Fact check: “Where does the School District of Lee County stand on teacher pay? Near the top, and we got there by being careful stewards of your tax dollars. For 2025-2026, our average teacher salary of $62,687 ranks #4 out of the Big 10 Florida districts and our neighbors. We reached that ranking on our core funding, without an additional property tax. … making sure our teachers are paid competitively.” — with a chart ranking Lee #4 of 12 districts.

Verdict: True on the numbers — every figure matches the district's cited source. What it leaves out: Florida itself ranks 50th in the nation.

Checked July 18, 2026 · data through the Florida Educational Negotiators salary workbook dated May 28, 2026 (the district's own cited source), NEA state salary tables for 2024-25 (released April 2026), and BLS wage / BEA price data for 2024 and 2023

Claim source: Facebook post by the School District of Lee County, July 2026. In the comments, the district cites its data source: the Florida Educational Negotiators workbook at flfen.org.

The district says its $62,687 average teacher salary ranks #4 among the Big 10 Florida districts and its neighbors, achieved without an additional property tax. Both claims check out against the workbook the district itself cites — and Lee ranks well statewide too: 9th of 67 districts in average salary, 10th in starting pay. What the post leaves out is the ceiling it is ranked under: Florida's average teacher salary is 50th of 51 nationally, so Lee's $62,687 still sits about $11,800 below the U.S. average teacher salary, below the $69,470 the average Florida job paid in 2024, and below what neighboring Collier and Charlotte pay — the two districts at the top of the district's own chart.

Claim by claim

“Our average teacher salary of $62,687 ranks #4 out of the Big 10 Florida districts and our neighbors.”

Accurate against the district's own cited source

Every bar in the district's chart matches the Florida Educational Negotiators workbook to the dollar, and within that 12-district group Lee's $62,687 is indeed #4, behind Collier ($71,474), Charlotte ($65,952), and Pinellas ($63,638). The same workbook also supports the broader “near the top” framing statewide: among all 67 Florida districts, Lee ranks 9th in average salary and 10th in starting pay ($54,500 for 2025-26).

“We reached that ranking on our core funding, without an additional property tax.”

Accurate per the same workbook

The workbook lists an additional voter-approved operational millage levy for 10 of the 12 districts in the chart — 1.00 mills for most, 0.35 for Collier — and none for Lee or Polk. That matches the asterisks in the district's own graphic. So the claim that Lee reached its ranking without an additional property tax is consistent with the source: most of the districts above and around it are supplementing salaries with extra local tax revenue that Lee does not levy.

“Near the top” … “making sure our teachers are paid competitively.”

Context the post leaves out

Near the top of Florida is still near the bottom of the country. Florida's average teacher salary ranks 50th of 51 nationally (NEA, 2024-25), so Lee's $62,687 — strong by Florida standards — sits roughly $11,800 below the U.S. average teacher salary of $74,495, and below the $69,470 the average Florida job across all industries paid in 2024 (BLS). Statewide, Florida teachers earn about 82 cents for every dollar the average Florida worker makes, while nationally teachers roughly match the all-jobs average — and Florida's cost of living runs 3.5% above the national average, 12th-highest in the country (BEA). Closer to home, the two districts at the top of the district's own chart compete for the same teachers: Collier pays $8,787 more on average and starts teachers at $58,480; Charlotte pays $3,265 more and starts at $58,154, versus Lee's $54,500. One more caution on the metric itself: a district's average salary partly reflects how senior its teaching staff is, not only how generously it pays. Whether all of that adds up to “competitive” is for readers to weigh — the full 67-district and 50-state tables are on our Teacher Pay page.

By the numbers

#4 of 12 — Lee's rank in the group the district chose — every figure matches its cited source
9th of 67 — Lee's rank among ALL Florida districts on the same workbook (10th of 67 on starting pay)
50th of 51 — Florida's national rank in average teacher salary (NEA, 2024-25)
−$11,808 — Lee's average vs. the U.S. average teacher salary of $74,495

Sources

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