In Florida, education is Political, and Governor DeSantis says so.

You know often when I write about education in Florida I talk about all the destructive things the republicans in Tallahassee have done towards public education and the teaching profession. I mean who else would I talk about because they have been in complete control of public education in Florida for over two decades. What is happening in Florida is not non-partisan and the governor as much as admitted that the other day.

During a press conference where he outlined his legislative policies he doubled down on his proposal to lift starting salaries for new teachers despite the fact most teachers were against a policy that does nothing for veterans, whose salaries have actually gone backwards over the last decade.

When asked about the union’s request that all teachers receive salary increases, the Governor basically said, I am a republican and they are not and I don’t care what they have to say.

““It’s just the fact of the matter. I’m a Republican. They’re not. What I’m doing is never going to be enough. My job is not to do what the union wants – it’s what I think is best for education and particularly for individual teachers,” 

Um, what individual teachers is he talking about? Is it the ones that reflexively vote against their self-interests and reflexively vote republican, there are more than I would like to admit out there. Me, you come with policies, that benefit me and my family, I don’t care what political party you represent, but the fact of it is, democrats are usually strong supporters of public ed and tea hers while republicans are not. People might want to hem and haw and complain about that, but that is just the way it is and again just look at the governor’s words.  

In a way I am glad the governor just gave a middle finger to the teacher’s unions and the teaching profession. Maybe it will wake people up that no help is coming. People have been saying wait till the next election for a decade and yet there are large majorities of republicans, partly due to gerrymandering dominating the house and senate. The last election was 50.1 to 49.1, but the house and senate are over sixty percent republicans.

So friends, there is no help coming, we can’t continue to wait. Tallahassee is unmoved by red t-shirts, bus tours, letters to the editor and decency and that’s why is we want to save public ed and the teaching profession it is up to us and that is going to mean a work stoppage of some kind.    

I think parents would support it, you see when education is alone on the ballot it always wins and poll after poll shows that people understand Tallahassee is not supporting our schools and teachers like they should. I also think school boards and supers who are put upon by Tallahassee as much as teachers are would support it.

You see teachers, school boards, supers and parents understand that education should not be political, it should be about doing the right thing. The problem we have is a political party in Tallassee the republicans aren’t interested in it.   

Friends this is a battle for the future of the teaching profession, the Union may be playing chess, but the governor and the republican party are playing smash the board with a baseball bat while tell your momma so fat jokes. At some point it will be fight or die and sadly it looks like the union is picking the latter.