“Policy makers and education reforms are cheating our children out of a high-quality education. These reforms are designed to meet the needs of adults rather than the needs of our children, and they include high-stakes testing, demonizing of teachers, voucher school and charter school profiteering disguised as ‘choice’ and schemes to undermine Florida’s class size amendment,” said FEA President Joanne McCall about the largest rally in Tallahassee in at least a decade.
Parents, teachers, and community leaders came together – from as far south as Key West and over 600 from Miami, to the tips of the state from Jacksonville and Pensacola and every county in between, including a full bus from Alachua – to kick off the legislative session.
In addition to the teachers’ union’s steady stream of phone calls and visits to key representatives all session, this year new statewide leadership started out by flexing their people power muscle. Only teachers, parents and community leaders spoke. Over 3,000 came and filled the courtyard and pledged to go home and keep up the fight. Photo by Candi Churchill.