We are joining the call to ensure our public schools, places of worship, and hospitals are treated as protected places. We must ensure that our public schools remain safe places for our students, parents, and educators.
Florida is home to many communities that are diverse in both culture and thought, and its this diversity that helps to make our state one of the greatest in the nation. There is growing unrest in our nation around increasingly divisive and harmful rhetoric related to immigration, rhetoric that has led to devastating and violent actions by our federal government.
Our job as teachers and education staff professionals is to ensure every child in our community has a safe place to learn, grow, and be a kid – regardless of race, status, religion, or gender. When students and parents are afraid of what may come for them or their neighbors, it disrupts learning for everyone and creates an anxiety that does not allow students to learn and grow to their fullest potential. What has occurred because of the violent actions and rhetoric from elected officials on immigration is a chilling effect that has caused every part of Florida’s K-12 system to be impacted. Florida’s own recent Education Estimating Conference for PreK-12 Enrollment report shows us this:
“The widespread downward adjustment across student settings in the broader K-12 array (home, PEP, private, and district) signals that the universe of K-12 enrollment is atypically contracting.” The state goes on to say about these additional enrollment drops that the most likely explanation for further downward shifts in programs like ESOL, Early Learning Programs, and Medicaid “is related to the chilling effects from recently implemented immigration policies.”
Every child in Florida is entitled to a public education regardless of immigration status, per the U.S. Constitution. We must ensure that our public schools are protected spaces, not political stages used to foment more division.
We must stand united to protect our public schools, protect our children, and stand firmly beside our immigrant communities.
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CONTACT: FEA Press, feapress@floridaea.org, (850) 201-3223
The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with 120,000 members. FEA represents PreK-12 teachers, higher education faculty, educational staff professionals, students at our colleges and universities preparing to become teachers and retired education employees.
