Miami-Dade Voters Decide the School Tax Referendum Tuesday - and There Is No School That Day
The School Board question on Tuesday's ballot asks voters to keep the existing one-mill levy that supplements teacher pay and funds student safety through 2031 - and Election Day itself is a teacher planning day, so Miami-Dade public schools are closed.
Between the charter questions on Tuesday's ballot sits the one that pays for teachers. Miami-Dade voters will decide whether the School Board maintains the existing one-mill property tax levy - exclusively for school operational purposes, including public charter schools - to continue improving compensation for teachers and instructional personnel and to improve student safety and school security, with oversight by a citizen advisory committee, according to the ballot language published by the district and read by the desk this run. A renewal runs from July 1, 2027 through June 30, 2031.
It is a renewal, not a new tax: the district's position, as reported by USA Today this week, is that keeping the levy would not raise taxes - it continues money voters first approved in 2018 and renewed in 2022. If it is not renewed, the funding expires on June 30, 2027. The money supplements salaries for key staff; the district's minimum base salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree, paid over 12 months, was $58,250 for the 2025-2026 school year. Broward and Palm Beach voters face their own versions of the same teacher-pay question on the same day.
One practical note for families: there is no school on Election Day. November 3, 2026 is a designated teacher planning day in Miami-Dade County Public Schools' 2026-2027 calendar - students stay home while teachers plan, and while their parents' polling places, many of them in schools, are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
