Top Three Takeaways – June 9th, 2021
- Show some respect. According to Florida Politics, that was the closing argument by the Florida Education Association directed at the DeSantis administration and the Florida Board of Education prior to Thursday’s meeting which considers the rule change potentially banning critical race theory. The FEA, which ominously has stood as the strongest opposition to banning CRT in Florida, now wants the Board of Ed to vote against a CRT ban out of “respect”. The same teacher’s union which opposes school choice (which you need go no further than the homepage of their website to see) and sued to try to ever prevent it from happening in Florida (in opposition to what 69% of Floridians want). They want “some respect”. The same teacher's union which sued to attempt to prevent Florida’s highly successful classroom education reopening's this school year and only dropped the legal action in January after repeated defeats in courtrooms. They want “some respect”. The same teacher’s union which called on Governor DeSantis to raise salaries for teachers, which was met with the largest increase in teacher pay in Florida’s history and an overhaul of the bonus system which they also requested but was called only a “start”. They want “some respect”. The same teacher’s union which currently is benefitting from $1,000 bonuses paid to all educators out of this year’s budget after a year in which most Floridians suffered income loss... That teacher’s union wants “some respect”. And that respect is evidently the ability to indoctrinate future generations with critical race theory. When is it that the Florida Education Association will...
- Show us respect? We need to get real when it comes to our teachers. The Florida Education Association boasts 145,000 members. There are 185,000 teachers in Florida’s public schools. That means 78% of Florida’s public-school teachers are members of the FEA, which in case you didn’t know wants to abolish school choice, prevent classroom education and wants to be able to teach critical race theory. Oh, right, and of course want’s to be “shown some respect”. If by chance you’re a teacher who's a member of the FEA and you don’t believe in all of that – it's time to cut the cord and leave the union behind. Otherwise, you’re choosing to be part of the problem. And all the rest of us are paying to make all of it happen. When will we the taxpayers, the parents, be shown some respect? It’s clear it’s not forthcoming from the Florida Education Association. Thankfully it is from Governor DeSantis.
- It starts in the classroom. Earlier this week when speaking with the Human Rights Campaign, which is legally challenging Florida’s recently signed “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” (the mandate that biological gender, not gender identity determines whether one competes as male or female), the term “radical” was used. It’s been on my mind ever since. The Human Rights Campaign suggests that Governor DeSantis’s decision to sign the law and his supporters are radicals. The irony isn’t lost on me. Consider this. A minor taking medical action to attempt to change their gender isn’t radical, however someone who says that person should compete in the gender they were born into is. It’s a perfect illustration of how 180 degrees out of whack our society has been allowed to become. And why? It starts in the classroom. We took God out of it, put the Department of Education fed by the teacher’s unions into it and everything has become progressively worse. No surprise but now that statement is likely considered radical too. We started losing the classroom in 1962. We lost it altogether 41 years ago. It’s time to take education and common sense back. The DeSantis administration is fighting for it. The FEA stands opposed. It all starts in the classroom – including most of our societal issues today.
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