Monroe County BOCC
Florida's educators have left the profession at record numbers, a trend that's only grown worse under Governor Ron DeSantis.
There’s a reason #FloridaMan is a thing. Anytime something insanely despicable or ridiculously stupid hits the news, the nation does a collective side-eye, knowing it’s got to be straight out of the Sunshine State. Sadly, significant parallels can be found between the transgressions of #FloridaMan and the bad faith intent of state politicians and their decades-old agenda to destroy public education.
First-rate #FloridaMan Governor Ron DeSantis has successfully enraged veteran teachers and support personnel alike by declaring 2020 the “year of the teacher.” How is this possible?
Florida’s atrocious treatment of professional educators has forced them to flee the profession in record numbers. The 2019 school year started with a shortage of 3,500 teachers, leaving 300,000 students without a full-time certified teacher. De Santis’s proposed budget calls for a starting salary of $47,500 for “new teachers,” completely ignoring veterans who represent the majority, many of whom have worked fifteen years or more just to earn $50,000.
The “new teachers” DeSantis is targeting are largely aspirational.
Florida ranks forty-six in the nation in teacher pay, lagging at least $12,000 behind the national average. Support personnel, who have suffered greatly, are also left out of the DeSantis vision.
And just in case there were any Florida teachers left unoffended, DeSantis has made it crystal clear that for him, denying teachers competitive pay is a golden opportunity to play partisan politics.
He accused the Florida Educators Association of being “politically motivated” for merely advocating for higher salaries, and instead touted the inequitable “Best and Brightest” bonus that hands “highly effective” teachers bonus pay based on working in a qualified school that increased its school grade by three percent per year, which greatly decreases the odds of teachers earning this bonus. In response to the union’s request for a significant classroom investment, DeSantis warned, “Let’s not pretend there’s not politics involved with this.”
After twenty years of Republican rule, political “balance” may be unattainable in Florida. But perhaps DeSantis thought announcing the “year of teacher” prior to the January convening of the 2020 Florida legislature would generate warm and fuzzy election-year copy.
DeSantis’s stupid political games are an insult to the children, teachers, and parents who are the heart and soul of our public schools. Generations of Floridians have endured dishonest, even reckless experiments like mandatory third-grade retention, high-stakes tests that increasingly fewer colleges care about, and ridiculous teacher evaluation tools like VAM, that are used to judge teachers based on factors completely outside their control. Most of these failed schemes continue to drain billions of dollars from public education, harming our kids and hurting their teachers.
The most heartbreaking example of #FloridaMan politicians making things worse is the politicized aftermath of the horrific February 14, 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Every single one of us wants students to be safe and secure while attending schools. Two sweeping pieces of school safety legislation, HB7026/The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act of 2018 and SB7030/The Implementation of Legislative Recommendations/Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission of 2019 have only buried Florida school districts in short-sighted “safety” measures and unfunded mandates.
The commission, conceived of during the 2018 legislative session to analyze school shooting data and make recommendations, has been hijacked by hardline sheriffs and gun proponents. Bureaucratic layers created by the new laws and the commission’s report include establishing an Office of Safe Schools, adding armed personnel on every public school campus, instituting monthly K-12 active shooter drills, mandating ill-defined “Social-Emotional Learning” programs via lucrative vendor contracts, and creating an ominous data warehouse that collects and shares sensitive personal student data and social media activity with law enforcement and other agencies in the complete absence of parental consent.
DeSantis has made it crystal clear that for him, denying teachers competitive pay is a golden opportunity to play partisan politics.
Parents are persona non grata in this process, stripped by the state of all authority over the personal data that should be private to their child. Perhaps worst of all, armed classroom teachers will serve as school “guardians” following just three weeks of training.
To suppress any district-level noncompliance, DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court to empanel a state-wide Grand Jury with broad powers to issue subpoenas and investigate “whether districts’ ‘refusal or failure’ to follow school safety laws put students at risk, whether government officials committed ‘fraud and deceit’ by using public money designated for school safety for other purposes, and whether schools intentionally under-report criminal incidents to the state.”
All this represents drastic over-reach by DeSantis.
Sadly, active shooter drills have left Florida children more fearful than ever, repeatedly confronted with the scenario that someone, maybe a classmate, could show up anytime and kill them or their friends despite the statistical likelihood that any given public-school student being killed by a gun in school is roughly 1 in 614 million.
One little girl brought a steak knife to school to protect herself and her classmates—the state attorney charged her with weapons possession. Students are co-existing with police who are mostly untrained in the skills needed to de-escalate situations in a K-12 environment. There are frequent reports of officers using inappropriate force and taking outrageous actions such as the School Resource officer who cuffed and perp-walked two six-year-olds out of a school because they had meltdowns.
The incident prompted state senator Randolph Bracy to file SB578 which prohibits the arrest of students under the age of twelve. What are we doing to our kids? How long will we allow politicians to use our fear to push us into accepting “solutions” we would never consider under normal circumstances?
DeSantis has enlisted allies in his attacks on teachers. Number two #FloridaMan, DeSantis-appointed Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, called the teachers union “evil.” The Commissioner and the Board of Education have seized unprecedented power, threatening state takeover of district schools, telling superintendents and school board members they can be removed and exercising broad rulemaking authority that not only expands Commissioner Corcoran’s power, but significantly shapes final legislation.
And so far, the list of policy bills filed in advance of the 2020 Florida Legislature is very concerning to public education advocates. Highlights include shifting grant funding for workforce training exclusively to charters; mandating school board term limits; creating a separate charter authorizer to bypass district authority; requiring student wellness examinations for students twelve and older until graduation that include physical, developmental, behavioral, and psychosocial screening and assessments that will be shared with the state; initiating a Social-Emotional Learning pilot targeting certain segments of students; removing a requirement that a license to carry a concealed firearm is required in order to carry said firearm; allowing elected officials with permits to bring their guns to work; forcing Duval County Public Schools to transition from an appointed to an elected superintendent; attacking collective bargaining by preempting to the state the right to regulate conditions of employment by an employer, and requiring Bible study in public schools, excluding all other religions.
But there is hope. Public schools still teach an overwhelming majority of Florida students—almost three million of them, compared to 295,000 at charters and 100,000 using vouchers to attend private religious schools. Voters, parents, and teachers can still deliberately choose leaders who will reverse course and invest in public education. Otherwise, we ride the #FloridaMan crazy train into the sunset.