FEA Fights For You

The FEA has been fighting for teachers, education staff professionals and students for more than a decade.

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2010

• Supported and helped to passed the Education Jobs Bill in Congress, which helped keep teachers and other education workers from being laid off.
• Supported and helped to pass health care reform in Congress, assuring that many of our students became covered by insurance.
• Helped to pass Amendments 5 and 6, which set up a mechanism for the drawing of more fair legislative districts.
• Lobbied against and helped stop in court Amendment 7, which would have made the passage of Amendments 5 and 6 moot.
• Drafted and passed the bus driver bill - SB 1058.
• Stopped wholesale changes to the Florida Retirement System.
• Defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have paved the way for universal vouchers for all.
• Objected to and unified support of locals to decline participation in the first round of the federal Race to the Top grant proposal.
• Increased stakeholder support, participation and encouraged locals to sign on to the successful second round of Race to the Top.

 2009

• Successfully steered all gaming proceeds to supplement the public education budget- SB 788.
• Helped to draft language that won the right for unions to acts as supplemental education providers.
• Organized a statewide Penny for Schools movement to raise awareness on increased funding for the education budget.
• Stopped a bill on the 65 percent solution that would have directed 65 percent of every dollar to be spend in the classroom, while virtually eliminating funding for all other areas.
• Stopped a TABOR (acronym comes from the term Taxpayers Bill of Rights) proposal that would have limited the amount of money a municipality could raise to help fund its schools.
• Stopped the first anti-teacher-contract bill (The precursor of SB 6-type bills) - HB 1411.
• Helped to implement the credible use of federal stimulus funds.

2008

• Added revised language to the Florida statutes to improve the Anti-Bullying Bill - HB 669.
• Passed language to establish the Workplace Safety Acts - HB 967.
• Redirected and reshaped the Ethics in Education Act - SB 1712.
• Revised the A-Plus plan with new high school grading policies – SB 1908.
• Helped to defeat a bill that would have required the teaching of evolution in science classes - SB 2692.
• Successfully won legal challenges on proposed constitutional amendments from the Tax and Budget Reform Commission, including an 18-month lobbying effort that outright defeated proposals weakening class size rules and establishing TABOR.

2007

• Defeated vouchers for low performing schools - SB 2380.
• Stopped school district breakup proposals - SB 2428.
• Successfully negotiated implementation of MAP, which was a merit pay proposal that was vastly superior to those imposed by the Florida Department of Education  - SB 1226.

2006

• Passed some accountability for charter schools.
• Won repeal of the BEST/Performance Pay Career Ladder law - HB 388.
• Helped to maintain a positive number in the total education budget.
• Forced repeal and revision of STAR and E-Comp merit pay plans.
• Elected Alex Sink CFO, Charlie Justice to the Florida Senate, and Ron Klein to the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Re-elected Republican Alex Villalobos to the Florida Senate, despite a multimillion dollar effort by Jeb Bush to defeat him.

2005

• Passed the Paperwork Reduction Bill - HB 281.
• Passed language requiring the Legislature to budget on three-year outlooks - SB 2144.
• Passed voucher accountability legislation.
• Passed two-mill flexibility language - SB 57.
• Stopped a TABOR proposal- SB 362.
• Defeated a huge voucher bill - HB 439.
• Stopped the weakening of the class size language - SB 2090.
• Offered to legislators a reasonable approach to class size, which is in vogue again in 2011 - HB 813 – Simmons.
• Stopped Academic Freedom Higher Ed Bill - HB 837.
• Helped to maintain a positive number in the total education budget.

2004

• Passed a code of conduct bill limiting use of cell phones and pagers - SB 184.
• Limited terminal pay for administrators, but retained it for educators - SB 300.
• Successful implementation of Universal Pre-K program.
• Stopped food service privatization - HB 1773.
• Put the 60 percent threshold in place, requiring all future constitutional amendments on the ballot to pass with 60 percent voter approval - HB 1723.
• Helped to maintain a positive number in the total education budget.

2003

• Made improvement to the Teacher Authority Act -- a bill FEA drafted and passed - SB 30A.
• Amended Charter School bill to include significant Charter Accountability Language - HB 55A.
• Defeated Paycheck Deception Bill - HB 1357.
• Defeated Anti-Collective Bargaining Bill for teachers - HB 173.
• Defeated Privatization Bill HB 29.
• Defeated a repeal of class size provisions - HB 1295.
• Defeated class size voucher legislation- HB 45.
• Defeated anti-collective bargaining on resolution of impasse - HB 1421.
• Helped to maintain a positive number in the total education budget.

2002

• School Code Rewrite -- stopped all bad changes and maintained every significant provision FEA wanted (a nine-month project).
• Preserved university boards as agent for collective bargaining.
• Maintained full credit for teaching experience.
• Kept the FEFP as Florida's funding formula.
• Passed ESOL exception and credit.
• Drafted and passed compensation for National Board Certification -HB 807.
• Drafted and passed a bill which allowed school boards to be a part of Growth Management/Concurrency laws - SB 1906.
• Defeated Universal Vouchers - HB 1587.
• Defeated Privatization - HB 217.
• Defeated provision of non-certified teachers in charter schools -HB 1665.
• Helped to maintain a positive number in the total education budget.

2001

• Helped to maintain a positive number in the total education budget.
• Defeated effort to give vouchers to students in overcrowded schools.- HB 303.
• Passed Charter School Accountability on sponsorship and oversight - HB 269.
• Defeated an effort to allow a rival organization (PEN) to administer liability insurance.
• Defeated an effort to privatize school services.
• Defeated Paycheck Deception.
• Defeated provision to limit union use of funds to just bargaining.
• Helped pass Sharpen the Pencil Act, which is a mart accounting of school districts budgets and spending habits. This helped districts use best financial practices and smartly use state financial resources.
• Passed Barry Grunow Act, which provides benefits for the families of teachers who are killed on the job.  
• Weakened the Educator Liability Insurance Act.
• Passed DROP extension for teachers.
• Defeated sick leave limitations bill - SB 638.