using a calculus that takes into consideration factors like local property tax revenue, costs of living and the costs of different educational programs.
Florida’s per-pupil “base student allocation” increased by an average of 1.4% during the last two decades, according to Sarasota County Schools.
But adjusted for rising inflation, that allocation has actually fallen, Florida Policy Institute found in a 2025 analysis. In today’s dollars, the 2007 base student allocation of $6,100 exceeded funding for the current school year by nearly $800 per student.
In Sarasota County, every penny of state funding from the Florida Education Finance Program was diverted into vouchers for private schools this year, with the lion’s share of money flowing into the district coming from local property taxes, according to Department of Education budget documents.
After the state passed a law in 2023 removing income limits from the voucher programs, called the Family Empowerment Scholarship, billions of dollars have been redirected from public schools across the state — with families who already had children in private schools accounting for a majority of the new vouchers.
In Sarasota County, 4,800 students used a voucher this year. More than 60% of those students were already homeschooled or enrolled in private schools.
Nearly $45 million in public funding was redirected from Sarasota County Schools and into the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, according to the district’s current budget.
“This is how you bankrupt school districts,” said Holly Bullard, a Sarasota County public school parent who is also the chief strategy officer for Florida Policy Institute, pointing to rural districts that bring in less revenue from property taxes. Even wealthier counties like Sarasota “are not protected from things like layoffs or even future school closures if this continues completely unabated.”
At the same time, the district is in the process of rearranging and reconfiguring some campuses in an effort to block off access from charter schools seeking to co-locate there under Florida’s Schools of Hope law.
The controversial measure allows charter school operators to use space in “underutilized” public school facilities — while public schools pay for associated costs like bussing, school lunches and custodial services.
“At the end of the day, all of it boils down to: someone is looking to turn a profit on education,” said Liz Barker, who sits on the Sarasota County School board. “Public education is a public good, and it's something that is absolutely necessary to have a functioning society and a functioning economy and an educated populace. So I see Sarasota as just a microcosm in this greater push to privatize public education.”
‘A lot of anger’
The projected cuts have come as a blow to teachers and created an atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety among staff, Ingerick, the union president, told Suncoast Searchlight.
“Morale is not good,” Ingerick said. “We have a lot of anger, folks are looking for a reasonable explanation, and no matter how much you try to make sense of it and explain it, when the rubber hits the road, it impacts their daily life at school, not only with their teaching, but with their family and health care. It’s just a very difficult time.”
It could be weeks until the true number of layoffs in the district is known, with some teachers expected to retire or take leave.
Already, some teachers have been told they are in “surplus” status, meaning that they are “displaced from their current role during the staffing process for the next academic year (and) then have the ability to apply for vacant positions in the district for which they are eligible,” district spokesperson Kelsey Whealy wrote in an email to Suncoast Searchlight.
Some more senior teachers who are not laid off could end up moving to other schools to fill positions vacated by staff with less time at the district.
The impacts of the budget crunch have reverberated through the community, with parents describing a sense of whiplash.
“It breaks my heart every day to see,” said Jodanna Osceola, a parent of three children in the school district. Osceola is the founder of Sarasota Parents United, one of a patchwork of grassroots groups focusing on public education in Sarasota.
“Teachers don't deserve that,” Osceola said. “They already work hard enough. They’re already spread too thin. We have amazing teachers in our district, which is how we get that A rating.”
This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org .
