TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Education Association (FEA) today released a new 30-second commercial calling on state officials to stop playing politics, end the chaos in our public schools and ensure stable funding for students’ education. The ad advocates transparency, flexibility, stability and safety in public schools.
Those qualities appear to be in limited supply, with Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran showing a distinct lack of flexibility toward local districts, and with a continuing lack of transparency and accuracy in the information available to educators and parents.
Under intense pressure from parents, educators and news organizations, the state Department of Health this week began releasing a report on coronavirus in schools. As has been reported, the numbers from the state and the numbers from districts don’t always add up.
“Getting accurate information, uncolored by politics, is the bare minimum of what we should expect from state government. Parents and educators want the truth about what’s happening in our schools,” said FEA President Andrew Spar. “We need to be able to trust our leaders, to know that they’re acting in our interest and not in the interest of scoring political points at the expense of Florida’s children and our communities.”
The FEA spot will appear on cable television in the Tampa and Orlando areas for two weeks. It also is being shared on social media, and has been released in both English and Spanish. As part of the ad, parents and other education stakeholders are asked to text SAFEKIDS to 31996 to learn more.
See the ad here:
- https://youtu.be/nvbqvcbddwI (English)
- https://youtu.be/drfV5a8YGf0 (Spanish)
The new FEA spot follows one released on Sept. 10. See the earlier ad:
- https://youtu.be/rAzdE0yEZ0w (English)
- https://youtu.be/VxKbgbqR_GA (Spanish)
For the information on Covid-19 in public schools gathered by FEA, go here: https://feaweb.org/covid19/fea-safe-schools-report/
CONTACT: Joni Branch, joni.branch@floridaea.org
The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with 150,000 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.
