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Privatization

Inside each neighborhood public school there is a diverse community of professionals who dedicate themselves to making sure your child thrives and succeeds.

From transporting students safely to and from school to feeding nutritious meals to performing maintenance and custodial work, education staff professionals are the backbone of strong schools.

In misguided attempts to save money, many school districts have begun to consider turning over important public services like these to private, for-profit companies. While the promise of saving a few dollars might sound alluring to cash-strapped districts, these savings are all-too-often short-lived and come with a loss of accountability, and diminished services.

In fact, any “savings” a district realizes is almost always the product of slashing pay or benefits of our hard-working education staff professionals.

“Contracting out” these jobs also ignores that education staff professionals play an important role in their community. They live in the same community where they work and they are invested in their schools and their students’ success.

You simply won’t find that same level of commitment from employees hired by private contractors. In places where privatization efforts have been successful, newly hired staff have considerably higher turnover rates than those they replaced. This is easy to understand considering they work for lower pay and less benefits than their predecessors.

We believe that all students deserve to attend schools staffed with a workforce of highly-trained, dedicated, and accountable education staff professionals. The benefits to students, schools, and the community at large of having public employees serve as the essential staff in our schools far outweigh any short-term “savings” that might come from outsourcing their jobs.

Additional Resources

Florida’s Budget Keeps Teachers Near the Bottom for Salary

Tallahassee – Today, the Florida legislature released their proposed budget that once again does not go far enough in supporting students, parents, teachers and education staff professionals in the state.…

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FEA’s statement on the Attack on Workers’ Rights, SB 1746

Today, the Florida Senate Rules Committee passed SB 1746, an anti-worker bill sponsored by Senator Blaise Ingoglia (R-11) that would place additional mandates on any person seeking to join their…

Read more about FEA’s statement on the Attack on Workers’ Rights, SB 1746

Education Leaders Push To “Save Sociology” in Universities Amid State Board of Education’s College Removal

Education leaders are calling on the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) to “Save Sociology” and reconsider an amendment that would remove Principles of Sociology as a general education core course…

Read more about Education Leaders Push To “Save Sociology” in Universities Amid State Board of Education’s College Removal

FEA leadership: We stand united for our students

Let us say first, we are honored to lead this organization and to have you as a member.

Read more about FEA leadership: We stand united for our students

Help for kids who are hurting

Through Steve’s Club, Cori Lake Walls wants to ensure no grieving student goes unnoticed or unheard

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$1,200 worth of turkeys and a lot of love

Lakisha Ayers-White and her student volunteers provide supplies for Thanksgiving dinners with all the trimmings to dozens of union families

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