Today, the Florida Legislature has caved to out-of-state, billionaire-backed, special interest groups with no connection to our communities and turned their backs on Florida workers.
By passing SB 1296, lawmakers have sent a clear message to Florida workers: They will make it harder for you to support yourself and your family. As Floridians continue to struggle with paying their bills and skyrocketing expenses like rent, childcare, groceries, and more, thousands of workers called, emailed, and came to Tallahassee to ask lawmakers to help us, not hurt us.
It is unfathomable that lawmakers turned a deaf ear to workers.
After weeks of misinformation and falsehoods that were often presented as hard truths in the public record, politicians voted to strip away the constitutional right of thousands of workers in the state—including nurses, sanitation workers, utility workers, line technicians, certified nursing assistants, doctors and medical residents, city bus drivers, teachers, education staff professionals, higher education faculty and graduate assistants, city and municipal workers, communications workers, and countless other public sector workers who help make Florida safe and prosperous.
Florida educators have been asking themselves, “When did we become the enemy? Was it when we cared too much for every student not to speak up? Was it when we dared to teach students to think critically? Or was it when we had the audacity to speak up for a better life for our students and ourselves?”
It is unfortunate that outside interests and some lawmakers have resorted to hateful rhetoric about educators that has stemmed from Governor DeSantis and Florida’s Education Commissioner’s war on your neighborhood public schools. A war whose only goal is to line the pockets of political allies of the Governor.
Article IX, section 1 of the Florida Constitution guarantees every child in the state a free, high-quality public education. For the past decade, Florida lawmakers have failed to achieve this constitutional requirement. Our public schools are woefully underfunded, have a massive teacher and staff shortage driven by poor pay, and have been burdened by a massive amount of unfair and overwhelming bureaucratic red tape. At the end of the day, Florida students have suffered under administrations that have placed political agendas ahead of our students.
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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.
