Before I get started let me ask you a question. Would you thank a thief who broke into your house and terrorized your family, for not stealing the television, as he walked away with your other valuables? Come back to this.
When governor DeSantis made his proposal to raise first year teacher salaries to 47,500, while leaving out veteran teachers, guidance counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and support staff, I wasn't excited about it, in fact I was outraged.
It was nothing but a proposal and a gimmick designed to grab headlines. It wasn't a serious idea.
As outraged as I was, what happened next, outraged me even more. I had to read about the FEA and numerous other union's thanking him for bringing up the subject of teacher salary. Something teachers, and democrats in Tallahassee have been talking about for years. Did any of them get a thanks? Absolutely not.
I want to remind you that DeSantis represents the same party and politicians who for a decade have done all they can to bludgeon public education and the teaching profession into oblivion.
Why are we thanking them for another ridiculous proposal. It's like we are to afraid to speak truth to power and say that idea sucks, we expect better.
It had gotten so bad, I was beginning to think the unions had Stockholm Syndrome.
DeSantis is not our friend, he wants to destroy public ed and the teaching profession and you and especially our unions shouldn't think anything different, not even for a second.
Now before I continue let me let you know, I am proud union guy, and I attended the rally in Tallahassee though why it was held the day before the session began is beyond me. It's like we wanted to protest but you know we didn't want to inconvenience any one.
We should not be thanking DeSantis for his proposal. Instead we should be yelling from the roof tops about how bad it is.
What's he going to do if we speak truth to power? Make public education worse? Take more away from us?
Then the Unions did it again after Chris Latvalla found nearly 500 million for teacher raises.
From the Tampa Times,
At the end of a morning House PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee session, chairman Rep. Chris Latvala unveiled leadership recommendations to reallocate funds within the budget for the coming fiscal year. It represented a first pass, or an exercise, to find where the House might be able to move existing resources, said Fred Piccolo, Oliva’s spokesman.
The total shift would reach $520 million, with $462.6 of that going into the base student allocation with the intent of it being directed toward teacher pay.
The money would come from line items previously used to fund other areas, with the biggest reductions coming from the disliked Best and Brightest teacher bonus ($284.5 million), supplemental academic instruction funds ($150 million) and funding compression appropriations ($54.2 million).
Other smaller areas targeted for cuts included declining enrollment supplements ($1.8 million), virtual education ($2.2 million), and digital classroom expenses ($20 million).
Rep. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, quickly noted that Latvala’s list did not match the governor’s plan. It offered less for raises, and did not mention the $300 million bonus plan that DeSantis has spoken of.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/gradebook/2020/01/16/florida-house-proposes-4626-million-for-teacher-raises/
Um so most of the money was going to education anyways? The majority of that was going in teachers pockets too?
Okay, I don't want to say this isn't a marginally better use of the monay than what it was going to be spent on, but come on, should we be high fiving Latvala?
No, not in the least.
There is no new money in this guys proposal, he's just moving it around, please unions lets hold off on the parade.
So many teachers are afraid of the word strike? What are they going to do fire us? Polk county teachers looked them in the eye and said go for it, and they backed off their threats pretty quickly.
Friends if you speak truth to power are they going to make your jobs harder or more miserable? Most of the teachers I know love their kids, and love the idea of teaching but they don't love what teaching has become. It's time we fought for what it should be and part of that is no longer thanking those who have been bashing teachers and public ed for whatever crazy idea they throw out or when they do a little more than the nothing, they have been doing for years.
We can't be afraid any longer.
So now take a second and answer my question, because in that analogy DeSants and the republican dominated legislature are the burglar. I know my answer, what about yours?
When governor DeSantis made his proposal to raise first year teacher salaries to 47,500, while leaving out veteran teachers, guidance counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and support staff, I wasn't excited about it, in fact I was outraged.
It was nothing but a proposal and a gimmick designed to grab headlines. It wasn't a serious idea.
As outraged as I was, what happened next, outraged me even more. I had to read about the FEA and numerous other union's thanking him for bringing up the subject of teacher salary. Something teachers, and democrats in Tallahassee have been talking about for years. Did any of them get a thanks? Absolutely not.
I want to remind you that DeSantis represents the same party and politicians who for a decade have done all they can to bludgeon public education and the teaching profession into oblivion.
Why are we thanking them for another ridiculous proposal. It's like we are to afraid to speak truth to power and say that idea sucks, we expect better.
It had gotten so bad, I was beginning to think the unions had Stockholm Syndrome.
Stock·holm syn·drome
noun
- feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim toward a captor.
DeSantis is not our friend, he wants to destroy public ed and the teaching profession and you and especially our unions shouldn't think anything different, not even for a second.
Now before I continue let me let you know, I am proud union guy, and I attended the rally in Tallahassee though why it was held the day before the session began is beyond me. It's like we wanted to protest but you know we didn't want to inconvenience any one.
We should not be thanking DeSantis for his proposal. Instead we should be yelling from the roof tops about how bad it is.
What's he going to do if we speak truth to power? Make public education worse? Take more away from us?
Then the Unions did it again after Chris Latvalla found nearly 500 million for teacher raises.
From the Tampa Times,
At the end of a morning House PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee session, chairman Rep. Chris Latvala unveiled leadership recommendations to reallocate funds within the budget for the coming fiscal year. It represented a first pass, or an exercise, to find where the House might be able to move existing resources, said Fred Piccolo, Oliva’s spokesman.
The total shift would reach $520 million, with $462.6 of that going into the base student allocation with the intent of it being directed toward teacher pay.
The money would come from line items previously used to fund other areas, with the biggest reductions coming from the disliked Best and Brightest teacher bonus ($284.5 million), supplemental academic instruction funds ($150 million) and funding compression appropriations ($54.2 million).
Other smaller areas targeted for cuts included declining enrollment supplements ($1.8 million), virtual education ($2.2 million), and digital classroom expenses ($20 million).
Rep. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, quickly noted that Latvala’s list did not match the governor’s plan. It offered less for raises, and did not mention the $300 million bonus plan that DeSantis has spoken of.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/gradebook/2020/01/16/florida-house-proposes-4626-million-for-teacher-raises/
Um so most of the money was going to education anyways? The majority of that was going in teachers pockets too?
Okay, I don't want to say this isn't a marginally better use of the monay than what it was going to be spent on, but come on, should we be high fiving Latvala?
No, not in the least.
There is no new money in this guys proposal, he's just moving it around, please unions lets hold off on the parade.
So many teachers are afraid of the word strike? What are they going to do fire us? Polk county teachers looked them in the eye and said go for it, and they backed off their threats pretty quickly.
Friends if you speak truth to power are they going to make your jobs harder or more miserable? Most of the teachers I know love their kids, and love the idea of teaching but they don't love what teaching has become. It's time we fought for what it should be and part of that is no longer thanking those who have been bashing teachers and public ed for whatever crazy idea they throw out or when they do a little more than the nothing, they have been doing for years.
We can't be afraid any longer.
So now take a second and answer my question, because in that analogy DeSants and the republican dominated legislature are the burglar. I know my answer, what about yours?
I speak truth to power and they have indeed made my job harder and more miserable. Still, I persist.
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