Despite pandemic restrictions, we found numerous ways to speak up for students, public education, and our freedoms and working conditions
What’s the big takeaway of the 2021 legislative session? You can’t keep educators down. No matter the obstacles we face, we will find a path to push for positive change for our students, our members and public education. PreK-12 teachers and education staff professionals, higher education faculty and graduate assistants, education students and retirees — we’re all in this together to make a real difference.
FEA’s End of Session Report (PDF, 3.1 MB) provides a comprehensive look at which bills passed and which bill failed this session and how those bills will impact students, educators and public education.
Our advocacy is especially crucial each legislative session, when lawmakers make policy decisions and set budgets. The stakes are enormous:
- Funding for students, schools and salaries
- Our retirement
- Even our rights and freedoms to join together as advocates.
We count on having a say in the legislative process. This year, the pandemic made that tough. Most visitors were locked out of the Capitol complex where the decision-making is done. Everywhere, Covid-19 safety precautions had to be observed.
So did that mean we were silent? Of course not! Our members are too committed and our issues are too important. What we saw instead was a phenomenal level of participation from members statewide.
Under pandemic restrictions during the 2021 legislative session:
- More than 300 members of the Florida Education Association and other AFL-CIO unions came in person to Tallahassee to testify before the state Senate and House, some driving from as far as Miami for the chance to speak to lawmakers for as little as 30 seconds. Some members made the trip to testify multiple times, knowing on each trip that they might be denied the chance to speak or limited to less than a minute in front of state senators or representatives.
- Educators and education supporters from our communities made over 3,000 phone calls to legislators to ask them to vote in support of public education and against destructive bills.
- Nearly 10,000 members and concerned voters sent more than 15,000 emails to lawmakers.
- We texted thousands of people in our communities and even knocked on their doors to ask them to take action in support of our students and educators.
- Members spoke out at news conferences and in digital ad spots to urge support for students, public schools and educators, particularly educators’ freedoms to advocate.
There is no doubt lawmakers heard us — and saw us at in-person events. Large numbers of our members took action again and again throughout the 60-day legislative session, March 2-April 30.
Selected Scenes from the 2021 Session
March 17, Tucker Civic Center
The only way to testify to Florida’s senators about legislation this year was to do it remotely from Tallahassee’s Civic Center. On March 17, about 100 members from throughout the state made the trip in order to speak against Senate Bill 1014, legislation that attempted to take away educators’ freedom to advocate for their students and their profession. The drill at the Civic Center was show up, line up and hope to be admitted so that you could wait to speak on camera to a big TV screen.
April 6, FEA office
FEA’s downtown Tallahassee office became the session staging place for members heading to speak to state representatives at Florida’s House, which unlike the Senate did allow limited visitors — those registered for a committee or with an appointment.
April 14 and 15, Capitol and Civic Center
Week after week during session, members and leaders from local PreK-12 unions and the United Faculty of Florida advocated for our issues in the socially distanced House and remotely to the Senate.
April 20, Tucker Civic Center
Approximately 150 union members — from FEA and AFL-CIO affiliated unions across Florida — turned out to speak up for their rights and freedoms as the Senate Rules Committee was again poised to consider Senate Bill 1014. Once again, the committee did not take up the bill.
April 30, Tallahassee
The 2021 legislative session came to a close with some remarkable wins for public schools, our students and educators. For a look at how everything came out, please see the 2021 FEA End of Session Report. And remember, this session is over but our advocacy continues. Much work remains to be done for all the people in our public schools. To keep up with the issues, follow FEA on Facebook and Twitter. To get FEA action text alerts, text “edactivist” to 22394
