Issue 3: Florida Legislature Attacks Teachers and Students

As promised, the third issue of Teacher Chronicles reviews current bills passed or in process/proposed in the Florida Senate and/or House. These bills threaten teachers, students, freedom of speech, and parents under the guise of “freedom” or “transparency” or “patriotism”. These are all generally right-wing conspiracy notions coming from the idea that teachers are indoctrinating students both at the public-school level and the post-secondary level. These bills are not aimed, of course at private schools, but rather public. For decades Republicans have made attempts at destroying public schools under the guise of “school choice”. With these new bills, they will all but end public schools as we've known them. And more are sure to come. What then would be the result? Think about it…. where would children go if public schools all but cease to exist as they have? They will run to private schools that cost money. Who can typically afford this in our current society? Who cannot? Inevitably, this will lead to a return to economic and racial segregation, the control of who wins or loses in our economy based on access to quality education.

Below is a summary of each of the bills either working their way through the Floridian government or have been passed already. Many states have similar bills in teh works as well. This is NOT just a Floridian issue. Below that you will see our Call to Action which will always traditionally be at the end of an issue.

I) Florida Department of Education already prohibits the teaching of Critical Race Theory because DeSantis believes schools were “indoctrinating kids with faddish ideologies”.

· Osceola School District recently forbid a Florida university history professor from training their teachers due to concerns his primary resources about Plessy V. Ferguson, Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” doctrine, and the Great Migration; also concerning to them was the inclusion of recent events such as civil rights protests of kneeling by Colin Kaepernick.

Osceola School Board Member, Jon Arguello, has recently asserted that he has proof (but will not share) that teachers are violating this law by teaching CRT or versions of CRT in the classrooms. CRT is NOT taught in K-12 schools; it is a legal course in college. Yet, given the vast misunderstanding of U.S. History anything that resembles this could be misconstrued by ignorant individuals as CRT, such as the teaching of Jim Crow laws, legalized segregation, arrests made during the Civil Rights movement, historical and current police brutality (Osceola has already censured such discussion in a writing by MLK Jr. as discussed in Issue 2), and so on.

II) House Bill 1055 proposed by Rep. Bob Rommel and Rep. Mike Beltran

· Would allow districts to adopt policies that could install cameras in classrooms and require teachers to wear microphones

· Would be able to be viewed at any time but not livestreamed or used for evaluation

· If an incident occurs parents could view recordings within one week with students blurred who are not involved in incident

· Recordings must be kept for up to three months or until an investigation is concluded then destroyed

· Vote by school districts will be required by Jan 2023 if it passes

This is very scary “Big Brother” material.

III) SB 86 (Died in Messages but companion bills were passed)

· Blocks students from receiving scholarships if they are pursuing majors not supported by legislature (programs which are determined to not lead directly to employment)

Even though this specific bill did not pass, similar companion ones did and more will likely come about.

IV) SB 264/House Bill 233 (SB 264 Laid on Table, companion bills passed; HB233 Approved by governor 6/22/2021)

· Require college educators to complete an annual survey of their ideological and political views

It likely won’t be long before a similar bill works in K-12 teachers considering the civics bill below and bribing teachers through pay to get trained in their civics program.

V) HB5 (Signed by Governor June 2021)

· “Portraits of Patriotism Act”

· FDOE to create civics curriculum to include anti-communism and totalitarian regime education talking about it as evil

Teachers were encouraged to become trained in the new civics education for a stipend (so a bribe, as we are not paid but rather pay to get endorsed in various areas)

VI) SB 1108 (Signed by Governor June 2021)

· College and university students required to take an assessment and civics literacy course for graduation requirement

· HS students must take a civics assessment to graduate, waived from post-secondary assessment if they pass

· Not considered high stakes testing, so basically does not impact graduation for high school students; they simply have to take it.

So, more of a political statement than anything else….

VII) SB 104

· Blocks new teachers from state pension program, enrolling in 401(k) instead

· Bill has already passed the Senate

This has potential to impact current teachers in the pension program and deter newer teachers from remaining in the field.

VIII) SB 148, Similar to DeSantis’ “Stop W.O.K.E Act”

· Bar teaching in grades K-12 that would make students feel uncomfortable for historical wrongdoings because of their race, color, sex, or national origin.

· Dubbed the “white discomfort” bill

Current diversity training, empathetic training, or any history standards taught could “make someone feel uncomfortable” which puts anyone on the line for being sued for a feeling which cannot be proven.

IX) House Bill 1557 “Don’t Say Gay” Bill/ Parental Rights in Education Bill, Senate Bill 1834

· School will be required to notify parents if there is a change in the student welfare “monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being” related to the school’s ability to provide a safe and supportive environment

· Parents make decisions related to their child’s upbringing so teachers must encourage students to discuss their well-being with their parents or initiate this conversation themselves except when doing so may lead to abuse, abandonment, or neglect as a reaction to being outted

· No curriculum will be allowed discussing LGBTQ+ topics

· Schools must involve parents, or they are considered in violation

· While supporters of the bill argue it covers all mental concerns, it only explicitly covers LGBTQ+ topics

· Prohibit school districts from having classroom discussions regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools or in a way that is not deemed age or developmentally appropriate

Violates student free speech already protected by previous Supreme Court rulings (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School Community in 1969) if a teacher were to shut the conversations down. Bill leaves only two choices, allow it to continue or shut it down.

Unless a school feels a child could be abused, neglected, or abandoned for being gay, trans, bi, binary, etc. (LGTBQ+) a school is essentially required to out the student to their parents as it “impacts their welfare or a change in their mental/emotional status”. How can schools predict how a parent will react? This puts students at severe risk domestically and emotionally/mentally, possibly even physically given the high suicide rate of LGBTQ+ students.

X) FL Senate Bill 1014/ HB 835

· Restrictions on unions representing educators: not allowing a union to represent employees if fewer than 50% of eligible employees are in the union, forcing union members to renew every year, prohibits school districts from automatically deducting union dues

· Prevents teachers from choosing when they leave or join a union, drives teachers away from unions due to an unnecessarily overly complicated paperwork process every year

May violate labor laws and the Florida Constitution.

Specific to teacher unions, not other professional unions. So, this is a direct attack on teachers given that all teachers benefit from unions whether they are a part of them or not. Without unions teachers are no longer protected from this and other anti-teacher/education legislation.

Call to Action: Teachers, as we state in the “About” section of this website, we are under attack. Our students are under attack. Public education is under attack. If we stay quiet, they will dismantle us, they will harm the students whom we love. Even though you may not view your union as worthwhile, you must join or convince others to join to gain more power against these types of legislation. If we lose the unions, we lose what little bargaining power we still have. Those in power have always feared unions for this reason and will do everything they can to convince us they are unnecessary or prevent us in various ways from utilizing that power. We can write letters and petitions to our representatives. We must also participate in our school board meetings. Many have not proven themselves our allies and will not hesitate to support this legislation if they benefit from it in any way. We must write them, email them, go to rallies at meetings, speak up. When we show we are unified we show them the power we seem to not even realize we hold ourselves. We may not be able to legally strike in Florida, but there are ways we can make them pay attention. Consider work to the contract where teachers simply and only do what they are contractually bound to do, which forces them to take notice that without us the system fails. If you are not at that point, please take time to consider the other calls to action above which are simple but large movements toward regaining power in this very broken system. We can and will make them realize that these legislations will NOT stand.