Dear Florida Teachers
West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona.
Teachers in these five states have made waves since February 22 demanding greater respect for their positions from legislators and the public. Four of these states have right-to-work laws and weak union presence. Most walkout initiatives were grassroot movements started by teachers rallying support on social media, relying on their own networks to convince legislators to raise their salaries, spend more per student, improve pension plans, and invest in education long-term.
Florida shares many of these states’ education problems, ranking 45th nationally in teacher pay and 40th in dollars spent per student. Florida has cut its spending per-student by 25% between 2008 and 2015 when adjusting for inflation. And when looking at public school revenue per $1000 of personal income, Florida ranks dead last. In other words, Florida residents pay less toward public education than those of every other state.
So why aren’t Florida teachers walking out? Well, unlike all states with teacher walkouts, Florida’s right-to-work law has an extra, explicit condition: state employees do not have the right to strike. Teachers who strike are under threat of losing all of their retirement benefits, having certification revoked, and being completely terminated. Even if the state would have trouble applying these punishments to tens of thousands of teachers walkout out, Florida teachers are understandably scared to even think about striking.
Sentiments supporting “school choice” turning parents to charter and private school options do not seem to help. My mother, a Kindergarten teacher in Duval County, commented that “we lose students to private/voucher each year,” only to hear complaints from parents later on that they should not have switched and no longer know where to turn for quality education for their children. She worries that a statewide walkout would only worsen parents’ opinions of public education, turning them to other underfunded options and subsequently causing even further de-funding in traditional public schools.
This didn’t seem to stop Colorado and Arizona, though. Each of these states have even higher charter school enrollments than Florida. Besides, public support of charter schools is drastically declining among both major parties, and Florida charter schools are three times more likely to receive “F” grades than traditional public schools. Florida has over 600 charter schools, but in recent years, the number of charter schools opened has nearly matched the number closed, making the net growth of charter school creation only 1%.
And in West Virginia and Oklahoma, where charter schools aren’t seen as a threat, strikes are still unlawful for public employees, even if such restrictions aren’t embedded in the right-to-work laws as they are in Florida. Oklahoma teachers are even drawing a distinct line between “striking” and “walking out” to justify their activism.
So, Florida public school teachers, what are we waiting for?
You get to school at 7 AM every day, maybe earlier. You grade some papers and set up the activities for your day. Students inevitably show up early asking for help. Sometimes the parents are there, too, just to make sure your day starts off perfectly with a headache. The morning bell rings and you get to work cramming in material in a shorter school day because the school has to close earlier thanks to budget cuts. Some days you don’t get to teach at all because you’re just administering a statewide test. The number of those days seems to keep going up. Your lunch break is 25 minutes long and you spend 10 of those minutes walking your class to and from the cafeteria. You can’t print materials for your students because the low school budget means you only get 100 copies per year. The 3 PM bell rings, but you don’t leave until 6, after you’ve tutored a few kids and supervised the meeting for that club you sponsor. You realize when you get home that you didn’t finish grading those papers, so you get back to it. The headache hasn’t gone away.
You’re considering moving states or retiring. There is already a statewide teacher shortage.
What would we do without you?
The rallying cries of West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona are echoing within the peninsula. The Governor that failed to provide what was needed in education funding over the last eight years is now running for Bill Nelson’s seat in the U.S. Senate. This November can elevate teachers, or it can completely dismantle public education. Luckily, we have a say in that outcome.
You taught us how to read and write. It’s about time we stand up and fight.
