Gov. DeSantis signs education related bills into law during Miami-Dade stop

MIAMI - Governor Ron DeSantis visited True North Classical Academy on Tuesday where he signed five bills related to education and protecting teachers into law.

The governor was joined by Lt. Governor Jeanette Nuñez, House Speaker Paul Renner, and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz.

The two big takeaways were a teacher salary increase allocation and a teacher bill of rights.

"Just in the last 5 years we've devoted just from the state over $3.3 billion to increase teacher salaries and bonuses," said Desantis.

The governor started off the bill signing event by speaking about increasing teacher pay. He announced the state will be increasing the teacher salary allocation from $800 million to a little over one billion dollars.

"This is also something that will help us as we recruit new teachers in the profession. When we did the categorical initially, we started focusing on that average minimum salary, and we've exceeded what we set out to do there," said DeSantis.

The other big focus was the teacher bill of rights which the governor said will empower teachers to preserve safety and order in their classrooms.  

"Used to be, of course, there would be order in the classroom. Nobody would've questioned that. Now, some teachers think if they discipline a student then somehow they're going to end up, people are going to go after them from just keeping order," said DeSantis.  

It also gives teachers an avenue to report if they have been directed to break the law by their administration or school board.

The governor also signed bills related to reducing school board term limits from 12 to 8 years and paycheck protection for teachers when it comes to teacher union dues. Teachers will have to write monthly checks if they want to stay in their union instead of having dues automatically deducted from their paychecks.

After the press conference DeSantis was asked about the blowback from teacher unions in regards to the automatic-deduction ban.

DeSantis criticized the unions and said they were "instrumental in locking kids out of school, not just for weeks, not just for months, but in some cases a year or more. And that I think that catastrophic damage that is going to be very difficult to ever unwind."

United Teachers of Dade said Senate Bill 256 was written as political retaliation against educators and other workers who did not support the governor during his reelection bid and seeks to silence workers and destroy their collective power of having contracts and rights.  It said a cornerstone of the bill "dictates who an employee can and cannot send a direct deposit to from their own paycheck, a mockery of the 'Free State of Florida'."

According to a statement from the union:

While the state of Florida has a severe teacher shortage of over 5,000 vacancies, the governor once again ignored that Florida teachers are 48th in the country for teacher pay and are living under an insurmountable housing affordability crisis and sky-rocketing insurance rates.  Instead, DeSantis chooses to demonize by focusing on banning books, censoring teachers, and eliminating their rights to a fair contract.  

We know that our community and parents trust, value and respect the hard work our teachers and staff do. Parents appreciate that we have the top school district in the state and the best public schools in the country. Just last November, 65% of our community voted to use their own tax dollars for teacher pay raises. 

Ron DeSantis should be listening to the parents and voters of our community and stop vilifying our profession through culture wars. 

Florida will not prosper as a state as the governor continues to divide us, and neither will the rest of the country as he tries to score political points for a future campaign. He is bad for Floridians and a threat to working families and education, but especially to democracy.   

Another bill getting his signature will be something some students won't be too fond of. It takes TikTok and other social media platforms out of the classroom. The governor said that they were distractions.

He said the law will now give teachers the authority to establish cell phone use during classroom times. It also requires school districts to stop students who use district computers and servers to access social media sights. It specifically prohibits TikTok on "district-owned devices" or being used for any school promotion, club, or athletic team.  

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• Ron DeSantis